SAN ANTONIO, Texas — More than a hundred protestors showed up just outside the federal immigration courtroom in downtown San Antonio to demand an end to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests in the city. Breitbart Texas observed the protest, organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), where participants blasted ICE for the increase in illegal alien arrests.
The mid-afternoon protest on Monday began with a press conference where speakers from the PSL and several immigrant rights groups lambasted the increase in illegal alien arrests by ICE in the Alamo City. Speakers criticized some of the arrests that had recently taken place on the federal immigration court grounds. Attendees carried signs, including some comparing ICE to the Gestapo. They called for the release of Mahmoud Khalil. In March, ICE arrested Khalil, a student activist and leader of pro-Hamas protests on the Columbia University campus.
Other signs called for the abolishment of ICE altogether. Some proudly waved the Mexican flag as speakers addressed the crowd outside the federal immigration courthouse. Several protesters wore keffiyeh scarves as part of their attire during the protest. Several members of the San Antonio PSL distributed flyers in Spanish that warned migrants about to attend court hearings of their possible arrests.
The flyer warned migrants who have been in the United States for less than two years to be cautious if an immigration judge accepts a motion to dismiss filed by DHS attorneys, advising the migrants to oppose such action. The flyer advised migrants that ICE could immediately arrest them if the case is dismissed and could subject them to Expedited Removal from the United States if such an action takes place.
Under U.S. immigration law, expedited removal procedures allow for the formal removal of a migrant if they are found within the United States within two years of an illegal entry. The document also warned migrants to present a claim of fear of persecution or torture to ICE agents if it applies to their case. Several migrant arrests occurred outside the courthouse last week, prompting Monday’s protest by the PSL.
Liliana Padilla, a pastor for the United Methodist church, spoke before the crowd, telling protesters they should love their neighbors as they love themselves. Padilla, sporting purple hair, told the crowd she was an immigrant herself and called the United States her country, where she has lived for 25 years. Padilla criticized the actions of ICE, saying in Spanish, “My community is suffering, because the police are harassing them. The police are after my people, for nothing, and they are taking them to jail.”
Carolina Canizales is a senior leader and Director of Texas Campaigns and Organizing for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Canizales told the crowd she came to the United States as an illegal immigrant as a child and was undocumented for more than a decade. Canizales told the crowd, “I was undocumented for 13 years, so trust me, I know the paralyzing fear that more than 114,000 residents of our city are feeling today.”
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the San Antonio ICE field office ramped up deportation operations in the Alamo City in recent weeks. Worksite enforcement operations recently discovered illegal aliens unlawfully employed at a construction site on the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) campus.
According to ICE, the agency arrested 275 illegal aliens, including 178 criminal aliens, in San Antonio during a seven-day deportation operation focused on increasing public safety between May 11 and May 17. The ramp-up in immigration enforcement activity comes on the heels of Trump administration officials calling for an increase in ICE arrests, setting 3,000 per day as the goal.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller confirmed the new illegal alien arrest goal in a Fox News interview last week, saying the number “could go higher.”
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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