City of San Antonio files lawsuit over ICE detention facility on East Side – KSAT

City of San Antonio files lawsuit over ICE detention facility on East Side  KSAT

The City of San Antonio has filed a lawsuit over the immigration detention facility on the East Side. SAN ANTONIO – The City of San Antonio is suing the federal government to try to block the conversion of a 640,000-square-foot warehouse into an immigration “processing” facility on the East Side. City Attorney Andy Segovia, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, and a majority of the city council announced the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and Acting ICE Director David Venturella in a news conference Tuesday morning. “Whether you call it a detention center or a processing center, our community does not want a concentration camp anywhere in our country, much less our city,” said Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), who represents the area.

A majority of the San Antonio City Council has been critical of the planned 1,500-person facility at 542 SE Loop 410, which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said could open early next year. The city, though, says the federal government has apparently skipped over an environmental review process required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). “In their rush to convert warehouses into Amazon-like store-and-ship facilities for immigrants, Defendants have trampled over federal law designed to protect the City and