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On the eve of the meeting when the city council will debate a resolution to ‘protect all San Antonians’ regarding immigration operations and a proposed detention center, three council members observed San Antonio’s immigration court proceedings where people have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement immediately after appearing for pre-scheduled hearings.
Councilmembers Sukh Kaur (D1), Teri Castillo (D5), and Ric Galvan (D6) were invited by nonprofit American Gateways on Wednesday morning.
American Gateways operates out of San Antonio, Austin, and Waco and is regularly on-site in the building on Santa Rosa Street to provide legal assistance to immigrants facing hearings Monday through Thursday.
Arrests outside of immigration court have been a regular occurrence since the start of the second Trump Administration. Griselda Barrera, co-director of programs and operations for American Gateways said ICE agents were not typically present before January 2025 but are now there on a regular basis.
“We can see anywhere from two detentions, three detentions a day, like today, to eight. We've had 16 in the last month in one single day being detained,” she said.
Sometime before 9:00 a.m., a woman was arrested by ICE. A second person was arrested an hour later, around 10:00, while the council members and TPR were in a courtroom. The details of their cases are unclear. TPR did not witness the two arrests or detainments that occurred outside the courtroom.
Barrera said in the first incident a woman had appeared for her hearing, but it was reset.
“They required that she go upstairs to try to get her new hearing notice. When she went up there, they did not have the hearing notices. They were not handing them out, but ICE was there and they decided to apprehend her,” she said.
The councilmembers, council staff, American Gateways staff, two attorneys, and TPR spent about 90 minutes in two courtrooms. Defendants, attorneys, and an interpreter appeared using WebEx while an attorney for Homeland Security was in person.
At least one defendant was in federal detention, with the screenname “Karnes” — for the detention center in Karnes County. He told the judge in Spanish through an interpreter “I want to get out of here” and asked how long it would take. The judge replied he did not have a timeframe for when he would be removed from the U.S.
Other virtual defendants appeared either in their homes or attorneys' offices.
In a separate courtroom of Judge Charles McCullough, two attorneys remotely represented clients from Austin. Both had their cases reset for later in 2026 or next year.
Three people appeared in person in two separate cases. In one case, there was a woman in her 20s with her pre-school aged son. They were both from Venezuela and entered the U.S. in Brownsville in November 2023.
In the other case was a man who appeared to be in his 40s. Originally from Cuba, he entered the U.S in California in February 2024. An interpreter online on WebEx translated in Spanish.
Throughout the brief hearing the young boy who accompanied his mother played with an octopus-shaped sock puppet, tapped his mother on the arm multiple times and made playful faces at observers in the courtroom.
The judge read them their rights in court collectively. They were told that they had the right to an attorney, that they must attend all hearings, and they had the right to testify and call their own witnesses. He said they did not need to make pleas today and that they needed to let the court know if they were afraid to go back to their own counties.
Their cases were then heard separately. When asked if he feared for his safety in returning to Cuba, the man said yes through an interpreter and that he believed he would be harmed. The details of his case are unclear but the government has requested his removal from the U.S.
Both the man and woman had social security numbers and work authorizations. The judge said they were subject to removal.
Their separate cases were reset for the summer. They were handed asylum paperwork and a list of the names of pro bono attorneys and left the courtroom. Neither was arrested nor detained.
Attorney fees can vary widely outside of pro bono representation. Guillermo Hernandez, an attorney at Rivera, Hernandez, and Campos estimates it can cost $1,500 for initial representation to $12,000 to $15,000 for a full asylum case.
“I think it depends on the firm. I think it depends on the type of case that's being litigated,” he said.
American Gateways used to get upwards of $1 million annually from the federal government, Barrera said, to assist with these services but that funding was discontinued at the start of President Trump’s second term. It had previously served as the Immigration Court Help Desk Provider until that program was discontinued.
“We provided this type of services to individuals that were not represented. After the administration, we lost that funding and that program was terminated. And so then we reverted into providing these services, starting in July, first in the parking lot as a tailgate service, because there was no access and no information, and people were being detained,” Barrera said. They are now located inside the building.
Councilwoman Kaur told TPR after viewing these hearings that she felt the process for these hearings is complicated and that without representation, it’s hard to know how to navigate the system.
“They both had work authorizations. They had social security numbers. They were engaging. They just want to be here to have a chance at the American Dream, the same way my family did,” she said. “They're coming from countries where they don't feel safe, and it is incumbent upon us to create space and to create opportunity and allow folks to have the opportunity that so many of us have had for since our country was founded.”
After viewing the proceedings, Councilwoman Castillo said she was asked by an individual to be present in another courtroom to observe a hearing because he was afraid his family would be arrested by ICE.
“It's infuriating that this is the system in which our community members have to go through, in terms of not feeling comfortable with this process, and the fear that if they come to court, that they may not go back home to their families and communities,” she said.
Starting at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, the council will debate the resolution that will ask city staff to determine what options the city has in intervening in the creation of detention center on the city’s east side.
“We have to figure out a way locally to prevent that detention center. I know it is going to be difficult. It's already been purchased, but we've got to continue to fight the fight. We've got to get as many folks as we can to come out and speak up against this detention facility, because what we know is they can put anyone in there for any reason,” Kaur said.
Councilmember Galvan was not available for comment after the hearings saying he had another appointment to get to.
Also on Wednesday, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones sent a letter to San Antonio’s federal House and Senate delegation calling for the representatives to not approve funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Placing an ICE facility on our East Side, an already economically depressed part of our community, would further negatively affect the local economy and hamper its ability to attract the type of good-paying jobs our constituents need and deserve,” Jones said. “I welcome a conversation to discuss more strategic ways to enhance the economic development of our city.”
