left the possibility open<\/a> during exclusive interviews with KSAT, saying it\u2019s not a completely black-and-white issue.<\/p>\nThe warehouse at 542 SE Loop 410 is owned by federal government, which does not have to follow local zoning rules. <\/p>\n
Deputy City Attorney Susan Guinn said the changes will not have any effect on ICE\u2019s plans for the East Side property \u201cat this point, with the current facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the head of the regulatory division was less definitive when KSAT asked what would happen if the government were to bring in a private contractor to operate the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is something we definitely would be looking at,\u201d Guinn said, \u201cwho then has control of the facility?\u201d<\/p>\n
Guinn stressed it would be \u201cfact-specific,\u201d though, and the city doesn\u2019t have the details.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would just be speculating right now,\u201d Guinn said, \u201cSo I\u2019m not going to close that off either way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guinn said the newly adopted ordinance might not impact ICE because the government made the plans known, though it has not notified the city directly.<\/p>\n
The changes also include new requirements for detention facilities to notify city officials 30 days ahead of renovating, building, or operating a detention facility. <\/p>\n
Guinn said no matter who ends up running the East Side facility, they would still have to notify the city of these changes moving forward.<\/p>\n
Posturing or preparation?<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s two conservative members, Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) and Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9), were the only votes against the new restrictions.<\/p>\n
Whyte, who pulled the item for discussion, also asked city legal staff to confirm the ordinance wouldn\u2019t have any effect on the planned ICE facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we understand it, councilman, that\u2019s correct,\u201d First Assistant City Attorney Liz Provencio told him.<\/p>\n
City staff also told Whyte they were unaware of any private detention facilities currently operating in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new ordinance here doesn\u2019t do anything,\u201d Whyte told his colleagues. \u201cThis is a political statement that you want to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said many detained immigrants are held in privately operated facilities, \u201cand ICE often turns to (a) privately operated facility when their own facilities exceed capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKee-Rodriguez said that he believes this might happen because the warehouse \u201cwill not have the sewage capacity that they\u2019re looking for.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be foolish to think that just because there aren\u2019t any facilities now,\u201d McKee-Rodriguez said, \u201cthat there won\u2019t be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
KSAT asked ICE questions Thursday afternoon about its timeline, plans, who would operate the facility and whether it would hire contractors to open or run other facilities. We have not yet heard back on that request.<\/p>\n
KSAT has been following through on potential detention facilities in San Antonio. Read more of our reporting below:<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 City Council clamped down on private detention facilities Thursday with new rules on where they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3084,1829,1724,82,84,83,51314],"class_list":{"0":"post-253546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-city-hall","9":"tag-ice","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","13":"tag-san-antonio-news","14":"tag-we-follow-through"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253546","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=253546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}