{"id":248524,"date":"2026-04-14T02:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/248524\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T02:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:43:09","slug":"mcallen-residents-push-back-against-ice-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/248524\/","title":{"rendered":"McAllen residents push back against ICE facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McALLEN \u2014\u00a0In an effort to thwart the possibility of an immigrant detention center opening up in the city, Rio Grande Valley residents confronted the McAllen city commissioners on Monday, demanding their opposition and transparency on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to continue being proud of all that my city does for our community, but for that, we need transparency and we need communication,\u201d Alexis Saenz, a McAllen resident, told the commissioners. \u201cI demand you reject public funding, approvals and local resources for ICE.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saenz was one of nine speakers during McAllen\u2019s city commission meeting who pushed against the possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. A McAllen warehouse located in an industrial park in McAllen\u2019s trade corridor, less than five miles from the Anzalduas International Bridge, was included in a list of potential sites that circulated online<\/a> in February. <\/p>\n

The pushback comes as more residents across the country, including in Texas, are urging their city officials to use their local authority to stop or disincentive ICE\u2019s use of warehouses for the detainment of immigrants.<\/p>\n

A Dallas-area facility was also among the potential sites. In February, the facility\u2019s owner, Majestic Realty Co., confirmed it had been contacted about the potential sale<\/a> of the facility but said it had not and would not enter into any agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the use of the building as a detention facility.<\/p>\n

Aside from the location, little is known about ICE\u2019s plans for the McAllen warehouse. At the end of March, DHS paused the purchase of warehouses<\/a> as part of a review of contracts signed under former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.<\/p>\n

\"AA building being considered as a site for an immigrant detention center, in McAllen on April 13, 2026.
Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

DHS did not respond to questions from The Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n

City officials have also not heard from the federal government on a potential facility.<\/p>\n

In a text message to the Tribune, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said he had not heard from anyone on the issue.<\/p>\n

Making elected officials aware and getting them to address the issue publicly is the first step in possibly preventing the ICE facility from moving forward for Isaac Amani Newman, co-founder of For the People Alliance, a civic engagement organization in the Rio Grande Valley. The group rallied residents to speak at the McAllen meeting. They previously mobilized residents to speak out against a potential data center near the city of Harlingen and helped push city officials there to approve a resolution opposing data centers.<\/p>\n

\"McAllenMcAllen city commissioner Rudy Castillo outside of the City Council chambers in McAllen on April 13, 2026.
Gabriel V. C\u00e1rdenas for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to know where our city leaders even stand on this to begin with,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n

After the residents made their public comments, city commissioner Rudy Castillo said he had not heard of the issue before the meeting but supported placing an item on the agenda to discuss the potential ICE facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad people came out,\u201d Castillo said. \u201cOur voice will be heard if we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1478,1472,27,29,28,6588],"class_list":{"0":"post-248524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-mcallen","9":"tag-rio-grande-valley","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news","13":"tag-well-c-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}