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This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested immigrants at the San Antonio Immigration Court downtown as they made their scheduled court appearances.
Priscilla Olivarez with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) shared a photo that she said depicted the arrests, including the use of a zip tie on at least one individual, possibly a minor.
In a statement, she that her staffers "witnessed ICE in plain clothes in action at the San Antonio immigration courthouse on Thursday, May 29, 2025. ILRC staff was at the courthouse providing Know Your Rights information to people before they attended their court hearings and witnessed the heartbreaking arrests of several people, including a family with four children—this video can be watched here. These actions traumatized other families there for court hearings."
Olivarez said her group "condemns ICE’s attempts to bypass the legal system by intimidating people into missing their court dates, exposing them to the deportation process. People are being forced to decide whether to attend their court hearings and risk arrest or abandon their right to have their cases heard."
In a statement, ICE officials said their agency is “implementing the rule of law” under the direction of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. However, ICE did not respond to TPR's request for further details on the arrests.
The arrests came as the Trump administration cracks down on immigrants nationwide. They are also happening at similar courts in other cities.
The courts are set up to determine if a person should be deported or if they are eligible for relief from such proceedings.
ICE has now outpaced U.S. Customs and Border Protection when it comes to immigration arrests.
Data analyzed by from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) found that ICE was the arresting agency for 81% of initial book-ins from February through mid-May of this year.
TRAC said this comes as fewer people have been caught attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry.
ICE has also focused on arresting those with Temporary Protected Status, humanitarian parole and pending asylum claims.
There are 48,870 individuals in ICE detention as of mid-May.
