On Saturday, dozens of San Antonio residents gathered outside a massive San Antonio warehouse being converted into a detention center that is expected to hold as many as 1,500 people. Banners and posters were held aloft decrying the continued expansion of the federal deportation industrial complex.
Though there were a couple small canopies for shade, most stood for hours in full sun as the temperature tipped toward 100 degrees and attendees from various activist organizations traded time on a portable PA system.
“We are here today to tell DHS that this concentration camp is not welcome in San Antonio,” said Cooper, an organizer with Comrade Coffee Collective, which describes itself simply as "community members standing with our immigrant neighbors."
“DHS has proposed 11 new detention centers around the county. Seven of them have been cancelled, and they have cited public pushback as a factor. With enough pressure, we can get this canceled too.”
They educated each other about the rapidly escalating violence of federal immigration agents, the abuse and forced labor detainees suffer, and encouraged one another to deepen their resolve to work to undo the recent grotesque manifestations of what some described as long-standing systems of oppression now animating federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
'Apply Heat' Protest
Video highlights from 'Apply Heat,' a day of action against ICE violence in San Antonio, Texas. Follow Deceleration on YouTube.
Several of the protestors carried life-sized replicas of human bodies wrapped in black plastic and duct tape, placing them on the ground before a growing line of mostly masked ICE officers squaring off in the warehouse parking lot.
Each had a name taped to the plastic memorializing two recent deaths—Lorenzo Salgado-Araujo and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero—at the hands of immigration officials in recent days.
Surging Deportations and In-Custody Deaths
In-custody deaths in detention facilities have surged to a 20-year high alongside widespread allegations of torture and abuse by federal agents since Trump put in motion his long-promised "largest deportation operation in American history.”
ICE's acting director wrote San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones last month that he expects to bring the long-resisted Eastside detention center "online" in the second quarter of 2027, providing "safe, secure, and humane environments" for those detained.
However, the experiences of those already in ICE detention in Texas and around the country are well documented. They support protestors' claim that the facility will almost certainly qualify as a "concentration camp" should it open.
As Deceleration has written previously, even federal judges have compared other ICE facilities to concentration camps for their squalid conditions.
A new report about ICE's Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss in East El Paso, titled "You’re Only Getting Out Deported or Dead," describes conditions of widespread neglect, abuse, and torture.
Meanwhile, removal orders by immigration judges reached a record high of 100,773. Since his reelection, Trump has hollowed out judicial resistance and inserted more agreeable judges who have been instructed to deny more asylum claims. In Texas, that contributed to a 66 percent rise in removal orders last month.
Stopping and reversing that violence will require long-term action, several speakers said on Saturday.
"Join an organization, make a lifelong commitment, because we are in it together," said Ruby, an organizer with Venceremos San Antonio, which provides trainings, a community ICE tip line, and more.
"If you're not in the arena already, basically, it's time to step in. And if you're in it, it's time to step up your game."
While ICE and U.S. Border Patrol have most visibly surged in cities like St. Paul, Minn., Chicago, and Los Angeles, leaving a trail of shootings and deaths in their wake, San Antonio is a major hub of ICE activity networked with facilities across the state and nation.
The intention of recent warehouse purchases, according to one former acting ICE director, is to become “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.”
Three Dead After Being Targeted by ICE Patrols
ICE has been lambasted for its tactics on the street, which have led to several deaths in recent days.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the U.S. for 35 years, was shot and killed by an ICE officer on July 7, 2026, as he attempted to drive to work on Canal Street in Houston.
"They suddenly cornered us, and we told Lorenzo to stop the van, but they had already fired once. When Lorenzo stopped the van, the officer shot him anyway," witness Rojas Pliego said in a statement in the court filing, according to reporting by KHOU 11.
Passengers being held by ICE say the officer who shot Salgado Araujo “switched guns” with another officer after firing the fatal shots.
Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who had work authorization in the U.S. and worked two jobs, was shot to death on July 13, 2026, while attempting to drive away from immigration officers in Biddeford, Maine. The agent who shot him, David Brouillette, has since been revealed a chronic abuser with a history of violence against two former wives and his own children. He twice had his gun rights restricted by a judge due to that violence.
A fundraiser for Durán Guerrero’s wife and three-year-old daughter has raised over $600,000.
Meanwhile, Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán was struck and killed by a vehicle on July 14, 2026, after fleeing from ICE agents in St. Augustine, Florida. Coronilla Durán, of San Luis de la Paz, Mexico, had been in the U.S. for three weeks on a tourist visa. He had a return plan ticket for a few days later.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the Texas Rangers will investigate the shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. The U.S. FBI, however, almost certainly will not.
As Common Dreams reports on recent revelations published by The New York Times:
"New guidance distributed to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country in recent days said that the FBI will no longer investigate confrontations that officers have with protesters or people who are subjected to immigration enforcement—leaving the agency to investigate its own violent encounters with the public following at least two recent killings by ICE agents."
U.S. Immigration Policy as a Tool of White Supremacy
These highly militarized deportation efforts have emerged as white supremacy has come to define federal policy, with President Trump enacting a "permanent pause" on all immigration from s0-called "Third World" countries and shutting down refugee admissions to all but white South Africans.
Writing in February for the Economic Policy Institute, Kyle Moore argued that these policies follow "a historical script that white supremacists in the United States have used for centuries to undermine progress toward equity."
Meanwhile, Texas is hosting its first political candidate who has repeatedly called for deporting 100 million people from the U.S. That's far more than the estimated 14 million people living in the United States without documentation. In fact, 100 million is about the number of people of color—the vast majority citizens—living in the United States today.
As the Columbus Free Press writes:
"...they are pushing for “100 million” deportations. There are only fifty-one million immigrants in this country. Total. Foreign-born individuals, legal or otherwise. Fifty-one million. That’s naturalized citizens, green-card holders, and undocumented. There are 65 million Latinos total. There are an estimated 48 million black folks in America. You don’t get to a hundred million without de-naturalizing citizens."
Mexico Files Legal Objections
This week Mexico filed criminal legal complaints in the U.S. over the deaths of 17 Mexican nationals at the hands of ICE since May 2025. The complaints were filed with state and county prosecutors in eight U.S. states.
"We have a relationship in terms of trade, we have a relationship on security, but we have to raise our voice when the human rights of our fellow citizens are violated," Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said recently.
-30-
The transparency project Project Salt Box tracks ICE warehouse purchases across the United States. Their most recent data shows 18 warehouse sales cancelled, three targeted, and 11 purchased.
In San Antonio, Texas, a diverse range of organizations have announced community canvassing efforts (7/26), additional protests (7/31), and a town hall (8/8) with the goal of checking and rolling back ICE activities in San Antonio.
