ICE is moving forward with a massive detention and processing facility in San Antonio, Texas, despite months of objections from the city’s mayor. On Thursday, the agency awarded GardaWorld Federal Services a $17.3 million contract to renovate and operate the site.
The contract covers renovation of a more than 600,000-square-foot warehouse on San Antonio’s east side that ICE bought in early February for more than $66 million. GardaWorld will provide the full range of services needed to run a facility that can hold up to 1,500 detainees awaiting deportation.
The award, made under a Navy contracting program, runs from the date of award through August 25, 2027, with the entire $17.3 million committed upfront for the first year. The underlying delivery order, numbered 70CDCR26FR0000103 and posted to the federal SAM.gov database, is a multi-year contract capped at slightly more than $1 billion.
Services required under the deal include detainee care and safekeeping, facility management and administration, food service, armed transportation, and security operations, all meeting ICE detention standards.
Mayor’s Objections Went Nowhere
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones tried to stop the project before it got this far. In April, she wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking him to reconsider.
My community is not interested in hosting an ICE processing facility.
Ortiz Jones also complained that her office had been kept in the dark about the purchase, writing, “Despite numerous attempts, neither my office nor the city staff have received formal notification regarding ICE’s reported purchase and potential use of a 640,000+ square foot warehouse located at 542 SE Loop 410 Access Rd, San Antonio, Texas.”
None of it changed the outcome.
Protests Met With Fencing
Local activist groups, including the San Antonio chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, have staged repeated protests at the site hoping to pressure ICE into abandoning the plan. Instead, ICE responded by installing perimeter security fencing around the warehouse to keep protesters off federal property.
Why San Antonio
The location gives ICE quick access to the infrastructure it needs to process and remove detainees. San Antonio has nearly 30 major hospitals, including Brooke Army Medical Center, a Level I Trauma Center just 5 miles from the site. San Antonio International Airport, less than 15 miles away, gives ICE aircraft easy access for detainee transport and removal. Land ports of entry in Eagle Pass and Laredo, both under 200 miles from the facility, add another route for repatriation.
