SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A group of nearly 100 protesters gathered outside a warehouse to rage against U.S. Customs and Immigration Service (ICE) plans to convert the property into a processing and detention facility. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) organized the protest, attended by a crowd of mostly senior citizens, who chanted along with speakers as they held signs critical of ICE.
Breitbart Texas observed the protest at the warehouse purchased in early February for more than $66 million. According to documents released by Bexar County officials, the buyer is listed as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, D.C.
Some of the elderly protestors who were shuttled from a rally point to the future ICE facility by members of the San Antonio chapter of the PSL waved pre-printed signs, while others carried signs written in longhand on posterboards and cardboard. One elderly activist carried a sign that showed signs of having been altered to correct a misspelling of ICE that read “NO ICS NO WAREHOUSE DETENTION CENTERS”; the sign had been hastily corrected to change “ICS” to “NO ICES”.
Several protesters in the group wore the Palestinian Keffiyeh scarves, a common sight at other PSL protests in San Antonio. The group of mostly senior citizens protesters shouted along with a PSL chant leader to calls of “Ice and Raids, we say no, deportations have got to go”. Another chant called for the destruction of walls in Palestine and at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Saturday’s protest is part of a greater effort by PSL and city leaders to keep the planned facility from opening. As reported by Breitbart Texas, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has asked newly confirmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to reconsider the agency’s plans. In a letter sent to Mullin earlier this month, Ortiz Jones says, “My community is not interested in hosting an ICE processing facility.”
In the letter, Mayor Ortiz Jones complained about a lack of information sharing between her office and ICE, adding, Despite numerous attempts, neither my office nor the city staff have received formal notification regarding ICE’s reported purchase and potential use of a 640,000+ square foot warehouse located at 542 SE Loop 410 Access Rd, San Antonio, Texas.”
The letter dated April 8, 2026, is the second sent to DHS regarding the plans to open the processing and detention center in San Antonio in recent months. In late February, Ortiz Jones wrote to former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem expressing “strong opposition” to the proposed facility. The mayor requested a meeting to discuss the facility’s impact on the city.
Mayor Ortiz Jones is joined in her opposition to the planned facility by Bexar County commissioners, who approved a resolution in early March voicing their concerns with the planned facility that has yet to open.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the purchase is part of an ICE “Detention and Reengineering” plan that will expand capacity and speed deportation of criminal aliens. The initiative, according to an internal ICE memorandum, is aimed at fixing the immigration system’s chronic failures that include overcrowding in current facilities, slow transfers, and deportation backlogs.
According to the memo, published on the New Hampshire governor’s website in February, the detention reengineering plan includes “the acquisition and renovation of eight large-scale detention centers and 16 processing sites, as well as the acquisition of 10 existing ‘turnkey’ facilities where ICE ERO already operates.”
According to the document, the estimated total cost to acquire the facilities and implement the plan is $38.3 billion. The funds are allocated to the agency through the “One Big Beautiful Bill” legislation.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
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