On Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, hundreds of San Antonio residents marched in East San Antonio against a massive proposed ICE detention center now in development.
After a two-mile march from S.J. Davis Middle School, they gathered outside a 640,000-square-foot warehouse off Loop 410 to sing and pray. The facility, recently advertised as the largest warehouse in Central Texas, is expected to house thousands caught in a growing deportation industrial complex that is tied to escalating cases of death and abuse by federal agents.
A growing movement to abolish ICE just reached the international human rights organization Amnesty International. A recent report not only details the deaths in detention and wanton violence during street actions that have brought a growing body count, but also the unlawful use of facial recognition technology and surveillance tools.
"We're here today to say stop the opening of this detention center, to end child detention in the United States," U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro told the growing crowd Saturday morning in the S.J. Davis Middle School parking lot.
'Until the Hate is Brought to and End'
Father Jimmy Drennan of COPS/Metro Community Alliance referenced long legacies of brutality marking the U.S. from its origin: genocidal violence against Native Americans, dehumanization of enslaved African people, "separate but equal" Jim Crow laws, and attacks on women's rights. Noting the root animating this cruelty, he emphasized the need for a long view on collective and individual labor for justice.
"This march will not end today. It will not end tomorrow. It will not end in two years when we see changes in the highest office," Drennan said, referencing the next presidential election cycle.
"No, this march must continue for years to come until the hate governing our country is brought to an end."
The march's soundtrack came courtesy of Bombasta, a celebrated "barrio big band" known for charged political lyrics. The chorus early in the rally dropped with heavy saxophone accompaniment and a chorus reminding listeners: "The cracks in this nation come from its foundation."
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Images from Saturday's march against ICE detention in San Antonio. See full slideshow at Emerge.photos.
Along the route, participants chanted and shared stories about what inspired them to attend.Deceleration met Angela Gamez, who said her husband is currently in ICE detention. Her family would gladly pay the government thousands to secure his freedom and citizenship path—an arrangement she said others would follow, too, if given the chance. She spoke at length about how such an arrangement could help eliminate the nation's massive debt burden.
"The people you're trying to kick out are the people who can save this country," she said.
Shame on China Grove, Castro Says
On the sidewalk outside the ICE warehouse, Rep. Castro had two messages when asked about the challenges to the movement to rein ICE in.
First: "Governor Greg Abbott is feeding ICE people. The governors in other states protected their people. Our governor has abused the people of Texas." So new leadership at the top is required, he said.
His secondary message was directed at the mayors and councils of half a dozen cities in San Antonio's immediate orbit that have voluntarily entered 287(g) agreements with DHS:
"I'm extremely disappointed and concerned with mayors and city councils in China Grove, Balcones Heights, and other cities that have decided to balance their budgets on the backs of their people, communities, and residents," Castro said. "They've turned their police officers into ICE agents."
"No police department right now should be working with this abusive agency."
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Images from Saturday's march against ICE detention in San Antonio. See full slideshow at Emerge.photos.
Love for the East Side
As hundreds wound around Loop 410 access roads, local students picked up trash along the route. Jacqueline Palmer said she and others attended with the San Antonio College-based organization Somos La Gente.
"I came to show support for my immigrant friends and family," Palmer said. "I cleaned trash along the way because I grew up on the East Side and just want to see better for us. This is my way of showing up in support."
After song and prayer before the facility—which San Antonio and Bexar County commissioners, after months of intense community lobbying, are exploring suing to stop—a man parked along the road reengaged with the march.
"In my 65 years of living, I've never seen the city in such an uproar," said Vincent Dee Webb, president of the Joe Webb Foundation. "No administration has ever allowed this to take place in this neighborhood."
He said his entire life has been struggle and Trump represents "just another struggle" the community would survive.
"There was a little bit of everybody in the crowd," Webb said. "It's not just about Black people. It's not about any individual. It's about the human race. We all belong to God's children."
Images from Saturday's march against ICE detention in San Antonio. See full slideshow at Emerge.photos.
Christian Duty to the Immigrant
Returning, we met Rev. Kenneth R. Kemp, MD, pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, marching with several church members. He said that Antioch is located nearby the intended ICE operation and that he and his congregation oppose the site based on deep religious convictions.
"We believe scripture teaches that you should care for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger," he told Deceleration. "To create a center to hold people because of their immigration status is anathema to who we are as Christian people."
He acknowledged others claim to draw on their own Christian faith in support of ICE operations, but he returned to the Bible's red-letter teachings: "I just believe what Jesus said. Jesus said we have an obligation to care for those who are different from us. We're all brothers, all sisters under Christ. That's what we believe."
Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, Precinct 4, told Deceleration that the city and county have dragged their feet on real resistance since the threat first manifested a year ago. A lawsuit, he said, must come soon.
"We are the last ones in the country to file [a lawsuit] and the only city that still has an ICE detention center going," Calvert said.
He offered caution on a strategy gaining energy among some City Council members, however. While once supportive of petitioning for federal environmental compliance review of the facility under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Calvert said he now believes too much time has passed and federal malfeasance has likely since been covered up.
"We want to get into discovery [phase of a lawsuit] to find out what shortcuts they took—they expedited this with many shortcuts."
Webb, a nearby resident, agreed there's reason to investigate water issues around the warehouse, citing the area's history of flooding.
A letter released last week signed by five members of the San Antonio City Council said the body must to "everything in our power" to stop the facility from ever opening.
"The time for all of City Council to unite against the placement of this atrocity exhibition in our backyard is now," the Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, letter reads.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones issued a statement the same day affirming her support for taking legal action to stop the facility.
On Thursday, San Antonio City Council will discuss and potentially vote on initiating environmental assessments of the facility by City-owned water and power utilities. The item was added to the agenda at the request of the mayor, supported by four Council members.
