This presidential administration has radically slowed efforts to prevent deranged violent criminals and drug runners. But it has surged resources toward a mission to vilify and criminalize immigrants and any dissidents of the increasingly authoritarian regime. The burgeoning billions in ICE’s budget is not about stomping out crime, in other words, but rather about the reinstatement of a pecking order in which the President and his billionaire techbro cronies are at the top and remain there. An order in which white supremacy leads the way into a retrograde timeline, one where the great replacement conspiracy theory dictates domestic and international policy suffocating both domestic and foreign markets and choking out skilled professionals.
This month’s newsletter is a look at some of the recent ICE policy updates and local impacts in Texas and beyond. We will also explore what is being done locally in San Antonio to hold the rogue government agency accountable as well as local tools for resistance against detention and surveillance expansion.
If this newsletter speaks to you, be sure to share it with your friends, family, and community. Join as a free or paying supporter and engage in the comments below. Let me know what you want to see in the next newsletter!
— Roxana Rojas
San Antonio Sues DHS in Attempt to Stop East Side Concentration Camp as White Nationalism Propels Trump Policies
San Antonio remains the center of attention for immigration enforcement this week as the City sues ICE and the Department of Homeland Security in a bid to stop the development of a massive proposed detention center on the city’s East Side. The suit alleges ICE and DHS failed to provide the City and the public opportunities for meaningful stakeholder input and failed to evaluate environmental consequences of the project respectively under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Texas still ranks as the state with the highest number of arrests and detentions for immigration enforcement nationwide. Only a few months ago, The New York Times reported that San Antonio ranked fourth nationally for immigration-related arrests. In addition to the already existing ICE offices, staging locations, and processing facilities, the establishment of a concentration camp with a capacity to hold 1,500 individuals and the additional 75,000 square feet of office space that ICE has leased on the Southeast side of town, San Antonio is poised to become the central hub for Trump’s deportation machine in Texas.
Clearly, San Antonio has the eyes of the administration so much that the city saw the first visit from President Trump since 2019. He made a last minute visit to support Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections in what is projected to be a tight race for Republican control of Congress and key Texas offices.
In rally speeches and really at any opportunity, the same Trump administration that lectures on protecting democracy and of “rule of law” has become in practice an administration of workarounds. When the law of the land is inconvenient for Trump’s mass deportation agenda, for example, he uses executive orders, policy memos, and regulatory changes, to work around the law.
Guided by white nationalist/White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, they have pushed expedited removals, revoked temporary protected status, invoked the Alien Enemies Act in peacetime, and even pressured the Supreme Court to undo birthright citizenship—all while eradicating vital social supports and launching a war against Iran pushing a fragile global economy to the brink.
This has been the pattern under Trump 2.0 alongside a severe lack of transparency and increasingly fragile energy and water resources.
In the broader landscape rapidly shifting recent voting trends, we are seeing in this “land of the free,” parallels with authoritarian behavior globally. What is happening here, a la redistricting to marginalize Black voters and 1.2 million Texas voters getting their voting status suspended, mirrors what is happening in India, where the right-wing leadership has removed 130 million people from the voter rolls. The moves to turn over federal lands to data centers mirrors what is happening in right-wing led Argentina with the expansion of private development on formerly protected land. Authoritarians worldwide sing the songs of “freedom” while actively undermining it in practice. It is clearly a kind of freedom reserved for those who can pay for it.
The current global disinformation attacks on Brazil—considered a “testing ground” for right-wing disinformation tactics with MAGA fingerprints all over the place—showcase what we can expect in the U.S. next cycle.
Speaking of paying for freedom, the latest federal likely overinvestment is a whopping $51 million in contracts for leased space for ICE operations. The new space at Brooks City Base on the city’s Southeast Side at 7515 and 7611 Inner Circle Drive, is listed as being in a federal Opportunity Zone, a program Congress created in 2017 to give investors tax breaks for putting money into low-income areas, according to a Project Salt Box report.
Even the CEO of the Brooks Development Authority wasn’t pleased by the news that the space had been leased to ICE, but neither the building developer, Cambridge Holdings LLC, nor the financier, Dallas-based Preston Hollow Community Capital, responded to queries from The San Antonio Express News regarding the negotiations of the property leases. This would be the third and fourth large-scale location for ICE operations in the city and it is still unclear what exactly that office space will be used for. But we can assume we won’t be getting more freedom in exchange for the investment.
We have seen, rather, ICE’s presence stifling local economies as more families stay home out of fear and job losses exceed the number of arrests being made. The violent tactics employed often with the direct or tacit support of local authorities make our communities less safe while technologies, such as ALPRs (automated license plate readers) like Axon and Flock, feeding into mega datasets collected by Palantir.
For this reason San Antonio area community groups organized collectively via the San Antonio Stands Coalition have demanded that city officials both prevent the opening of a proposed East Side concentration camp and come clean about the level of local collaboration with ICE.
San Antonio’s City Council passed a resolution advanced by SA Stands last Thursday. It calls for the City-owned utilities SAWS and CPS Energy to conduct impact studies regarding how the ICE facility on the city’s northeast side will affect the city’s electric grid as well as the water and wastewater services. Then, on October 13, 2026, the City filed its lawsuit.
Aside from the already mentioned alleged failure to comply under NEPA and APA, the lawsuit cites the historical track record that ICE facilities have for notoriously abhorrent conditions and how these facilities pose a public health threat. It notes that two facilities, including one in Texas, had measles outbreaks just this year.
From our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, we know our government’s ability to respond to a public health crisis is less than apt. The City is rightfully concerned with what danger this facility could pose to the larger San Antonio community. A strain on already limited resources for emergency response, coupled with a public health crisis could be disastrous for a city already seeing a $158 million deficit. The lack of consultation with the community and local leaders on this project has created additional distrust and tensions. Even with the completion of impact assessments by the federal government and local utilities, it could be expected that area advocates would have a hard time trusting results.
Indeed there is significant distrust in the government, including in its assessment and investigation of itself. For good reason. The Department of Homeland Security that houses ICE is exempting agents from laws that would normally apply in order to prosecute protestors. Cooperation with local law enforcement in ICE shootings is virtually nonexistent.
As we have seen, numerous investigations into alleged violations of laws and regulations during ICE activities have time and again gone nowhere—until a judge steps in to showcase ICE fabrication of facts. This has most recently been illustrated by the injury of Miguel Parra-Hernandez when he was run over by an ICE agent driving an unmarked vehicle in Houston this past weekend.
In a statement, ICE wrote that "Parra-Hernandez ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck." Videos circulating and witness accounts point to much more damning evidence.
This comes only days after ICE’s statement on the shooting of Oscar Belgal near the Bronx, New York, where the agency also shifts the responsibility on the victim, stating that Belgal “weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going toward other officers.”
In both cases video footage and witness accounts point to a different set of facts. Both of these incidents come after new guidance on ICE pursuits was published in a memo from ICE’s executive associate director Marcos D. Charles on September 30, 2026.
The new rules ,which come more in line with standard police practice on pursuits, include:
- Agents are not authorized to chase vehicles that fail to pull over under any circumstances. Instead, officers should take down the vehicles' information for further investigation.
- Vehicles used for traffic stops must have lights and sirens that let the public know they are law enforcement vehicles when activated.
- All officers on the scenes of vehicle stops must wear and activate their body cameras (in Wilber Garcés Pérez’s case only one officer had a body camera and he turned it off during the pursuit)
- Only officers who have completed one of five specific agency training courses can conduct vehicle stops. Officers who have not completed the training courses can only participate in vehicle stops “in a support capacity” as passengers and cannot be the drivers of any of the vehicles involved.
- ICE officers can continue to use the controversial technique known as pinning, which is defined as “using a vehicle or physical barrier to trap or stop a car,” but only if they have received special training.
- Only trained officers can use spike strips that deflate tires to prevent drivers from fleeing.
However, the most recent incidents in national news demonstrate the agency’s inability to follow its own rules. How can we trust that it can follow any rules or laws at all? We can’t. We have been shown by our own government that we cannot trust that the keepers, makers, and enforcers of the law will actually abide by it themselves.
Transparency is the foundation of trust and that has been fiercely resisted by this administration. Because of this lack of transparency the SA Stands Coalition has also fought to move forward another resolution proposal before the San Antonio City Council. The discussion of this resolution has not been set by local leaders, but it demands the public be informed as to how, why, and when local law enforcement are assisting ICE in its operations.
Stay with us! Our post-election ICE Watch newsletter in November will assess changes in the power landscape on the other side of the mid-term election and explore novel ways local communities are using their collective power to demand ICE OUT.
FURTHER RESOURCES
- If you are still unsure of your voter status in Texas you can check it here!
- Information on early voting in Texas
- If you live in San Antonio and want to make your voice heard at future City Council Public Comment sessions you can get more information about agendas and comment submission here!
ICE Watch Video
Preview from our new podcast, Deceleration Brake Room, coming Friday 10.16.26. Join the 16,000 supporters following Deceleration on YouTube.
EVENTS
ACLU Know Your Federal Voting Rights/Conozca sus derechos electorales federales
Virtual event in English y en español
The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy, and we’ll always work to protect it for every eligible American. Join our Know Your Federal Voting Rights Training to learn what you can do to fight disinformation and understand what voter intimidation looks like in your community.
7PM Central, October 24, 2026
News You May Have Missed
- ICE moves forward with San Antonio processing facility, signs $17.3 million contract (News4SA)
- New ICE facility to hold families, unaccompanied minors could open in Louisiana next week (ABC News)
- Man Shot by ICE in New York Still Has Bullet in Neck, Lawyers Say (Newsweek)
- After Garces Perez Has Surgery to Remove Bullet, Austin Lawyer Questions Dell Seton (Austin Chronicle)
