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A public hearing in San Antonio on Tuesday will collect firsthand testimony about how federal immigration enforcement has affected individuals, families and neighborhoods.
The People’s Hearing on Immigration Enforcement is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Our Lady of the Lake University. People who have experienced detention are scheduled to testify alongside legal experts, advocates and other community members.
Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project and chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said the testimony will become part of a public record.
“This is not political,” Garza said. “This is about ensuring accountability and ensuring that the truth is documented.”
Garza said immigration enforcement has raised concerns about racial profiling, protest rights and the use of force.
“What we’re seeing happen across the country raises really serious civil rights concerns,” she said. “Racial profiling is amongst one of them. The right to protest is being undermined.”
She pointed to four fatal shootings involving federal immigration agents: the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine, and Ruben Ray Martinez on South Padre Island. The circumstances and official accounts of the shootings have faced scrutiny. ICE’s involvement in Martinez’s 2025 death was not publicly disclosed until nearly a year after the incident.
The Trump administration says its expanded enforcement campaign is intended to enforce federal immigration law, increase removals and protect the public from people it describes as dangerous criminals. Federal data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse showed that 70.8% of people in ICE detention as of April 4 had no criminal conviction. Many of those with convictions had committed minor offenses, including traffic violations.
The hearing will examine how immigration enforcement operates at the local level, including the role of police departments and surveillance technology such as license plate readers.
Garza said immigration enforcement can have consequences beyond those directly targeted, including economic effects on businesses and neighborhoods.
“That impact reverberates,” she said. “It lasts a long time, not just for that specific business, but for that neighborhood and that city.”
She said fear of enforcement can keep customers and workers away, disrupting businesses, industries and economic activity across entire neighborhoods.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, Latino Community Foundation CEO Julián Castro and Our Lady of the Lake University President Abel Antonio Chávez are scheduled to deliver opening remarks at Tuesday’s hearing.
Garza and former U.S. Commission on Civil Rights chairs Marty Castro and Norma Cantú are scheduled to moderate panel discussions.
The hearing will take place at Sueltenfuss Library at Our Lady of the Lake University, followed by a 4 p.m. press conference outside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the South Texas federal detention facility that holds immigrant families with children.
The San Antonio forum is part of a series organized by the Texas Civil Rights Project, Hispanic Federation, Latino Victory Foundation, the Miranda Family Fund and local groups. Previous hearings were held in St. Paul, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Another hearing is scheduled for Thursday at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, beginning at 10 a.m.
