Good morning.

The time is now 9 02 AM on Friday, February 12th, and the meeting of the San Antonio City Council is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember Corps.

Councilmember Mickey Rodriguez.

Councilmember Viegran.

Here.

Councilmember Mungia.

Present.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Councilmember Gauban.

Here.

Councilmember Alarete Gabito.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Present.

Councilmember Spears.

Here.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Mayor, we have here, thank you.

Okay.

Councilmember Kor is not here, however, her invocator I see before us.

So please step to the mic and welcome your remarks.

Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the fully enlightened one.

Good morning, Council members.

With reverence and mindful presence, we begin this gathering with the practice of Metta, which is a Sanskrit word for loving kindness.

We acknowledge this moment as precious, born of many causes and conditions, and we pause to set our intention.

As taught by the Buddha, may we establish our minds and goodwill, clarity, and non-harm, so that whatever arises here may be guided by wisdom rather than impulse, and by compassion rather than self-interest.

May all beings be safe, may all beings be free from fear and hostility.

May all beings live with dignity, health, and peace.

As we take up the responsibilities before us, may we remember the truth of interdependence, that no decision exists in isolation, and no life stands apart from another.

What we choose here ripples outward, shaping lives, families, neighborhoods, and generations to come.

May our speech be truthful, timely, and spoken with a gentle heart.

May our listening be deep and unguarded.

May our minds be steady, free from greed, ill will, and ignorance, so that we are not driven by narrow views, fixed identities, or the need to prevail, but guided by what is genuinely by gut but guided by what is genuinely alleviate suffering.

In moments of disagreement, may we practice patience and right effort.

In moments of difficulty, may we recall our share our shared purpose, which is to serve, to protect, and to uplift the well-being of the whole community.

May we hold differing perspectives without contempt, remembering that understanding grows when the when humility is present.

May compassion guide our concern for the vulnerable, the marginalized, and those whose burdens are heavy.

May wisdom guide us to consider long-term consequences and not merely immediate gains.

May ethical conduct guide us to act in ways that build trust, fairness, and harmony.

As the Buddha taught, let our care be boundless, without exclusion, without resentment, and without division.

May we cultivate minds that wish no harm, harbor no hatred, and cling to no rigid sense of us and them.

With this aspiration, maybe work may the work undertaken here today contribute to peace rather than conflict, healing rather than harm, and unity rather than separation.

May our collective efforts be a cause for well-being in the city now and into the future.

With gratitude for this opportunity to serve and with hearts grounded in mindfulness and loving kindness, may you all be happy, healthy, and may your mind be at ease.

Thank you, Nam Bataya.

Thank you for that blessing.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God and its moment of liberty and justice for all.

Item three is approval of the minutes for the city council meetings of January 28th and 29th, 2026.

Are there any corrections or edits to the minutes?

Okay.

Hearing none, is there a motion for the approval of the minutes?

I make a motion to approve.

Second.

Thank you.

There's a motion and a second to approve the minutes.

Please vote.

Oh.

Okay.

Okay, the motion carries.

There being no points of uh personal privilege, they will move on to the consent agenda.

Is there any objection to taking the consent agenda before the individual items so that we may clear the business of the day?

Okay, hearing none, items five through 21 are on the consent agenda.

This means they will be considered as a group, and there will not be a staff presentation unless pulled for individual consideration.

Are there any items council members would like to pull uh from the consent agenda to be heard individually?

Councilman White.

Nothing.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

On the just on just on okay.

Sorry.

We have one member of the community that is signed up to speak on the consent agenda.

Uh Jack Finger, you have three minutes.

Well, Mary Gina Jones, other members of our illustrious San Antonio City Council.

Once again, my name is Jack M.

Finger.

Um, a few items I wish to bring to your attention on this portion of the agenda.

The uh on the consent agenda, that's which probably will just sail through faster than uh Santa Claus's sleigh.

The uh you have items number 12 through 21, and I must yeah, 22, 21.

I must admit this is uh quite a jackpot for those of us who could consider affordable housing just really well for housing.

I mean, you have almost every single part of the city is you look at this, and one of the items maybe they fit yours, but mostly it falls in District 1, District 3, District 7, District 4, District 6.

Um, yeah, uh the idea is that we, as you as a city council, are going to be uh giving your approval to housing that that is going to house people who are going to use other people's money to pay their rent.

And these are these affordable apartments and so forth here.

Um my goodness, I I mean we're we're talking about what what areas of town?

Well, on uh Bassie Road, uh Travis Street.

Oh goodness, Zars Amora, Ellis Ellison Drive, uh Highway 16 and Gillette Boulevard.

Yeah, Collabor Road, our Arcadia Creek, Camino Real, and just above the downtown Ashby Street.

So why do we have to keep going in this direction?

Why can't we just require people to pay their own way instead of having us, the taxpayers, pay it for them?

Do you realize that this eventually catches up with the rest of us, and we won't have the money for the rest of our budget?

It affects us all the way through there.

So yeah.

Um let's see if anybody has any, well, as I call it, courage to uh bring this up and uh have a worthy discussion on what we're really showing out here.

Thank you.

That was the final speaker uh on the consent agenda.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I make a motion to approve.

Are there any highlights or questions about the consent agenda?

Okay.

Um councilwoman um uh Via Gran.

Thank you, Mayor.

So it's that time of year resolution for support for housing projects.

If you've heard I'm very excited about the work that our um housing team have done, Veronica and Ian and the whole team that's watching, you've done an incredible job to make sure that we have got projects moving forward that the state does uh statewide and regionally to make sure that we have what our community has invested in.

Uh this is seniors, this is single mothers, this is just affordability and workforce.

So I'm I'm looking forward to to getting this to the next step, and I thank you for your efforts.

Thank you.

Um I don't see her.

Okay.

Um council member Mungia.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd also like to highlight a couple resolutions that are in my district 14, 15, and 16.

I think these are going to be some great projects if they end up getting approved by the state.

And I want to thank NHSD for their work and and uh all the efforts that go into this.

And I want to especially hire the Julie and the Julio, which I think are gonna be some fantastic projects in D4 uh on Zarz Amora.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

This morning I'd like to highlight item number eight, which is the reappointment of Nephi Garza, Andy, Robert, and Mia to the West Side Tours.

I'm extremely grateful for the expertise that they bring to this board and all the work that we've been able to accomplish over the last four years.

So always grateful to have uh these individuals continue to move San Antonio's West Side forward.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Gavito.

Morning.

This morning I want to highlight two items.

I'm gonna first start with item number 20, which is a resolution of support for the Frio Bend Senior Housing LP's nine percent housing tax credit application.

I also want to highlight item number 21, which is also a resolution of support for Woodlawn Pines Senior Housing Tax Credit Application.

The plan for both of these projects is to rehabilitate existing affordable housing communities that serve older adults.

The number of adults over the age of 60 is expected to double between the years 2015 and 2050.

So it's crucial that we invest in housing that serves this growing population now.

These uh these projects will also help advance our ship goals of affordable housing preservation.

I've said multiple times that we need to invest in maintaining and upgrading housing stock that we already have.

We often hear too often from residents about subsidized housing that's neglected and dilapidated, that and which is unacceptable, and so we need to be investing and and we're also investing millions of dollars in new housing stock, but we also need to maintain uh the current housing stock we have.

The free O Band project has the support of the neighbors in the nearby Thunderbridge Thunderbird Hills Neighborhood Association and Woodlawn Pines has the support of the Woodlawn Lake Neighborhood Association.

The applicants reached out to my office to clearly outline their goals, and they wait awaited letters of support from their surrounding neighborhood association.

So I want to express my full support for these projects, and I'm hopeful that these applications will be awarded.

Thank you to uh the city team to that that helped facilitate these projects as well, and um they have my full support.

Thank you.

Councilmember Corr.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I wanted to thank the Buddhist Temple folks for coming at and spoken the Fakway Buddhist Temple.

And I I hope you all enjoyed the invocation today.

My apologies for being late.

Um, I also wanted to highlight items number 17 and or sorry, items number um thir 12 and 13, which are the LITEC resolutions of support.

I know my council colleagues have highlighted a few of them, but we have a couple of them in district one, one with Robert E.

Lee, and also another one at uh that's a rehab program on the Northwest part of our district.

So we're thankful if folks are here from the developing teams to continue to support LITEC and affordable housing in district one.

Thanks, Mayor.

Are there any other highlights?

Okay, great.

I also want to um thank Veronica and the housing team for all the hard work for this.

I really appreciate it.

Um, in the aggregate, this is going to be 805 units.

So thank you for your um for the diligent work here.

Uh of the 10 projects, two of them will include pre-K on site.

Um, one of them we know will also support some of our most vulnerable when we look at foster youth and our homeless youth.

So thank you for your efforts here.

I also appreciate all the hard work related to the special housing supply as a result of the task force uh that I set up that I know Councilman Wangia is shepherding through his committee.

Um, this is important.

The question of why why do we do this?

Um, I like the way in which Eric Cooper, the CEO of the food bank, characterizes it, which is rent eats first, rent eats first.

And so, as much as we can do to help members of our community have stable, affordable housing uh will be a stronger community for it.

So, my thanks again to the team uh for the hard work that got us here.

There being no further discussion, there's a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda.

Please vote.

Okay, the motion carries.

We'll move on to the individual item, item four.

Um, item four, this is really a follow-on discussion.

Um, as many of you recall, many of you look very familiar.

You were with us at the special session a couple of weeks ago.

Um, and the team has been working in earnest um as a result of the feedback that we heard, we heard um in the time between then and now.

And so uh there are several things that are underway um that have already been completed and that are still under review.

Um, at the same in parallel, uh, there was a uh resolution, uh memo rather that was put forward by some of my colleagues that also captures some of those efforts, and uh that'll be the resolution uh that we will discuss today.

Uh Madam Clerk, please read the caption.

Item number four is a resolution supporting evaluation of strategies to protect all San Antonians.

Okay.

Okay.

Over to you, Liz.

Thank you.

Mayor, just uh let me let me reiterate what you what you already said.

I I um so the staff was on track to provide counsel uh the follow-up conversation from the the session we had in here several weeks ago.

Um the um uh council districts two, four, five, and six submitted the memo that you referenced, Mayor.

And so timely uh we've combined this, these that follow-up and the items that were listed in the memo in the presentation that Liz will walk you through.

Um the uh there are a couple of items from the resolution memo.

I'm sorry, the uh the four signature memo where uh Liz will indicate uh we're looking for a little bit more um uh direction and conversation from the council.

Um you'll see in the presentation um just to dig down a little bit deeper into what the mayor said into four distinct categories because I I think uh it was helpful for us as as we discussed it internally as we discussed it with the mayor to lay them out into actions that we have done, uh actions that we propose to do, uh actions that we do not recommend given the legal risk, and then actions that we need to evaluate.

And and we'll talk a little bit about how we do that.

Uh some of the the timing of some of those could be on different tracks, but uh looking for some council feedback on on how we do that.

Um so over to you, Liz.

Thank you.

Thank you, Eric.

Elizabeth Provencio, First Assistant City Attorney and the City Attorney's Office, and thank you, Mayor and Council, for the opportunity to be able to be here with you today and to provide the follow-up and um the recommendations that we have in conjunction with the resolution that is um your council agenda item today.

So moving on to the highlight overview that Eric referred to is we've taken the items for feedback from your January 22nd discussion and the specific requests that came to staff to be able to evaluate and report back on in conjunction with the memo that was filed last week that led to this item getting on the agenda, and that is the subject of the resolution that's before you today.

And so the as you will see in the categories that we have organized the information in depending on what that action was and the complexity of it in terms of risk analysis in conjunction with the actual practicality will sort of determine the timeline upon which we can act for follow-up for you.

So as Eric mentioned, um we'll go through the categories that we heard in the the follow-up request from January 22nd in conjunction with the memo resolution items on actions that we have done, those that we propose to do, those that we don't recommend in light of the legal risk, and actions that will require further evaluation.

So as we get into the actions that have already been done or that are underway, we'll talk a little bit about the city's current work.

And so part of what we heard in discussions in conjunction with uh the memo on today's resolution item was how can there be referrals and how can there be resources for those that are looking, especially for legal guidance or legal resources.

And so one of the pieces that we wanted to point out for purposes of that is if you go to the city's website, you will see Office of Immigrant Affairs, which the city has had for some time, and there is a community resources tile.

And when you click on that tile, there will unfold a list of resources that relate to legal, that relate to consulate, that relate to educational, that relate to health services for those that are looking for ways to be able to find third party support in those areas.

So that currently exists on the city's website as a resource.

Moving on to the suggestion recommendation request for training for city staff specific to when we have ICE potentially at a city facility and ensuring that our employees know what to do in those circumstances and the training for that.

And so we had early on guidance that was given to staff at the beginning of 2025, and we have re-upped that guidance, and we have also begun conducting in-person trainings so that they can answer questions and hear directly from legal and HR on what to do in hypothetical situations.

And that series, that training is folding out in a series of meetings with employees and supervisors of public-facing facilities.

Um, and so that will remain an ongoing project for us.

With regard to discussion about know your rights.

And here because we actually have know your rights resources by third parties that are city funded.

Um, that of course is listed in what we have done and what will continue to be an ongoing effort.

Going on to item four, which was about the uh resolution um item that was requested is the economic report on the contributions and impact of migrants in San Antonio and Bear County.

We wanted to highlight that we do have a report that was published in December of 2025.

It's on the city's website, and it's called the Demographic and Economic Contributions of Immigrants Report that we had funded through a grant uh with the American Immigrant Council.

So you will see that report with information that is that captures um what was included and what the city had uploaded in that December 2025 report.

Moving on to what we have heard the request recommendations, follow up from us on in terms of what we propose to do.

Part of the discussion that we've had with you over time has been the information available is regional information and it's what ICE provides.

So we certainly can link that information so it's easier for people to find.

But for purposes of being able to expand it beyond that, we we don't have the ability to be able to augment the information in terms of the activity.

Moving on to item six, and this was voiced in a couple different ways, which was how might there be community reporting or intake or logging of alleged rights violations, civil rights violations as a result of ICE activity.

And so we know that there are third parties that have begun some of this work in 2025.

We also have the ability to be able to create an intake form of sorts.

If the city wanted to be a repository of information of just taking those reports, the difficulty is it would purely be intake and then making that information that is just uploaded to us or reported with us, then publicly available.

There's there's not a mechanism for us to be able to act on that.

So we just want to be sure that everybody's expectations are in line.

If that is in fact something you want us to proceed with doing, which is to create this intake process and compile what information is given to the city or reported to the city.

Moving on to item seven, um, this is specific to requests that are made by the feds, specifically ICE of SAPD and the costs that are associated with that.

We have some discussion with you about the limitations that may be imposed upon that based on some grant conditions that are still in flux for us.

And so the limitations on that could sort of evolve over time.

Um, and so we can talk about that more if in fact that's something you want us to continue to pursue.

Moving on to the category of what we do not recommend in light of the legal risk, separate and apart from the legal pathways that we discussed earlier, and I'll discuss kind of eight and nine in conjunction because they're they're related, but with regard to being a resource for those that were are without legal status, um, we are not recommending that in light of the risk associated with that.

And when I talk about risk, you know, generally I'm referring to our SB4 requirements under state law in conjunction with some of our grant certifications and how those may be construed.

So generally speaking, when we say it's high risk, it's because those may be invoked.

Moving on to 10, which is city staff directly providing know your rights training, and a similar request that was made to what Austin officers have in their general manual and an instruction that they're told to give before they ask about whether somebody's status is lawful, is not something that we recommend incorporating or capturing, and again based on the same conjunction of constraints that we're faced with with SB4 and grant certifications, and instead would be recommending that we continue to pursue the know your rights information through third parties, and that way it makes sure that we're not delving into an area that's of high risk for us.

We've also heard the request about a council policy potentially that would preclude masks by federal law enforcement.

We are monitoring litigation.

There was a California state law that was passed to this effect.

It's currently on hold.

It was determined to be preempted.

We understand, and you all are monitoring equally states and jurisdictions across the country that are trying different formulations of what might be done, we'll continue to monitor that to be able to report back on those efforts.

But at this point, it is not something we recommend doing.

Moving into evaluation and proposals for us to evaluate.

In that category, the proposal that there be a justice fund that's similar to actions that we've taken in the past with regard to justice fund activity.

And you know, that may be experienced some sort of civil rights violation or that sort of thing as a result of ICE activity, that's within the realm of things that we could and could continue to evaluate for your consideration.

We've got a couple different ones that are related to detention facilities, and so you see that first arise in item 13.

Um we can continue to evaluate that in conjunction with some of the other requests on detention facilities and sort of how we may affect those through through land use.

Again, we're talking about not federal detention facilities like the one we're currently faced with, but those that are potentially for profit and would be forward looking, so in the future.

Number 14, with regard to council policy and whether we enter into contracts or other things with entities that are providing support ties.

We have a number of of those requests that are part of the resolution that we could continue to evaluate, and we will report back on those if that is something you want us to consider as we continue to study these.

Again, you see that appear in the resolution item, which we have here as number 15 connected to facility activities in 16, and that is again because we have very specific type of rules that we have to follow for purposes of how we affect and change our land use rules.

Um the passage of the resolution could then start the path forward for us to continue to evaluate that and do the necessary fact-finding to potentially affect those rules.

With regard to number 17, the discussion of what we would like to see as part of our federal agenda and what is part of our priority and how we articulate that would be part of the discussion with you all to tease out what those priorities are as we move forward in evaluating.

Moving on to 18.

Um, when we do hear from you today as part of this discussion, um, understanding what public signage would be and what is the proposal when we draw a little bit more finely tuned to that.

We weren't quite sure when we saw that as part of the request in the memo, what that might say, or what specifically uh what signage may be envisioned by that so that we can be more specific about our response to you in our evaluation.

So that is certainly something we'd want to hear back from you on terms of more of the specificity in mind there, or if there's examples you've seen in other places that you would like us to explore.

Um moving on to 19, that's an area where we also have a question with regard to training for city staff, as I mentioned earlier.

We do have underway the training so that staff is in a position to be able to react and respond properly and help facilitate in the event that we have, and when I say facilitate, I mean in a you know orderly way that there be an understanding of what the expectations are if we have any federal officials that show up on city property, specifically ICE.

But separate and apart from that, weren't quite sure what the thought was or what the specificity of the training for city staff on rights and responsibilities related to the prevention of harm.

Um so if if we could hear more from you on that in terms of what um what that might be, what that might look like, um that would be very helpful to us.

And moving on to our next slide, um, and continuing with the um items outlined in the memo and that are subject of the resolution.

Um we've got topics that relate to vendor accountability, non-contracting policies, and procurement standards and value-based criteria, which we believe related to an earlier item in in the request for follow-up, but has more specificity to it.

So the idea would be that we could come back and talk to you about the categories of contracts that we could affect some statutorily, such as low bid, we don't have the ability to to affect those procurement processes as they are set out by statute.

So, what might be in that bucket of things that we could and then have a further discussion about the priorities within that um as you continue to evaluate options.

We've got um insurance, liability, and risk exposure, which falls into sort of the the procurement bucket that we were just discussing.

Um with regard to item 24 and use of city resources, this is another area where it would be helpful for us to hear more specificity from you in terms of uh what that particular request is referring to so that we have the ability to be able to evaluate that um specifically for you, and then the intergovernmental coordination and legal safeguards, that seems to be one where that could is baked into the evaluation as a matter of course, because we're necessarily providing that sort of legal evaluation as part and parcel of some of the other items, but just wanted to be sure that that's um the intent behind that request.

And lastly, um the memo calling for the resolution also asked to evaluate opportunities on holding federal law enforcement officers accountable, and just for purposes of um the evaluation is just understanding that we would be talking about within the domain that we have, which is our within our jurisdiction, um, and not anything that's gonna be sort of preempted or something that we can't do as a result of it not being within our jurisdiction.

So, lastly, um what the intent of today's discussion is for us to continue to hear from you on the direction in conjunction with your action on the resolution, um, and then obviously sort of restating, and we we have a great appreciation for your approach in terms of you all understanding that you know this is within the confines of us working within the parameters of federal and state law that we have to live within and in our own roles, and that we wanted to relay because we we know that, or at least our sense is from both the discussion on the 22nd and in the resolution, you know, how could the city be most impactful?

Um we want to be sure that there's no mismet expectations because we will not be able to prevent immigration enforcement within San Antonio, and so we just want to reiterate the constraints that we have to live within.

Um we know that you understand those, but it's it's important for us to calibrate public's expectations as well.

And our hope is that within 30 days we can provide um an updated timeline on the specificity that is um within the resolution and within the items that you've given us so that we can continue to evaluate um according to the direction that you've given us.

So, with that, thank you and happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Liz.

Um, you alluded to a grant, and just for everyone's edification, if you could please elaborate um on what that is, um, because of course that is uh contingent on this body's desire, willingness to apply for that um and then potentially accept those grant funds.

But you alluded to it, so I want to make sure everyone understands uh what you're referencing.

So if you'd please elaborate.

Mayor, I'll I'll take that one.

So there is a there are as we've seen over the course of 2025, uh, federal grant assurances really for a number of different things that we um receive have changed.

Um and and so uh in particular there are um upcoming grants that uh we are working through the state and other cities.

Um some of the federal grant assurance that that Liz is referring to seems to be on hold at the state and federal level in terms of deadlines, and so we're still trying to work through what those things are, um, and none of them have been final.

Um and I think um there is one grant in particular that we are working through.

Um, but but uh as I sit here today, I don't have uh I have a I have a medium level of confidence that um that that it'll change before the deadlines get established, and part of that is making sure that we keep you all informed because ultimately the application and certainly the acceptance of those grants need to be approved by council, and and so we are uh walking in uh wide uh eyes wide open as we pursue those grant opportunities.

Thank you.

Just wanted to clarify um the agency that this body still has when it comes to accepting those grants, which they may limit um those options as Liz described.

Okay.

We have several members of the public that have signed up, um, and then we may bring you we will bring you back up, Liz.

Go ahead.

Excuse me?

What is that?

Oh uh there's a clarification.

Uh Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Yes, thank you.

Uh, thank you for the presentation.

Would you mind just uh quickly stating what feedback specifically you're looking for?

I know you mentioned the signage piece, but can you lay out very clearly what all directions are looking over?

Thank you.

Yes.

So presumably, if the resolution passes today, we will continue the work on the evaluation that is the subject of the resolution.

In conjunction with that, and to be sure that we're evaluating the pieces that with specificity within that.

Um if we go to item 18, which was the signage that you referred to.

If we go to 19, which um talks about the city staff training and making sure that we understand um what that entails in light of the again, just sort of we have the ongoing staff training that's already underway, but does this envision something different?

It sounds different based on the way it's described, and so we just want to be sure that we understand what that request is for us to evaluate.

Looking at item 24, the use of city resources and services, um, just sort of understanding what the expectation is with regard to that category.

Is it just sort of making sure that when we bring items to you all, sort of you understand you know how it falls into the buckets of other things we're doing, just want to be sure that that we we we understand what the request is there, and then with regard to 25, we're operating off of the assumption that the are just part and parcel of what we're doing in conjunction with all the others, in light of sort of the ongoing evaluation from a legal perspective as well as looking at ways of you know coordinating if there's other other governmental entities involved.

So, not so much in and of itself a separate thing, but we're operating off the assumption it's sort of baked into the requests of all the others.

Thank you.

Liz, actually, one more, sorry about that.

Okay, when you also say um in case there are other things, um it looks like you're also looking for some potential feedback on 26 evaluate opportunities to hold federal law enforcement officers accountable.

Um and you're asking for something if that is distinct from what SAPD is already expected to do if they see um their responsibility to report um potentially illegal activity, correct?

So, Mayor, I think what I'll just reiterate what you said in that we assume that the work there would be for us to stay within the jurisdiction, which is what you just described.

Um 25 and 26.

Um 25, the intent is this is what we do as as matter of business, it sounds like as in your words, and then 26 is more of what we are currently doing and what is already expect the expectation and is already being practiced.

Correct.

And if there's yes, if there's anything outside of that assumption that we should be aware of to let us know.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have several members of the public signed up to speak, and I will call them in the order that they signed up.

Are we good?

Are we good?

Okay.

Um Mariano Alanis, followed by Enjorras Ruiz and then Priscilla Olivares.

You each have three minutes to speak, and I'd ask that you line up after the individual.

Good morning, uh, Mayor, Council members.

For the record, my name is Mariana Lonese, resident in taxpayer district two.

Tonight I'm formally submitting an addendum for to the resolution supporting the evaluation of strategies to protect all San Antonians.

This addendum is intended to enhance the resolution by incorporating cultural components and reinforcing the city's commitment to well-being of every resident.

Uh may I read the addendum?

Okay.

Sure.

Um, Mr.

Audiovisual guy, can I present it?

I'm not sure.

Audio visual support, thank you.

I got two minutes, though.

Resolution to, I'm gonna read it really fast, I'm sorry.

Resolution support evaluation of strategies to protect San Antonians.

Addendum resolution support, evaluation strategy support, all San Antonio's resolution support, City Council of San Antonio, Texas, recognizing the historical cultural significance of Marin Devotion within the city of San Antonio, expressing the symbolic hope for protection, love, and peace for all who call this city home, including citizens, immigrants, and visitors.

Whereas the city of San Antonio is a diverse multicultural community whose heritage has been shaped by many traditions, including influenced by early Spanish settlers and re uh region's long-standing Catholic and Marin traditions, and whereas Marine devotion, honoring Virgin Mary has historically emphasized themes of compassion, protection, maternal care, peace, values, which continue to resonate with many residents today, whereas these themes are reflected in cultural expressions such as festivals, processions, artwork, community gatherings, and celebrate unity, empathy, and shared dignity to of all people.

Whereas the city of San Antonio residents, citizens, immigrants alike, draw inspiration from these traditions that symbols hope, solidarity, uh desire peace amid challenges among diverse communities, and whereas the city council acknowledges all that its role is to recognize cultural heritage as manner consistent with constitutional principles and ceremony resolutions may express shared values such as community protection, harmony, mutual respect, and whereas the city council seeks to affirm and support all communities who strive to cultivate love, compassion, peace within San Antonio, compute contributing to a safety and well-being of all residents regardless of origin, status and background.

Now, therefore, bit be it resolved by the city city council of the city of San Antonio that texts that section one to the city center city council hereby recognize Marin Devotion as an important culture and historical tradition embraced with San Antonio residents, reflecting values of compassion, protection and peace.

Section two, City Council symbolizes, expresses its hope, intention for the protection and well-being of of all who live, work in, visit San Antonio, including long-time citizens, new arrivals, immigrants, communities, affirming the inherent dignity of all every person's section three, City Council acknowledges commends the cultural organizations, community groups, faithful communities who tradition promote love, hospitality, unity, and per peaceful coexistence, enriching cities' social cultural fabric.

Section four, this resolution is ceremonial expression of culture recognition, honoring the profound influence Marin traditions and have many San Antonio feminist communities.

It does not establish a mandate or any religious practice, but rather acknowledges with us.

Sir, sir, thank you.

You can submit the rest for the record.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Enjolras Ruiz, followed by Priscilla Olivares and then Sarah Cruz.

Hello.

Hello?

Madam Mayor, members of the city council.

I just wanted to thank you for having this on the addendum and having this on the meeting.

Um I am excited with these solutions that were proposed today.

Um I look forward to seeing you work more on it and iron out a plan so we can better protect the citizens of San Antonio and better protect and secure their rights.

Um thank you.

I yield my time to Genia Black.

Thank you.

One second, let me let me find her.

Oh, there she is.

Okay.

Genia Black, are you here already?

I'm sorry.

Uh okay.

So ma'am, you have a full three minutes if for those in case it helps anyone else.

Once you start your time, you can't seed the remainder of your time until you tell us at the very beginning that you're going to do that.

So, ma'am, you'll have three minutes when I call you.

Okay.

So, right now we've got Priscilla Olivares followed by Sarah Cruz and then Olivia Delagarza.

And Sarah Cruz has given me her time.

She's here in the back.

Okay.

Sarah Cruz.

Okay, so you have six minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Priscilla Olivares.

I'm a senior policy attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Our organization is also a member of the SA Stance Coalition.

I want to first thank those in City Council who put forth this request to have this very important discussion.

I also want to thank those in our community, some who are here today, and who are standing alongside our immigrant neighbors asking for all of our rights to be protected.

San Antonio has seen a significant increase in immigration enforcement and harm to our communities.

With the recent purchase by DHS of the ICE warehouse, we know that means more unlawful rests of our community members.

It means more of their rights will be violated.

It also means that SAPD would be called on to assist in some capacity in those unlawful arrests.

This highlights the need for more transparency.

Transparency from our leadership regarding SAPD's collaboration with ICE, transparency regarding the number of violations against our communities at the hands of ICE officers, and transparency regarding the legal rationale for protecting a lawless agency like ICE and allowing them to continue to target our San Antonio residents without any accountability.

Communities deserve to know why SAPD honors ICE administrative warrants, which are not legally sufficient for a constitutional search.

And let's be clear, nothing in SB4 2017 requires compliance with these so-called warrants.

If there is legal guidance saying otherwise, the community deserves to know and see that legal guidance.

This is yet another lie from the administration.

Yes, City Council must comply with state laws, and that includes SB4 2017.

But our constitution still matters.

We are seeking transparency and accountability for those collaboration efforts because this collusion is violating our constitutional rights and putting people's lives at risk.

I put forth the Freedom Cities Resolution example from Austin as a potential option to provide that transparency.

The Freedom City resolution required the Austin Police Department to document and report its assistance to ICE.

Any collaboration efforts between SAPD and ICE should not be happening behind closed doors.

Any discussion regarding the legal rationale for defending the lawless acts of ICE rather than defending our constitutional rights should not be happening behind closed doors.

So I'm asking the city to look into different ways it can provide transparency and accountability for any time SAPD chooses to collude with ICE.

I'm also asking for transparency regarding the legal rationale for continuing to comply with ICE beyond what is required.

And merely saying SB4 2017 or the supremacy clause is insufficient.

Thank you again to those in city council who are listening to our community.

We recognize the support, and I look forward to more of these discussions and seeing more efforts to protect residents and protect families and keep them together.

Thank you.

Olivia Della Garza.

Olivia Delagarza, followed by Jonah Wilson Leos, and then Jessica Solis.

Hello, Mayor.

My name is Olivia de la Garza, and I'm here.

I have a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America.

And right now I'm trying to study law to become a lawyer.

And I we are we had a former Supreme Court Justice by the name of Ruth Ginsburg, and she was put on stage in front of everybody, the nation one time.

And her and her colleague were asked, ma'am and sir, do uh immigrants have illegal immigrants have constitutional rights.

And her colleague said, No, absolutely not.

If they're illegal, they have no U.S.

constitutional rights.

And under the 14th Amendment, the Ruth Ginsberg interrupted and said, it says, you shall or no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without the process of laws, nor deny to any person.

And she stressed any person within its jurisdictions, the equal protection of the laws.

And she stated that that means that whether you're here legally or illegally, if you're in the jurisdiction of the United States soil, your protection, your your you are protected under constitutional law.

And I want to ask why did federal officials go ahead and try to buy this center without acknowledging or asking you, Mayor.

You run the city, and we also have a manager that runs a city.

Why were y'all not asked if this is okay?

Why were the co why were the citizens of San Antonio not asked whether we want to fund a profit prison?

It's not about immigration anymore.

Not when they're detaining two months-old babies in Dilly, Texas, and they're detaining 14-year-olds and they're depriving them of their basic civil rights.

And so I ask why?

Why would they want this in our community?

We don't.

I don't want this in my community, especially if they didn't ask you first.

You have a lot of power.

You run our city.

Everything should be abroad and forth of you, the council members, and the citizens.

Each and every one of y'all should have been notified before them trying to open a profit prison.

These people that run these prisons, it's all about money.

It's not about illegal immigrants.

Nobody wants people that commit crimes in our country.

Throw them out.

That's fine.

But when you're detaining two months old and you're detaining five-year-olds, that's not about immigration anymore.

And people need to wake up.

It's not about immigration anymore.

And they still have rights under the Constitution of the United States of America.

And I thank you for your time.

Jonah Wilson Leos, followed by Jessica Solis and then Victoria Ramirez.

Please line up.

Good afternoon.

First, I'd like to address the audience and just say, look what happens when we organize.

Look what we can get done once we unite and we really take to the streets and look at the pressure that we can exert on the council to actually do something into the council.

Thank you for holding this meeting.

The presentation that was given just a moment ago, they were told a lot of things that you can and cannot do and a lot of things that are high risk.

And I would just like to say that your community has shown that it is willing to fight for the defense of this city.

And I would just like to ask that you do the same.

Thank you.

Jessica Solis.

Jessica Solis, followed by Victoria Ramirez and then Isabel Herreta.

Thank you, City Council.

I'd like to commend everyone here who has taken the first steps to really making this city fight back for the people that are being attacked in our communities.

As we're seeing billions being spent towards this ICE budget, we're also seeing our economy crumble under this.

We're seeing empty businesses, empty restaurants.

You know, you see waiters are going home without any tips because there's no patrons visiting their restaurants.

We're seeing businesses having to close down.

We're seeing our culture crumble under this.

I don't know if y'all went to Fiestas Patrias last year, but that was the smallest turnout I've ever seen because what's the point of celebrating culture when people are being kidnapped and people are afraid to go out.

Students aren't going to school.

I've heard stories of students not wanting to go to school because they're afraid their parents are going to be taken and they want to be there with them.

They don't want their parents to go to work, and people aren't going to work as much because they know that workers are being targeted at 5 a.m., 6 a.m.

7 a.m.

So we're seeing people not go to work.

We're seeing families are going to keep struggling economically.

Businesses are going to keep struggling economically.

So yes, it does affect our city in a way where city council does need to think about how to make our community feel safer.

And that doesn't happen when we build an ICE inhumane warehouse on our east side, who we've been trying to make promises to about helping them prosper.

Would anyone agree to building a prison next to schools and parks?

I don't see that happening.

So why are we okay with a nice warehouse?

And yes, they're gonna say it's gonna be humane, but where have we seen that ICE has ever had a humane detention cap?

Um yeah, so why would we let the federal government do this to our community when it's something we would never dare to work do to our community?

What's important to fight back because it's obvious the federal government doesn't care about its people.

They wouldn't be hunting people on the streets.

Our DPS force wouldn't be used as kidnap enforcers instead of actually caring for public safety.

Um things are gonna get worse, and it's important for cities to start standing up and fighting back.

Other cities are doing it.

We should be that those cities too, because I don't know how long we can keep going this way, and everyone needs to be standing up at this moment.

Thank you.

Victoria Ramirez, followed by Isabel Herrera, and then Ronald Farnsworth.

Please line up.

Hello, City Council.

Uh, first, I just wanted to go ahead and thank all of the uh city council members that brought this memo forward.

This is exactly the kind of action and really the type of really the type of action that we need that San Antonians have like been in this room demanding for weeks.

So thank you for actually hearing our call and acting upon it.

Um I want to speak very directly about why so many people are here today.

Of course, we're here because of the constant ice terror that's happening in our city, but ICE secretly bought a warehouse in our city with really not anyone knowing on in this body knowing about that.

And I think that speaks volumes to how federal agencies like ICE view San Antonio.

They know that this is something that we're not going to put up with.

They know that this is something that we will absolutely resist.

So they had to go ahead and do it in the shadows to go ahead and try and usurp this body.

So as we're going ahead and we're pushing forward, we're moving forward to go ahead and resist this detention center.

I just want to make that clear to you.

ICE thinks that this is their city, and quite frankly, it's not their city.

It's our city.

It's our city.

And I want to speak directly to the detention center specifically.

Um, as someone that was at the Dilith Dilly detention center a couple weeks ago getting pepperballed and tear gassed with my brothers and sisters that were just simply asking for children to be free from let's not just call it a detention center.

Let's call a spade a spade, it's a concentration camp.

What we all we did was we wanted to see children out of a concentration camp.

And ICE, well, specifically the Texas State troopers were deployed on us just because we wanted children free.

No, what we what if a detention center is allowed to be built in San Antonio?

What you're allowing is not just a literal concentration camp to be a hop and skip away from Martin Luther King Boulevard where we have our largest MLK march um in the United States.

I mean, what does that say?

Having a concentration camp, a hopping to skip away from Dr.

King's legacy.

That's a shame.

That's something we should absolutely resist.

But you're also going to let San Antonians be brutalized every single day because one thing I know about this city is that we are not going to let a concentration camp happen in our city.

How disgusting would it be?

I'm with PSL San Antonio.

We have an office on the east side.

Every time I drive into the east side, I am met with beautiful murals of the diversity of our city in MLK.

But what's going to be right next to it is going to be a concentration camp.

This is absolutely unacceptable, which is why I completely support this motion, because no stone can go unturned, so that way we can go ahead and combat this, fight it, and make sure it never happens again.

Thank you.

Isabel Herrera.

Isabel Herretta.

Okay.

Ronald Farnsworth.

Followed by McKenzie Winters and then Nicolette Ardiente.

Good morning.

I'm here to talk about the need to uh oppose the concentration camp that is being built on the east side.

That is an appropriate term.

A jail is a place where people are held for charges.

A prison is people where is where people are held after they've been convicted, and uh concentration camp is where certain ethnicities are held who have not been charged with anything or been convicted.

I will not engage in the Orwellian whitewash of calling it a detention center.

I will be referring to it as a concentration camp.

Um I'd like to thank the mayor for her strongly worded letter to the uh to the uh congressional delegation and members of the city for calling this meeting.

The reason for opposing the concept the construction of this concentration camp are primarily primarily moral and humanitarian, but I would like to discuss logistical and financial reasons for opposing this.

I believe the city is overly cowed to some extent by SB4, and I think it is outrageous that the legal action against this city was initiated by city employees, the San Antonio Police Department.

Perhaps it is again time to attempt to decertify that union.

But the costs of allowing this are huge.

If we are to take lessons from Portland and Minneapolis, the building of a concentration camp next to a school, no less, are huge.

Such a facility would invite huge protests.

There are more undocumented people in San Antonio than in all of Minnesota.

10,000 people showed up for one of the No Kings demonstrations.

ICE has used chemical weapons against peaceful protesters in Portland and towards a smaller group in Dilly, where I was gassed.

This is a very problematic next to a school in Minnesota.

It's resulted in schools closing, classes needing to be held by video.

Protests here would likely result in an overreaction by the federal government, and we would be faced with the same disruption, if not worse, that Minneapolis has faced.

There would be huge increases in police costs pursuant to increased security needs.

Many of our neighbors, like in Minneapolis, would refuse to leave their houses, resulting in closing of shops and restaurants, rendering a hit to the economy of a city whose finances are already precarious.

What can we do?

We can gum up the opening by showing approval by slowing approval for sewage, by requiring uh environmental impact statement before it opens, by passing zoning rules to stop its operation.

We could do all of that.

Thank you, sir.

If we could, if Donald Trump can delay justice for two years, we can gum up the system for three to deny to delay injustice.

Thank you.

McKinsey Winters.

McKinsey Winters.

Okay.

Nicolette Ardiente.

Nicolette Ardiente.

Okay.

Vox Rose.

Followed by Antonio Diaz and then Diana Flores Uriegues.

Vox Rose.

Okay.

Antonio and Diana, please line up.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Rose Sanchez.

I'm relinquishing my time to Vox Rose.

I'm Rosa Evans, and I am also.

Okay, you have nine minutes.

Thank you.

Firstly, I want to say thank you for addressing the problems and attempting to open the avenue for conversation about potential solutions.

Okay.

The system isn't broken.

The deportation machine is working exactly as designed.

They use the narrative of gang members and drug traffickers to justify breaking down your door, taking your children, and arresting you if you're lucky enough to make it to arrest.

And then they take you to a detention center to profit off of your incarceration.

But really, a detention center is just a sanitized way to say a prison.

Let's call them what they really are.

Chain gang internment camps.

You all are sitting here with your shoulders relaxed, eyes glazing over, pretending your hands are tied, complicit in why this infrastructure exists so pervasively today.

Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton are weak sadists with Trump derangement syndrome who enjoy profiting off of marginalized people's pain and suffering.

They are not leaders, they are profiteers.

On February 6, 2026, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that redefined who qualifies as an applicant under admission.

It declared that people living in the US without inspection, a civil violation, not a criminal one, could now be treated as applicants seeking admission.

People can now be mandatorily detained and kept in a cell as long as possible to profit from your incarceration.

This ruling also mandates detention without a bond hearing, which is a violation of due process rights.

But here's the contradiction.

If this is about criminals, why are people being held in mandatory detention and mandatory indefinite detention for civil violations?

Why was the time to appeal a denied application shortened to 10 days?

Why must they pay 1,500 to file that appeal only to be at the mercy of the Federal Circuit Court judges who are encouraged to dismiss your case if they're not interested?

And the bond amounts, 10 to 15,000 just to get out of detention.

Another violation of due process.

People, not just citizens, people are protected under the law, including the right to request a bond.

But now they can't even get that either.

Meanwhile, our elected officials are doubling down, using policy to exploit and weaponize the law.

And while you do it, 18-month-old Amalia kidnapped and held at the Dilly facility where Liam Kaneho Ramos was detained, was denied her medicine.

She suffered diarrhea, vomiting, respiratory failure, pneumonia, COVID-19, RSV, and severe respiratory distress.

According to an article by Bailey Richards on People.com published on February 8th, 2026, she was taken to the facility's medical clinic multiple times, but was only given fever medication.

Core Civic profited from her illness until they thought she might die.

She fought for her life at a San Antonio hospital for 10 days while the Fifth Circuit appellate court passed legislation ensuring more babies like her are kidnapped.

And Amelia is only one of many.

There's another baby in that facility, a two-month-old, trapped in what Congressman Joaquin Castro called a trailer park prison.

It's a part of a broader systemic quilt of brutality on black and brown bodies, a quilt stitched from the trail of tears, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, the medical exploitation of black women in the name of research and progress and chain gangs.

San Antonio Council members, you like to pretend your hands are tied, but you set up this infrastructure.

You surrendered local policy to federal control.

You allowed the dissolution of local legitimacy, and now you're blaming the system.

And with the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court and Trump's DOJ, the worst is yet to come.

More predatory policy and surveillance and even less protection for black and brown people.

Our ancestors turned captivity into creation and the bones of the oppressed into the bones of the nation in one of the most powerful transmutations in existence.

From the soil they were forced to till to the still they were forced to forge.

Cotton they were forced to pick.

Languages they were forced to forget.

Children brutalized.

And we are repaid time and time again with spit in our eyes, a boot to the teeth, and the taste of our own blood in our mouth.

I'd like to use the rest of our group time to talk about the conditions you will subject our neighbors to at the facility on the east side if you allow this development to continue.

So I'm gonna use a video I watched by Joaquin Congressman Castro yesterday on Facebook, discussing what he witnessed himself at the Stipsy South Texas ICE Processing Center.

He met many mothers, fathers, and children.

Okay.

Blackstone, who owns Geo Group, Carlisle, who owns Core Civic, Colbert Kravis Roberts, KKR, who invests in Geo Group, Apollo who has a stake in private prisons and parsons a for-profit company.

The reality is the reality is that these are peonage camps.

People are made to cook, clean, and do essential labor to keep for-profit facilities running, to keep for-profit facilities running.

Sound familiar?

It should.

Why do you need such a deeply interconnected system for people you say you're going to the port?

Because it isn't about removal.

It's about profit control and surveillance and drones and flock cameras and ISIS fortify and clear view AI.

Today, like last week and the week before that, we are calling for direct action.

We are calling on communities, utility providers and legal advocates to refuse to support these facilities.

We are calling on people to stop giving ICE detention centers utilities.

We are calling on communities to block the expansion of these facilities by demanding utilities providers do not supply these services to these facilities and holding them accountable if they do, demanding that local governments do not issue permits for their expansion, using legal avenues to challenge their zoning, environmental and safety approvals, boycotting companies that profit from these facilities, supporting lawsuits that challenge the legality, the legality of these facilities, organizing community resistance through protests, legal aid, and public pressure, using public records to expose how these facilities violate health, safety, and environmental laws, supporting the campaign on FreedomUnited.com to end slavery and ice detention centers and collecting 5,000 signatures to pressure lawmakers.

They are less than 700 signatures away.

Because these are prisons, systems of profit, systems of control, and we will not allow them to exist in our city.

As W.E.B.

Du Bois said, either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.

As Tony Morrison said, if you are free, you need to free somebody else.

If you have some power, then it is your job to empower somebody else.

And as Malcolm X said, you cannot separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

The system is not broken.

It's working exactly as designed, and we must tear it down.

So I ask you, will you be a part of the movement or will you be a part of the machine?

Antonio Diaz.

Diana Flores Uriegas, Eli Gomez, please line up.

Mr.

Reese will be giving me his time as well.

Pedro Ruiz.

You have six minutes, sir.

Thank you.

I uh that SB4, we we we need it's I mean, you all need it, but we we as a community are asking that you do something against SB4.

Uh within it, it violates our constitutional rights.

It racially profiles the majority of San Antonio's community.

Something has to be done to address as before.

Whether the Republicans accept sanctuary cities in our state or not.

There must be sanctuary for our constitutional rights.

We cannot just roll over and allow the corrupt Trump federal government at this point to violate every single constitutional right that we have, that we have fought and struggled to earn because we didn't always have it.

Those of you that may be too young to uh remember civil rights or know that we as well, because of our skin color, our ethnicity, our roots to this land, have been a marginalized community, even though we are the majority of this community.

We will not endure this anymore.

We're supposed to be progressing, moving forward, not moving backwards.

These are concentration camps in Europe, millions died in concentration camps.

That's what we fought against.

My father fought in World War II to end this practice of enslavement in concentration camps, of genocidal practices that these governments practice.

Now we're gonna do it.

We're accepting this in private prisons, in federal prisons.

Donald Trump is using the federal government as an iron fist to quiet all dissension, to quiet all voices against his practices that are so corrupt and vile.

We must speak up against it.

But you, as our local representatives must come up with a remedy towards this.

You must legally.

Not alongside schools and churches and businesses that it will negatively impact.

So I am glad that we're you all are coming up with a resolution because that is at least what you are able to do under our city charter, that you must at least write something, propose something against this private federal prison that's coming to our city.

It would have been good if you would have had the powers to condemn that building, or somehow have the right to deny them the faculties that they need to run it, the permits.

But I know as a city you aren't a council, you aren't able to do this.

But we can file a lawsuit against SB4.

We have a lawyer, we have the funds to do it as a city, and as I think as many, as many elected officials, as many municipalities that rise up and file lawsuits against our own state for coming up with this evil legislation, simply just to deny people, sanctuary.

People that are here actually uh filing for an immigration status, trying to do it the legal way, can't do it because they're being arrested at immigration court.

How right is that and that is the thing to try to do the right thing.

Many, many great activists and speakers in the past have spoken about freedoms, have spoken about struggles, and have spoken about being silent as being complicit to evil.

So don't be silent.

Please don't be silent.

I know Mr.

White is silent, he's not even here today, and you don't even see him off the screen.

He decides when and who he listens to and who he shuts out.

And he's uh an elected official of District 10, and yet he decides who he wants to listen to in the community and who can just shut out.

That is the form of government this republicans in the state are doing.

I'm talking about Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton.

All these are they're they're they're tied to the hip to Donald Trump and they're evil as can be, and we need to oppose it.

We need to speak up against it.

And you're gonna see a lot of people get hurt here in San Antonio, protesting that facility, because it if Mr.

Pretty and Miss Good were murdered in Minneapolis, we will fight just as hard here.

So just imagine what's gonna happen to our community.

Diana, Diana Flores Luriegas.

Break it up down, break it all down, these walls.

Break it all down, break it up down, break it up down, these walls, these walls between us.

Break it up, these walls between us.

Break it all down these walls.

Break it up down.

Break it all down these walls.

These walls between us.

Good morning.

This song represents the people.

No recognition for the indigenous.

And I look at all of you.

Look at yourselves.

You look like me.

The only one that doesn't is probably the white person over here.

But we're all mixed, okay?

We all have to help each other.

We all got blood in us that pertains to all races.

You have to think about we don't want another warehouse of ice.

We got two already.

How much more trauma do we have to go through?

Yes, I'm shaking because I'm tired of all that's going on.

And our grandparents have been crying and crying and praying and everything, and nothing works.

And I don't want to be shut up.

Women's Day is coming up.

And I don't want to be.

What do we say when we come to a meeting or whatever?

We pledge to the legends to the flag.

Freedom for all.

Y'all are taking bribes and all this stuff underneath the tables.

Ma'am, you can tell you not off.

Separately, I understand there's an individual with disabilities that would like to speak, and I'll allow it.

If they want to make their way, we can add them to the end.

Eli Gomez, followed by Jonathan Melendez, followed by Pamela Osborne.

Okay.

Eli Gomez.

Eli Gomez.

Okay.

Jonathan Melendez.

Followed by Pamela Osborne and then Noelle Segapelli.

Please line up.

Good morning, Council.

My name is John Melendez, and I'm speaking in a personal capacity regarding agenda item number four.

I support the people of this community.

I support our local and federal law enforcement.

And because of that, I cannot support a measure that risks deepening political division, discriminating against local businesses who contract with the federal government, or pitting members of our community against one another.

Agenda item number four undermines federal immigration services while amplifying a narrative that could jeopardize public safety and potent and potentially place federal funding at risk.

Local government does not have the authority to police or impose mandates on federal institutions.

This principle is well established in the U.S.

Constitution and affirmed by the courts.

It is also important to remember that San Antonio is not a sanctuary city.

Engaging in actions or adopting policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement or could be perceived as limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement could jeopardize critical federal funding.

That funding supports infrastructure and essential services for our most vulnerable vulnerable residents.

Additionally, section one line item five references the development of training for city staff related to and I quote the prevention of harm caused by immigration enforcement, end quote.

As a taxpayer, I am concerned about allocating local dollars towards initiatives that may place federal funding at risk or politicize city staff roles.

City employees should remain focused on serving residents, not navigating politically charged mandates.

Let's protect our federal partnerships, let's protect our funding, and let's avoid policies that create division rather than unity.

Thank you for your time.

Pamela Osborne.

Okay.

Noelle Segapelli.

Noelle Segapelli.

Go ahead.

Followed by Debbie Strain.

Hello there.

My name is Noel Segapelli.

And before I get started, I would like to thank everyone for coming out here today to continue this conversation.

Although it is never easy, it's very much necessary.

As much as I would like to continue to talk about the similarities about Nazi Germany and what is happening here today, I would like to expand the spotlight on a woman named Emma Tenia Yuka, who at just 21 years old led the 1938 San Antonio Pecan Shellers Strike.

On January 31st, she led up to 12,000 pecan shellers in a walkout against wage reduction, and rightfully so, because all they wanted to do was feed their families.

Now Emma got nicknamed La Pasiniera, La Pasinaria, the Passion Flower due to her passionate, fiery and disruptive speaking style.

And as a fiery, passionate disruptive Latina myself, I like this woman.

This was a revolution led by women, started by one young woman.

Could you imagine what we could do in numbers, in solidarity, in union, no division?

If ice continues to be infiltrated into our community, you will lose the very essence of San Antonio.

There will no longer be the sweet aroma of panduce made with love coming out of the oven to be paired with your money morning cafe.

Hispanic culture is the heartbeat of San Antonio.

I mean, look at the street signs, the murals on the side of our buildings.

Our story is everywhere.

These are our teachers, our abolitas, families, store owners, vendors, musicians, artists, my high school art teacher, my friends, neighbors, and abolitas that pray over us in the supermarket just because they had the time that day.

My great aunt Guadalupe Maria Gutierrez, who was a flamenco dancer, my Aunt Jackie Ravera, and brothers and sisters.

I understand that we are in the Bible belt, so a lot of you uphold Christian value.

So let me say this: that these are people who have souls, a beating heart, blood that runs through their veins that should not be shed, aspirations and human rights like you and me.

They are not insects to be exterminated.

What a silly fight this is.

A silly division to be made out of this.

It only takes one person in power to start to dismantle an unethical regime.

Although throughout history, minorities and vulnerable people have had an extreme resilience, but it saddens me that we have to have an adapter die mentality.

That is not a free America.

What good is a melting pot if you're picking out the best ingredients?

We need more passion flowers.

You have the power to do the right thing.

And I'll leave you with this.

The only threat to America I see are the terrorists gunning down civilians and U.S.

civilians in the streets, being puppets for people who believe in dead people's beliefs.

My name is Noel Segapelli, and I thank you.

Debbie Strain.

So Debbie Strain.

No, okay.

Hilario Hernandez.

Sir, do you need a translator?

Yes, I am Hernandez.

Okay.

Deceivi took a soup free section.

I said took a sidewalk.

I found him and put me in the wheelchair.

I can't move.

I tell the tech coups.

I want to watch this TC to talk.

Nobody wanted about the bad accident.

Shoes.

And you are so bad.

No baggage.

To beg you up.

Everybody wants to be listened to.

They are listening to you.

TV.

And 35.

No one leaves.

Nobody wasn't listening.

So what I do.

What else do you tell me?

You are the time.

Tell us you want.

And they call me a whip back.

I'm asking how.

They all know the worry.

Based on what he was speaking about, it sounded like that was related to a sidewalk and infrastructure.

Um Terek, if you could just make a note of exactly what he's um what he's referencing or what the concern is, thank you.

Johnny Rivers followed by Nicholas Longoria, followed by Omar Garcia.

Good morning, Mayor, Council members.

First I'd like to draw attention to Councilmember White, who found this emotional plea amusing for some reason.

We got to see him on camera laughing.

It was disgusting.

Disgusting.

My name is Johnny Rivers, and I am here to speak about Texas Senate Bill Four and the expansion of detention infrastructure in our San Antonio.

We heard City Legal Council advise what they consider to be high risk and say we will not be able to limit immigration enforcement, and that you, the council needs to manage public expectation.

Respectfully, the public's expectation is not unlimited enforcement.

The public's expectation is safety, is liberty, is freedom as guaranteed by our constitution.

History teaches us what has happened when enforcement expands without guardrails.

In the 1930s, during the Mexican repatriation, hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican descent were detained and pressured or forced out of this country.

Many were United States citizens.

Their ethnicity, appearance, and last names were treated as suspicion.

citizens were again swept up in mass raids because they looked Mexican, often detained first and sorted out later.

These are documented chapters of American history.

They show that when detention expands rapidly, civil liberties contract.

Today, we face not only expanded enforcement under SB4, but the reality of prolonged and potential indefinite detention structures.

Even if individual detentions are technically limited in duration, the indefinite implementation of this enforcement model means generation after generation may grow up under these systems where detention becomes normalized in our communities.

How many generations are we prepared to subject to this style of civil rights erosion?

The United States is bound by the Convention Against Torture, which prohibits returning individuals to countries where they face torture.

Even if removal originates under state authority, the federal government remains responsible for those protections and the facilities operating within our city local leadership carry moral responsibility for oversight and transparency.

In detention facilities in or near San Antonio that house individuals arrested under SB4, we must ask.

What independent oversight ensures humane conditions and medical care?

What transparency will this council demand?

If we cannot limit enforcement, then we must strengthen oversight.

If we cannot change state law, that we must insist on constitutional compliance.

And finally, in American history, we have never had this level of Latino or Hispanic representation in leadership.

We have never had this many decision makers that look like us that share our lived experience.

This moment matters.

We did not organize and vote and fight for representation in order for you to settle for an action.

We want if we wanted silence, we would not have worked so hard to elect leaders that understand our communities.

I am proud to live in a city like this, and I hope that you are too.

Thank you.

Nicolas Langoria.

Nicholas Langoria, followed by Omar Garcia, and then Serena Moreno.

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you for allowing us to speak this morning.

For what the thousands of people have been doing the past couple months, uh, we demand that ICE out of San Antonio, not just their presence, but their construction and their harassment, their potential uh killing of our citizens.

Over 20 high school students have walked out across the city since all this started.

And unfortunately, as we're seeing, the TEA is affecting that.

Uh they're uh threatening children, and we um if that is how it's going to be started, I don't want um want to imagine what ICE would be like if they were in this city.

Uh, we've already seen them gassing, uh pepperballing, and brutalizing children in Minneapolis.

Uh, and I don't want to see that happen here, as I'm sure none of y'all do either.

Our and uh, sorry, our immigrant community is fearful, uh simply trying to live their lives.

We don't know if they will contract our sorry, we don't know yet if they will contract this concentration cramp to a private or uh private or profit or for-profit prison group, like Corsevik, but I think we know since Reagan, our government has always contracted out to profit uh for profit groups.

How dare they profit off of imprisonment of human beings?

I'm asking you again, city council, and I do thank you for this resolution, but I want to be clear, even if the exploration for what uh for how to fight back doesn't return the results we hope for, San Antonio San Antonians will still expect you to fight back, and when you speak on this concentration cramp, be thinking of your audience and your uh constituents.

The people who are already uh who are ready to join the struggle, sorry, the people who are ready to join the struggle, who are ready to be get politically active, but haven't yet, and speak hopefully speak confidently, because we do, because we should all know that progressive change doesn't happen because of a politician uh decides um a politician decides to end segregation because of a nice thought they had in their head.

Richard Nixon was a racist, but he was ultimately the one who oversaw the ending of legal segregation in this country only 60 years ago.

No Nixon was no Nixon was not uh didn't believe in what he what he ultimately did, uh, but he was forced to end segregation because of the millions of Americans across the country who demanding it.

If we had ignored, uh if he had ignored them, America as we know it would no longer exist because of the people.

So when you speak, will your words be motivating force to the people, or will your words uh disengage the people and lead them into apathy?

Whatever you do to fight for San Antonio and fight against modern day slavery, uh slave patrol, that is ice, because it is not about lack of documentation or crossing illegally.

This is about money.

The right for the already filthy rich to dominate and profit off of the working people of San Antonio.

Thank you.

Omar Garcia.

Serena Moreno.

Followed by Erica Alvarado and then Genia Black.

Hello.

Hello.

My name is Serena Moreno.

I am a concerned citizen, deeply concerned.

I look at my city council.

Most of us are women, most of you are women.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a public safety issue for women.

There are masked men.

I'm shaking because I'm absolutely terrified every time I leave my house.

And it's not anywhere near as intense that it is here as it is, not yet.

This is a public safety concern for each and every one of you sitting up here.

You all have, I'm sure, received very, very brutal, ugly, violent comments as you were running for these positions that you're in now.

I know you have, because I've read them.

Beautiful, powerful, educated.

Baby, they're coming for us first.

We're the mothers, the protectors.

They're coming for us first.

They're coming for our babies because they know that's how they grip us.

Right.

Help me.

Help yourselves.

Help all of us.

Anyone who's worried about not getting federal funding would sell us out for $20.

Help us.

I am the treasurer for my local elementary's PTA.

Monday morning, I got up to make sure that those second graders had that check in hand so that way they can go over to the duceum.

There are children in Minneapolis right now who have to cancel their failed trips because they're their educators are afraid that their babies are gonna get snatched while they go to the museum.

Help me.

Please.

Please.

I am you, you are me.

Help me.

Do not let them be here.

Do what you can.

I please.

Help me.

Erica Alvarado.

Followed by Ginia Black and then Lorda Zarete.

Hi, my name is Eric Alvarado.

I live and work in District 2.

I'm sitting here and listening to the legal department say that they need more time, something like 30 days to further evaluate or straight up advising against something as simple as a know you right seminar or a sign to hang in the window.

It's very disappointing.

The people who live in San Antonio deserve transparency, but more so we deserve action from the people sitting before us here today.

It's not about managing expectations of community.

Y'all see where we're standing on this issue.

It's about doing the right thing.

Thank you.

Ginia Black.

Genia Black, followed by Lorda Zareta, and then Brett Owl.

Thank you for uh addressing citizen concerns today.

Um I am here to urge you to exercise every authority to prevent the operation of the concentration camp coming to our city.

Um, first, I had some thoughts about what the city can do legally.

Please continue to require full environmental and traffic impact assessments before any operational permits are issued.

Even though buildings on federal property are exempt from state and local codes, they do have their own federal codes and standards, largely set out by the General Services Administration or GSA.

And I encourage you to delve deeply into those codes and standards.

Are they being followed?

Who can verify that?

Please examine these at a microscopic microscopic level and seek answers from them.

Each step takes time.

Infrastructure connections.

The local codes may still apply to infrastructure components that connect a federal building to municipal systems like water and electricity.

The city, I think, well, Portland is having success with change with charges of land use violations.

So that is a template we can follow.

Our city should require a comprehensive conditional use permit review.

The city has the authority to impose operational restrictions or deny the permit if the facility doesn't meet community standards.

Be extremely specific once it's in writing, it takes a long time to revoke if needed.

Also, we already know these facilities are overcrowded.

We must demand that they obey strict occupancy limits based on their own GSA codes.

The Supreme Court has recognized that municipalities retain police powers over federal facilities when it comes to health and safety regulations.

San Antonio needs to exercise.

Pause the time.

Please quiet on the dais, please.

Go ahead, thank you.

Needs to exercise those powers to the fullest.

Now, if federal authorities claim that this facility will house dangerous criminals, the worst of the worst, then that we must ask is this building going to be designed and equipped for high security detention to prevent escapes?

Most commercial warehouses lack security infrastructure to prevent escapes, and I'm asking you to find out what steps they're taking to convert the building.

What happens when a detainee victim gets out into our neighborhoods?

This kind of inquiry takes time, especially when you require all responses in writing.

Detention centers strain local emergency services, police, fire medical resources without compensating the city.

There's increased traffic, bad property values, people move away.

I think San Antonio should not be complicit in a system with such a triple troubling record.

I'd like the city to require transparent reporting, independent monitoring, and adherence to strict humanitarian standards as a condition for any local permits.

Can you issue a statement to utilities and businesses reminding them, reminding developers that after being used as a concentration camp, this location will never be used for business again.

They must be prepared to declare it a total loss and have their name forever tied to that legacy.

You can submit the rest of your comments for the record.

Thank you.

Lorda Czareta.

Followed by Brett Owell and then Karen Heiber.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to speak.

And thank you for the resolution.

I don't want to be here.

And now that I know that it's a resolution and we're practically helpless.

All I can do is speak out.

So that's what I'm doing.

Thank you.

Brett Owl, Karen Hyber, Jack Finger.

Good morning.

Um I live in District 9.

I feel that woman's pain.

I probably will cry.

I'm very emotional about this.

But I'm gonna get through it.

I am a Karen.

And I am here to use my Karen powers for good.

I guess you could say I'm here to speak to the metaphorical manager.

You should also know that I'm an introvert, and I am on the way-end side of the introvert scale.

So I would much rather be home with a cup of tea.

But for me to be here speaking to you this morning means something.

I cannot let this time subby without sounding an alarm.

I'm 61.

That means that the first half of my life is done.

And I am lucky if I have 10 to 30 years left.

When I was when I was old enough to read the diary of An Frank, I remember thinking to myself, what would I do if I had to go into hiding?

And being glad that I didn't even have to think of that as a reality.

As I grew into an adult, I can remember thinking, would I have hid or helped someone who is being persecuted by the Nazis?

Or what would I have done in Nazi Germany?

Would I have known something bad was happening in the places where the Jews were being sent?

Would I have spoken out?

It breaks my heart that I now have the opportunity to do so.

There were inconvenient truths and rumors in 1933 that people ignored, make most no mistake.

What is happening in what the government calls detention centers and I will call concentration camps are parallel.

Alia Rahman, an autistic woman in the U.S.

citizen, was dragged from her car while trying to go to a doctor's appointment for ongoing care for a traumatic brain injury.

In her testimony to Congress, she said personnel in the concentration camp called her a body.

And referred to others in the camp as bodies.

It is easy to treat others cruelly when you erase their humanity with inhumane labels.

According to an article in Texas Tribune, a pregnant unaccompanied minors are being sent to camps in San Benito, Texas.

That lacks appropriate medical care.

The Trump administration's own health and child welfare officers say that the facility and the region lack the specialized care the girls need.

These girls and babies are expendable.

An Irishman with a valid work permit has been held in ICE concentration camp for five months.

He is married to a U.S.

citizen.

That's here in Texas, where he's being held.

He's married to a U.S.

citizen and owns a plastering business in the Boston area.

He was arrested on September 9th in 2025 and has been in an IC concentration camp in Texas for nearly five months, despite having no criminal record, not even a parking ticket.

It is just a horrible, horrible, horrible place, he said of his detention camp.

I'm not in fear of the other inmates.

I'm afraid of the staff.

They're capable of anything.

Submit the rest of your comments for the record.

Thank you.

Jack Finger.

Followed by Kristen Paredes Tuttle.

Actually, was Brett all here?

Brett all.

Okay.

So then Jack Finger, Kristen Paredes, Tuttle, and then Cheryl Gonzalez.

Well, Madam Mayor, other members of our illustrious San Antonio City Council, for the record, my name is Jack M.

Finger.

You know, I've noticed that uh many of y'all have been uh complaining about having to deal with ice.

And I think it's time we really lightened up about this whole thing.

I think I should.

I suggest we hold a big party over here in this chamber, and I will bring ice.

Yeah, the uh you complain about uh uh you complain about uh Donald Trump and Greg Abbott and and Ice and comparing them to the the German Nazis.

Well, I think you've got something here, yeah.

I think uh I think you tell that evil, evil Donald Trump and Greg Abbott and Ice.

Yes, you tell them that uh you cannot take our murderers and rapists and child molesters.

We need their votes too much.

Yes.

Also, I think uh and if they just by chance, if they take away our millions of millions of dollars and grants because of that, you tell them we never needed your millions of dollars in the first place.

Did we?

Yes.

Yeah, let's see, what else we have here?

You know, I'm always impressed.

I'm always impressed with the you know those old Hollywood uh movies of that to portray the German Nazis as those uh with their their thick German accents and saying, show me your papers.

Yes, but uh I've also noticed that uh you uh well let's see.

I know what you're doing here today.

Yeah, so show that audiovisual man, put that up on the yellow part there, what's it say there?

Can you display that?

There we go.

Blow it up a little bit if you would.

Yes, vendor accountability and disclosure.

Evaluate mechanisms to require disclosure of vendor participation and detention on immigration and enforcement operations when contracting with the city, particularly with for services related to health care food service, concentration, security and facility maintenance.

Return the camera if you would.

Yeah.

Do you realize uh what you're saying here?

Show me your disclosures.

Yeah, and uh here, Mr.

Audio, you're mentioning put that up there if you would.

What is that one say?

The next part, part of your your backup documents here.

Yeah.

Non-contracting policies assess the city's the decline and the entering etc.

Thank you.

Okay, Kristen Paredes Tuttle.

Kristen Paredes Tuttle, followed by our final speaker, Cheryl Gonzalez.

Okay.

Um that was a hard act to follow, I guess.

Um I'm glad that um CD 10 is here, maybe paying attention.

I don't know who you're whispering to in that room, but it was really disgusting to see you um mocking an individual with disabilities.

I could see that I could see what you were saying.

I took a video.

Anyways, yeah, we all saw you.

Anyways, I don't really know why he gets to call in, but whatever, that's his one deal.

Um, what I'm here for is I am a speech language pathologist by trade.

Um licensed, I work with kids with disabilities.

I am the keeper of my brother who is an older autistic individual, and they have been detaining children from schools.

And I when I called them, I the day before, the day before Liam Ramos was taken.

I asked them, what are you gonna do when they're taking kids from my speech session and telling me you're never gonna see this kid again?

And there is no way that you can keep them and ICE accountable for not sexually abusing, raping children, which they do, by the way.

Not only them, but of course, other inmates.

But y'all are saying that this is like for safety or whatever.

There is no way that we can keep track of where these kids are going.

Also, ICE on the phone told me they are not taking kids from schools.

They said, I don't believe you.

So, what that tells me is ice detention facilities don't even know what they're doing.

They don't even know that this is happening.

Like they don't even know like what the rules are, other than telling me I can't keep up with the kids.

Um, you know, I haven't personally had this happen yet, but I work in home health.

I work on the side of town where this building is being erected for uh imprisonment of families, and I mean, what's gonna happen when they come in to a house that I'm working with a kid with disabilities with and take them?

Are they going to make sure that they get their care?

Are they gonna make sure that their trach is cleaned out?

Are they gonna make sure that they don't aspirate and die?

Probably not.

There's I I really don't see any way for us as a public to double check on kids not being raped and sexually assaulted and taken advantage of.

And women and children, everybody in that ice detention center, okay.

But we do have studies from Harvard, and I mean, there's so many papers here that have evidence that ice detention centers are causing irreparable brain damage to children.

That is a fact.

Having that in the city next to kids going to school.

No, no, get creative.

I demand you get creative.

That's it.

Cheryl Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor Ortiz.

Can you hear me?

Uh, first of all, thank you, Mayor Orties, for what you're doing and standing up.

I've heard a good positive things.

And those that are in city council that are standing up and fighting back, thank you.

Thank you, Jalen, for walking out just recently, right now.

Why while that other person was speaking?

I'm upset.

I'm angry.

I'm trying to control my feelings.

I know a lot of us are feeling this way, because we're coming up with ideas of how to handle this, right?

How to handle already them coming to our city.

Because I already went out there to that building.

And when I was out there, I already seen two people in there.

I don't know what they were doing.

I don't know if they were expecting it, what they were doing, but they're out there.

This not this is not a personal attack on the white people, right?

But those are those that are in agreement with them, like Mr.

White that's smiling over there.

Every time he is interviewed and asked about ice, he tends to smile.

Even like the lady that was sitting next to me and didn't kind of rudely ask me to silence my phone, another white lady.

And when I said, Well, are you asking me?

Are you telling me?

She said, Well, I didn't want to grab your phone out of your hand.

The audacity, right?

To think that you can grab the phone out of my hand, my personal stuff, my personal space.

What is wrong with you?

When people like this think that they have the audacity and the power over us.

And this is a person that's supposed to be a lawyer for the city, and we're supposed to trust them.

I don't think so.

You said that we're supposed to put the trust in SAPD when we know there's numerous cover-ups of what they've done in the past and what they continue to do.

When I went to Dilli, and no one talked about this, when we were gassed, afterwards, we were followed by Dilly police, Frio County police, and state troopers.

Some of us were followed all the way back to San Antonio.

It's an hour drive from Dilli.

And we're supposed to trust and believe that we're gonna be okay.

And those that are not gonna fight by our side, we will continue to get louder and louder and louder.

And you've seen it in other states, you see it in other cities, what they're going through.

People are dying.

That's what you want for San Antonio.

Those who are smiling, Mr.

White, is that what you want for San Antonio?

You want your people to die?

Well, let me give you some words of wisdom.

Like in the movie, Hunger Games.

If you bur if we burn, you're gonna burn with us.

That was the final speaker.

May I have a motion to approve item four so we may begin council discussion?

So moved.

Second.

We'll now move on to council discussion.

Okay.

Mayor, there was one clarification that uh the Liz weren't there.

Please.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Just um, with regard to putting a little more um explanation behind the um the rationale and the legal risk that's described in item 10.

And this is regard to the know your rights and um in response to the reference to the APD model that exists.

Um, just to refresh.

We were the subject of uh enforcement action by the Texas Attorney General under 2017 SB4, um, that took to task um not only practices but also general manual language that we had in our SAPD manual, and as a result of our settlement with um on that suit after years of litigation and the second suit that sought the removal of our police chief, um that uniquely situates us um from Austin PD in terms of our general manual.

So I just wanted to kind of clarify a little bit more with regard to that particular point and happy to discuss one-on-one for any sort of further specificity.

So thank you.

Well, Liz, I think actually, um maybe additional clarification based on your clarification.

Um, does the uh previous legal action against the city um does that open us up to additional legal scrutiny in and of itself?

Is that it's a result of what it sounds like.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

As a result of our settlement, yes.

Okay.

And we can we could talk further one on one with specificity, mayor, um, just to sort of fine-tune um all of what is required under the settlement.

Okay, well, because I think it's gonna actually color um some of the clarification that may be needed here.

Um this is only with regard to um SAPD's general manual.

Okay.

That's a really important part of this entire thing.

Um so I'm gonna take us into executive session to talk about that one item because I know there's a lot of interest in that one in particular on the dais and in the public.

So I'm gonna take us into executive session.

Thank you, Mayor.

I asked my colleagues to remain seated while I read this.

The time is now 1111 on Thursday, February 12th, 2026.

The City Council of the City of San Antonio will now meet in executive session to consult with the city attorney's office pursuant to chapter 551 of the Texas government code and to deliberate or discuss the following items.

Economic development negotiations pursuant to Section 551.087, the purchase exchange lease or value of real property pursuant to Section 551.072, and legal issues related to litigation involving the city, emergency preparedness, and collective bargaining, all pursuant to section 551.071.

The time is now 1236 p.m.

on Thursday, February 12th, 2026 in the San Antonio City Council will now reconvene an open session.

No official action was taken in executive session.

Thank you again to the uh to the staff for the presentation and and clarification as we're all trying to do the exact same thing, uh, which is provide answers to the community, certainly manage expectations and only take those steps that would actually have a material impact in our community, as well as ensure that we're being as judicious as we can be with our resources, um, as there may be some actions that are potentially better uh executed by third parties, uh, not necessarily the city.

I'm gonna um call on my colleagues uh for those that have signed up to speak.

Um you heard uh in particular the uh the recommendation about um when the next update may be really be helpful to hear from my colleagues um their recommendation on on how frequent we update um our community, our neighbors on the actions that we are taking, taking um with respect to the items um identified in the resolution.

Okay, councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um earlier this week I was at Copernicus Community Center for a community meeting.

Uh it was the final meeting and presentation of a gorgeous master plan uh for the park to include improved fields, walking trails, an atorium, an amphitheater, a community garden, improvements to uh Copernicus Community Center itself, a brand new senior center, and a new affordable housing complex for seniors.

Uh and that was you know, so much fun and play uh is gonna happen there.

And I walked outside at the end of the meeting and I looked and there were kids playing on the football field, and just beyond that, you could see uh the ice detention center where children, seniors, families, everyday people will experience trauma.

And every day when I'm driving home from uh picking my daughter up from daycare, I see this massive warehouse where fathers are going to be separated from their daughters, and I get the deepest most intense knot in my stomach.

And so I join all of those who came out here today and in their fear and disgust and anger.

Uh, and I want to start off by saying thank you to every person who uh came out to speak today, uh, every person watching this and paying attention to what's going on locally, uh, and every person who has taken action in response to the very clear atrocities we are seeing uh seeing taking place at the hands of ICE.

A few weeks ago I worked with the San Antonio chapter of DSA to organize an email and phone call campaign urging the owners of Oakman not to sell the property to ICE.

Over 13,000 calls and emails were made, and it demonstrated two things to me.

Uh one is that we have way too many of these warehouses, and I think any developer looking to build a similar warehouse in my district is gonna have to wait until I'm gone uh before coming to the district two office for a zoning request or any sort of authorization.

Lay that there.

To even when uh the government acts against your best interests, uh, even when business leaders act against your best interests, we have the real numbers.

Sheer numbers and powers don't always win, but people power is everlasting, and we as a community have it.

So I want to say again, thank you to everyone who helped take that action.

I continue to urge you to call your Congress members and senators to take the action you want that you want to see them take, including with their vote on DHS funding that continues to allow ICE to operate with impunity.

City Council is very low-hanging fruit if we're being honest, so please use the power that y'all have and cut the head off the snake in a metaphorical sense.

I do not uh advocate that you physically harm anyone.

Uh I'll also say thank you to my colleagues, council members Mungia, Castillo, and Galvan for signing on to the memo.

I know there are a few others who would have signed on, but we didn't want to violate the Texas Open Meetings Act, so we kept it small.

Uh the purpose of this memo was to ensure that we're really turning turning over every possible stone and looking at every possible action that we can take as a city, as well as to infin inventory those things that we're already exploring and actively working to implement.

Especially in light of the proposed ICE detention facility in my district and the repeat incidents of human rights violations, abductions, disappearances, abuses, and medical neglect taking place under the federal government's watch.

We also filed it to ensure that we are not complicit in any harm against our community and that any cooperation be limited strictly to what is legally required and also limited by our own lack of resources, of which there is apparently a plethora.

If we truly have a shortage of first responders, we have a responsibility to ensure that they are solving the murders, domestic violence, sexual assault, and violent crimes that will go unresolved if they're not on if the police officers are not on the field doing the job that they applied for, trained far longer than an ICE agent for, and took an oath to do.

If we have a shortage of police officers and equipment, we can't afford to have 50 officers posted up playing perimeter control for ICE just because ICE agents got their badges by stepping up and down for five minutes and doing 15 push-ups.

We've documented these shortages in our in our department, and so if we can't and don't show up for ICE, we have what we need, in my opinion, to prove that we couldn't reasonably show up.

So beyond that, I'd like to provide some guidance to staff.

Um is regarding some of the grants that you had mentioned.

We should not be applying for or seeking out grants that are gonna require us to be complicit and cooperate beyond what is mandated of us by state law.

Um you asked specifically about 18, 19, 24, and 25.

Uh for 18, the signage I think should clearly state what business owners and guests and visitors, what their rights are on the premises.

Tell us and beyond that, I think tell us what's legal, what could we legally do with the signage, and then we can narrow it from there as a body, but I'd like to know what all of our options are as far as signage goes.

Uh for item 19, city staff should be trained not just on what it means to comply when ICE enters a city facility, but how to ensure everyone's rights are adhered to and protected.

For item 24, as I mentioned, we have limited resources and we're required to comply within reason with ICE and to provide resources within reason.

So I would ask, you know, how that we identify how many officers we need at any given time to accomplish our goals, responding to calls, responding to crimes, all of the all of that, and then how many are available and how many are just sitting around waiting for ICE to call.

And then maybe that's the number that we have uh that we have available at any given time.

And we can use that as our threshold.

Uh item 25, as far as holding federal law enforcement officers accountable, I would say look under every rock, look at every statute.

Our duty is to protect the safety and welfare of our constituents, and when that is violated, especially when their constitutional rights are violated, I think we need to take every step possible to provide them justice.

And I am feeling really litigious right now, and I need staff to feel the same.

Um we did here today, I see if it thank y'all for being here still.

I know it's been a minute.

Um, what we heard today that are a few things that are ongoing.

We're contracting with another organization who is providing no-year rights training in our community.

We're actively training public-facing city employees on what to do in the event that ICE enters a city facility, and we're actively providing legal pathways, uh pathway referrals for those with legal status.

You've also heard that we funded a study on the contribution of migrants in our city that we can use to support and advance legislation that protects migrants of uh of our city.

We're gonna post data on ICE activity, but that's gonna be limited by what the federal government requires ICE to share.

Again, this is a very shady operation that is being run, and they're not providing information uh publicly, let alone to us.

Um, but we're gonna share what we can.

And then we're gonna log, uh we can log alleged right uh civil rights violations, and those could be used in an advocacy efforts, I would say we do that.

Uh but we also don't want to lull people into a false sense of security or belief that we can do much more with that.

We if we post what an alleged civil rights civil rights violation looked like or that it occurred, uh I don't know that we can take much more beyond that.

We did see a list of other action staff is going to evaluate some of those are going to be higher risk than others, but my direction uh and request of staff is that we get as close to each of these requests as legally possible.

I'd say we find that line and we push right on it.

Um I'd also ask you to provide uh in in response to the mayor's question.

I'd ask that you respond that you provide updates uh with your city manager's report, and if we can get those moved to the beginning of the meeting, that would be excellent.

Um I do have a few questions for Andy.

Mr.

City Attorney, uh one of the challenges we've had is that we did not know that the sale of Oakmont was happening until it was reported in the news.

Why didn't the federal government or Oakmont inform us of the sale?

Uh councilman, because they're they're not legally required to uh advise us, there's a number of real estate transactions that uh occur throughout the city.

Um but unless there's a a permit required or or uh something like that where you do need some local approval, um there was no obligation to notify us of that.

Are there any instances like that that I guess is there an instance in which the federal government would have to notify us of a purchase of property like this not that comes to mind, but we can certainly uh we'll we'll we'll follow up with that uh councilman because I don't want to give an absolute answer because there might be some situations where they might, but uh certainly in this one they had no obligation.

No, I appreciate that.

Um I've also asked of y'all, I know a few of us had asked this question, but can we just not provide utilities?

Um and we did hear that a few times today.

What is our obligation or limitation there and according to who?

Thank you, uh Councilman, for that question.

Uh yes, under the state statutes by which uh both SAS and CPS operate, uh they're given areas of operation in which they are legally required to provide uh service to whoever asks for it.

Do we know what happens if they violate that state statute?

Oh, that their uh their ability to operate may be called into question, yes, CPS and SAS.

Gotcha.

Uh I am striking one question you answered in executive session.

Uh last question is can we conduct an assessment?

And this maybe isn't a question for you, but for Eric, I would ask that we maybe add this.

Uh could we conduct an assessment of the impact the day the detention center will have on fire prevention, 911 calls for service, emergency medical response, utilities, trash and traffic and basically any service that we provide.

Uh we can, councilman, but I would I would uh expect that um some of those services may be privately procured by the by the uh federal government, but we can we can certainly look at which services trash.

Okay.

Yeah.

Then the rest.

Okay.

Perfect.

Again, thank you all so much for being here.

Thank you to I know a lot of y'all had to leave, so thank y'all for uh making time uh and keep up with the hard work.

Thank you.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank my council colleagues in District 2, 4, 5, and 6 for filing the CCR and allowing us to have a public conversation on how federal actions intersect with our local authority, our resources, and the safety and welfare of our residents.

Protecting San Antonio means protecting their safety, their civil rights, their neighborhoods, and their tax dollars.

Today, we look what authority we possess, how we exercise that authority thoughtfully and lawfully.

So I want to stress that while we understand immigration enforcement is and remains a federal function, we recognize at the same time municipal municipalities are not without responsibility when federal actions intersect with local land use, public safety, procurement practices, environmental compliance, and the expenditure of taxpayer resources.

We have both the authority and the obligation to examine those intersections carefully.

So I have a series of questions and requests, and um Eric, I don't know if you want to answer them or Liz.

Um are we currently coordinating with other Texas cities that are uh have a phys a facility a detention facility coming or currently are operating a facility or a detention center?

And this could be a border town, we know DLE.

So are we in coordination with them as of right now?

We big picture.

We are talking with all cities, right?

In terms of the as things evolve, um specific to detention centers, we know and have are keeping up with, although it's not in the city of El Paso, we know it's close by and following what that the smaller city that is being directly impacted with the proposed center there.

So we continue to talk to our peer cities.

And uh are we in coordination, or is there anywhere that we are talking with the cities in with Minnesota in particular, Minneapolis, where some of these residents may be taken from?

No.

Okay, and then specifically as we look at the conversation of of border patrol and um these government employees coming into our city, uh, specifically Chicago, LA, Portland, uh, I really would like to see kind of what they're doing and the violations of constitutional rights that they they have seen and they're pursuing in their in their cities regarding some of these um these raids and and uh taking residents from their homes or the dissent to detention centers because I believe as the speakers spoke very on varied stories, is there is profiling going on uh specifically in specific communities, and that they are taking U.S.

citizens, and we need to address that here.

Um I think the other question I have is as we as we gather information is um about the other detention centers um in Texas that are currently operating, and even the detention centers in Florida is how many of them are are coming from different locations?

Uh if this is if it truly is what the um what the administration wants, I don't understand why they wouldn't house them in that state and take care of those rights there.

So I think there's a lot of questions we need to ask as they remove, and we we saw that with Liam as they brought him and his father here.

The other aspect is the children aspect that I think we need to look into in terms of how many children are are located in these are being relocated to these detention centers without the necessary needs.

And I want to thank thank you, Liz.

That's that's it for that.

Um I want to thank the speakers for coming.

Um our obligation is to proceed carefully constitutionally and compassionately, ensuring that whatever path forward we take is clear, legally sound, and grounded in the best interest of the people of this city.

I want to thank in particular of the speakers, I want to thank Ronald and his um reference to the Orwellian um environment we're in right now.

I believe it was um Karen who spoke about what we do that we have to make these decisions now, and as someone in her 50s, I never thought I'd have to have a plan on how to make these decisions and how we move forward, but here we are, and Antonio, because it is not lost on me that they would choose a facility in San Antonio in the heart of San Antonio on the east side, so close to District 3 and and in the community that they did.

So I think our residents deserve clarity.

I do I am I am open to receiving updates as city staff feels is necessary, and if it's done through city manager reports, but as soon as we have any substantial data or anything that we can actually take action on as we move forward, I think it needs to be brought to, and I'm just gonna it needs to be brought to the council members that this impacts directly, and so it should be brought before a session, a B session before we take it to the public to Councilman McKee Rodriguez because this sits in his district.

So I'm all for getting all the council members and and the council and the mayor updated, but this is this is his community that's feeling this.

Um I think we have opportunities here with the work that we're doing, but I think this is going to be a legal battle.

And I think currently when we have when we have a current administration that we need to constantly question are they respecting our constitutional rights?

Are constitutional rights being threatened?

Are women being threatened because of the exposure of the um Epstein files?

We do need to ask constant questions.

So uh those speakers and those uh watching can be assured I will continue to ask questions.

And um my faith is in you to get out there and talk to your um all levels of government and making sure that they are being held accountable also for their actions as we move forward.

Thank you.

Councilmember Galvan Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to uh Liz for the presentation.

Uh thank you to my council colleagues who uh co-authored this this memo to push it forward and bring a resolution here today.

Um I I think it's just very clear, right?

We need to make sure that at the city level we're doing everything we can to protect all of our residents here um of their constitutional rights, ensuring that our folks um as taken care of as they can be under this frankly, this police state that we're seeing at the federal level that's being not only uh supported but shepherded by um by our state level level government.

Um I want to thank all the speakers uh who are here today and here every single time.

We discussed this uh as well as the folks in district six who have reached out to my office since I got elected, um, asking questions about what's the next step that we can do, what are the things that the city can do, how can our local government be the one to kind of push uh where we can and protect our residents here.

Um, especially given the fact that so many of our families um are mixed status families, and so we know this impacts us in a more unique way.

I think about two things a couple things actually.

Uh I think about um a resident uh that I met while I was knocking doors uh last spring, and she told me, you know, I'm seeing all this stuff uh uh related to ice, related to immigration, and it concerns me even if it doesn't affect my family directly.

And why?

Because we've seen this before.

We know it's not gonna just stay to one subsect of uh a population, nor should it have ever been targeted in that way.

Um because what happens is when you give that power, when you enable that power uh to a state, not the state, a state, uh that power can be builded on anybody.

And I'm always surprised by um that's what she mentioned to me, but I'm always surprised by the folks uh who believe in this idea of don't tread on me, don't let this big government come at us, um, protect my constitutional rights, are never pushing back on this particular moment.

And when I see this happening to undocumented folks, folks with work organization forms, folks with legal pathways to be here, people who are born native citizens.

Um, and we've seen this before, and suddenly it's not the issue, it it just shocks me, I guess.

And so I respect folks who have a different opinion in their opinion, uh, but I'm always intrigued, I guess, at that uh here's the moment, right?

Here's the moment when uh the state will act and send people down from the national government uh to arrest people on the streets to put them into where literal warehouses um that are full that we're already seeing here locally full of measles uh or other kinds of health disparities or health uh health dangers.

And so it just is always shocking to me.

So whatever we can do, I think is has to be figured out, has to be tried, has to be tested, has to be evaluated, has to be understood and communicated to the public to the best that we can.

Um we know, I know there are a bunch of legal limitations here, uh given the state and of course federal given our federalist form of government, right?

Um a couple quick, I guess things I wanted to note uh or answer to to city staff about some of the feedback required uh on the I think it was uh number 18 within the presentation, um, but within signage, I think it'd be worthwhile to see uh similar to the kind of community resources we have with the immigrant affairs office um website or just generally the resource provided through that, uh if we can do the same uh for businesses and residents who are interested in that kind of understanding of what the role what their rights are within a private space.

Um for city staff training with number 19.

I feel comfortable with that one continuing on, and you know, any updates that we need to know, that'd be great.

City use of resources.

I think Calcair McKee Rodriguez pointed to this already, kind of asking about what do we anticipate to be utilized at this facility uh coming on the east side.

Uh I heard solid waste, of course, is one to understand that kind of cost, as well as the emergency resources as well, just understanding those costs will be important too.

Attorney valuations I uh I think are already ongoing, obviously, so I appreciate that one.

Um the federal law accountability for number 26.

Uh I think is just understanding what our city staff can do and what our community can do when we see any kind of violations of constitutional rights, whether it is due process in particular, um, what those next steps are for reporting, for acting upon it, what those things are.

Um and any updates, of course, I think should come uh to council when it seems to be the best time for particular actions, especially.

Uh, but I would love to see it also within managers reports uh during our council A sessions if there's anything big to bring up.

Um let me see what we also got here.

One of the things I wanted to note too, I don't know exactly what item it was.

I just had it at some point.

But it was a item within the presentation about uh kind of log reporting.

Um I think I mentioned it last time we had the conversation about seeing if we can do it again with the Office of Immigration Affairs or Immigrant Affairs, logging any kind of cost such violations residents are seeing that community reporting, um, whether or not it can go somewhere from there.

I think it's always worthwhile to have our public resources still kind of try to support residents and say, here's the right pathway to go, right?

Whether it's the uh I forgot the right term for it, inspector general's office, uh the federal level, state level, um, and or here's like the legal resources that we also provide with tenant rights uh that we know we can't fully enforce here at the state level due to preemption at the state.

We still offer those resources for legal support to say on your own.

This is what you can utilize.

Um we are we got the information, we'll see.

We'll keep it handy and if ever comes up and is ever needed.

Otherwise, this is your next step if you would like to take that.

That's what I would like to see with that.

Um of the questions around the the warehouse on the east side, I think Councilman has asked the question about the kind of process, and so I appreciate that uh being discussed openly.

Um something I wanted to ask about, given the fact it's a federal building or a federal agency that's purchasing this property.

Um other federal federal buildings in our city, including the federal building, but also federal courthouse, any social security administration offices.

Do they have to go through any kind of permitting or zoning or certificates of certificates of occupancy?

Uh councilman, no, they don't.

Okay.

That's a no.

I just wanted to make that clear, right?

That we have other cases here that have done that or that have gone through that process already, and there isn't necessarily that one.

Um that's helpful.

Do we I mean do we have information?

Have we been communicated to at all uh from the folks purchasing from uh the federal government at all who's gonna operate this building?

No, we haven't uh councilman, but uh, I mean, given uh the the input we have both from council um and the community, we certainly are gonna ask.

Again, they the extent of what they have a legal obligation to provide answers, but we certainly are gonna ask.

Right.

Um would anything of this change when would any of these uh permitting rules or certificates of occupancy change uh if it was uh a contractor that's operating it?

They don't own it, but they're operating it.

The answer is yes, and to the extent that that'll differ.

That's that's the the things we're gonna look at over the next the time frames.

Got it.

Thank you.

I think those are all my questions at this moment.

Um what I want to just get end off with is the same thing that I think a lot of us are saying, but tending I said last time too.

This the only thing this waste is gonna change, right?

If we're want to see this alter is through people power, frankly.

Um, whether it's action or whether it's uh elections, whether it's getting involved in other ways, that's always the way that's gonna take place.

Uh this is how it happened already, right?

This didn't come out of nowhere.

It came through civic engagement that helped certain individuals get elected to office, uh, who not only create but defend and enable uh these actions take place, and so it has to continue in the alternative direction.

Um, if you believe in that, and I do.

Um, and so you know, I think it's always important that we stay organized, uh, that we continue to work together and finding ways uh to push back and to change the direction that uh our state and country are in at the moment uh through the processes that we have.

Otherwise, we are asking to change something from within uh that is subject to such legal um and the literal system itself's processes.

So I'll leave that where it is.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Councilmember Alderata Gavito.

Thank you, Mayor.

It's clear uh that San Antonio is hurting, and it's clear that uh a majority of us are mad, um, and a majority of us are especially mad at the detention center going in on the east side, which belongs to all of our city residents one and are demanding action.

Thank you for those of you all who are here today.

Thank you to those who have sent texts and emails.

Uh your voice is being heard.

You know, San Antonio has one of the largest Latino populations in the country, so the threat of ICE in our community is a very, very real threat um to women and children and families.

We all saw how quickly Liam Ramos's condition quickly deteriorate deteriorated the two weeks that he was in Dili.

So I do want to thank um Congressman Joaquin Castro for his efforts to reconnect Liam with his family.

And I know many of my colleagues and I stood in solidarity with him.

But you know, I also ask myself how many other kids are there like Liam, and they need our help and they need us to rally and they need us to continue fighting so that they can also be reconnected with their families.

So and you know, we need to do whatever we can to make sure San Antonio residents and and you know all of us are feeling safe and continue to feel safe.

I do want to thank Councilman McKee Rodriguez, Councilman Mungia, Councilman uh Terry Castillo, and Councilman Rick Alvan for bringing the resolution and for pushing for action.

I know that we had that special session.

There was a there was a lot of talk.

We heard a lot of feedback, but you know it's very clear that action is needed.

Um, you know, I know that we've all contributed different ideas, and so thank you for for pushing that for pushing for action.

I'm I'm in full support of y'all's resolution and moving it forward.

And um, in in terms of the updates, I'm I'm in favor for the city manager updates to let us know on um the progress that we can take on some of these actions and and let us know how it's all unfolding.

So those are all my comments.

Thank you.

Councilmember Mungia.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh yeah, what's happening in this community and across the country is just a real travesty.

And I certainly appreciate all the folks have been coming to council for weeks to provide uh their thoughts and their feelings of representing other people who can't be here for themselves to speak.

And so I do thank Councilman McKee Rodriguez for his leadership.

Uh you've been out there and talking to residents and saying a lot of things uh publicly to let folks know what's happening.

And I was happy to sign on to this because I I think we should have been in this position um, you know, within a week after our last special meeting that we had about this because the outpouring was real uh and the dangers across the country that we're seeing are also extremely real uh and people are very fearful.

So I signed it, but again, we should have been here uh a lot sooner with these types of asks and trying to get something out for the public.

If we can go to um slide eight, please.

And I'm looking at number 18 here.

Uh, you know, Councilman Galvan said this right.

It's it's the due process that people need to be aware of that is their rights.

That whether you like it or not, it does apply to folks who are undocumented in the United States.

Uh and so whether if we can't do that, we need to partner with somebody who reiterates the rights that people have in this country, whether you're documented or not, uh, you do have the right to remain silent, the Sixth Amendment.

There are extremely high profile people go to Congress, and that's all they say Sixth Amendment.

And so we want to make sure the people here know that that is also their right.

It's not a right of privilege, it's it's everybody's right in this country.

So we need to make sure that we do that and follow that.

If we can go to um slide six, please.

I'll just say I understand um the legal risk being high, and there are some certainly some nuances that make that risk uh high.

Um, but what I would say is we we have to do our best to push against that and see what we can do within our rights.

Um the risk is high that if this facility opens, there could be another death in our community at the hands of the federal authority.

There could be, because of people, it's already happened here, forcing their way into people's homes, another situation that uh Brianna Taylor faced several years ago.

That could happen here, the more this gets highlighted and the more activity there is.

We will have less police on our streets responding to calls, the more they ask SAPD to help them enforce their own laws and policies.

So that is a real effect that will happen in our community.

Uh and we can kind of shut our eyes and pretend that that's that's not gonna happen, but that is a reality that will happen.

And so we need to know that.

These updates, you know, should not take 30 days to get done.

I think we can certainly get updates a lot quicker.

There are some things that are well well within our purview uh to do now, right?

So all the ICE activities that have been requested of us should be online already.

That is easy to do.

We're not relying on anybody else for that information.

That's information we have available right now.

It should be online right now.

So I look forward to seeing the updates that the city manager will provide um on a regular basis in a city manager's report.

But I hope that by the next time we have that report, there are some actions already being done and produced for that.

And the uh every update that the city manager gives in the report should also be somewhere online.

It shouldn't take somebody watching this meeting to figure out what's happening.

People should be able to read it at any time, of course, bilingual uh when they need to.

So those are my comments and feedback, and I thank the council for their support on this.

Thank you.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you to everybody that came out today and over the last few weeks, especially those who came out for the first time.

Um so I appreciate the courage that you took to um have your voice heard.

Uh District A is perhaps the most ethnically diverse popul has the most ethnically diverse population in the city.

Um it's the area of town where people from all over the world seek refuge, um, and that first taste of the American dream.

Um unfortunately, that peace and dream are being shaken by the rhetoric and actions of this federal administration.

Um given the measles outbreak in Dilli, has Metro Health been consulted on any public health oversight or emergency preparedness as it relates to to Dilly?

No, uh uh or just in general, if there's a local facility.

Yes.

No, ma'am, they haven't.

Would they be called upon at some point?

Um they would rely upon the state.

Uh but uh I could follow up.

Okay.

And what role will our, if any, will our local law enforcement play regarding the facility itself.

We're not aware of any uh request for assistance or or any anything of that matter.

Um if we do become aware of that, then um we'll certainly make that part of the future updates.

Okay, thank you.

Um well I want to thank uh my colleagues for uh submitting this memo.

Um I am supportive of this resolution.

I don't think it should be lost on any of us given the discussion we had yesterday at B session regarding a diversion program where we are attempting to rehabilitate people and keep them out of jail um and trying to scrape together really any funds possible while the federal government is shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars for uh something that's really unnecessary.

So again, I'm supporting this resolution um and look forward to hearing from more colleagues.

Thank you.

Um councilmember, can I ask for your um your feedback on the frequency of the update?

Sure.

Um and the city manager's report um is fine.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Liz, for the presentation.

Uh, wanted to thank the members of the public who have continued to come out to our special sessions, our public comment conversations, and of course those who have taken it to the streets to continue to mobilize and advocate on behalf of their neighbors.

Um, as folks have mentioned in their comment and on the dais, this is how we initiate change uh across this country and across this globe.

It's by holding those in leadership accountable in terms of what you expect from your local, federal, state government, so on and so forth.

So just thank you all for continuing to be local and advocating on behalf of your neighbors.

Um I'm uh wanted to thank uh my colleagues and councilmember McKee Rodriguez for taking the lead with the resolution.

Uh and I'm pleased to serve on a council where the majority are in support of uh not just this resolution, but ensuring that we continue to advocate and provide support to our neighbors.

Um let me be clear, and this is evident in in in public polling, is the federal law enforcement's practices for immigration are becoming highly unpopular because what we're seeing practice and take place all across this country is the continued shipping away at our constitutional rights, whether it's the right to protest, the right to bear arms, uh and and we know that this is something that we should continue to support our constituency to ensure that we're not uh seeing any constitutional violations in our community.

So I'm grateful for uh councilwoman Adareta Gavito and ensuring that we track any constitutional violations that we're hearing in our communities.

Uh, I understand that you know there's not going to be uh any uh action taken further, but documenting those concerns will be vital in the case and instance that we do have a reckoning with some of these unconstitutional inhumane practices that are occurring across this country, uh and that data matters.

Um, in terms of what we're seeing in the discussion with item uh 18, uh I would be supportive of working with uh any third party that is currently doing know your rights uh information uh out in our community.

Uh and again, pleased to see that staff has been um updated in terms of how to to navigate any of these instances in a public facility.

Uh I I did have a couple of questions regarding the facility, and many of them have been somewhat alluded to.

Uh, but in terms of the permitting and or inspection process, uh given that this facility is intended to store products and not people, do we anticipate any inspections taking place to uh see if there's any public health issues or uh any instances in which it's at capacity given there's like two restrooms and we have concerns about bodily fluids.

Setamida is deputy director of development services.

Unfortunately, none of our regulations would apply to this federal property.

Yeah, and that's concerning.

I appreciate thinking for that, Melissa.

Um I I think um Councilman Ibalis, uh Mesa Gonzalez rather uh alluded to, right?

I think there's going to be concern with the public health component to this.

We have seen measle outbreaks.

This is a facility um that I'm assuming does not have adequate restrooms to sustain the amount of individuals we've seen at other facilities across this country.

Uh and we need to ensure that we're keeping uh to our city charter and protecting the public health of San Antonio uh residents.

Uh lastly, I just uh you know wanted to go back to what we're hearing in community and what we're seeing on the news.

Uh it was recently reported that there was a federal agency that enter entered the home of a San Antonio resident without a warrant.

Uh can you share, Andy, what's the extent of any information that we may have on that incident?

Uh we're not aware of that incident, uh, councilwoman.

We can and see what information we can we can get on that, but uh certainly we'll follow up on that.

And with that instance, in an instance rather, that a federal agency enters the home of a San Antonio resident without a warrant, uh, would from your perspective, would that be unconstitutional?

Absolutely.

It's pretty clear under a constitutional uh law that without a warrant, um you can't enter somebody's home.

That's the prevailing constitutional law.

Thank you for that, Andy.

Chief.

Good afternoon.

I'd like to shed some light on what I understand about the incident that happened.

So uh according to the report that we took, we got there after the fact that we were called by the resident and we arrived.

Um there was apparently uh I said they were looking for a wanted person.

There's some dispute as to um the warrant, what it was for, who they were looking for, and so um that's why they um uh entered the house, and so we just summarized what we were told and and took a report.

But it was apparently a wanted person.

Thank you for that, Chief.

Uh I I think what's important to highlight, right, and evident through the public comment that we've heard, is it's very important while we're taking these steps, and I'm grateful that city staff has worked um very hard to get this presentation to us.

I do look forward to the updates with the city manager's report.

Um, but I'd just like to remind uh this body as we talk about grants, it's really important that we do not comply in advance.

Uh and I understand the threat of hanging federal dollars over us uh is a very real threat.

Um however, we have a responsibility to ensure that we protect all residents of the city of San Antonio, and sometimes that means uh making tough decisions uh with our budget.

Um but just again wanted to thank my colleagues for being responsive to the residents of San Antonio who have come out uh to the streets and public comment.

Those are all my comments.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember White.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Um I'll be brief.

Uh I want to begin by just um saying that any insinuation that I don't care about any citizen of San Antonio, frankly, I uh I take very, very personally.

Um, regardless to me, whether you're a citizen or not, any human being that lives here within our city, um, I care about and uh uh and and the fact that that folks want to say say the contrary, honestly.

Um again is something I don't take lightly and and certainly don't appreciate.

Um as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, um we need comprehensive immigration reform.

Um that is where um I think a lot of folks' efforts need need to be placed.

But until we get there, until we get there, what we cannot do is impede federal immigration enforcement efforts.

Um I I appreciate everybody that uh came out to speak today and that have come out to speak over the past couple of weeks.

They have every right to peacefully protest and of course have their voices be heard.

But unfortunately, uh what I'm hearing a lot of today is my colleagues wanting to um appease some of these folks uh that that have come to City Hall, and I worry that it's going to push us in a direction uh again that impedes federal immigration enforcement efforts.

Um I think that's wrong.

I think that puts the citizens of San Antonio um at risk, frankly.

Uh, and I also think that that's going to put uh, as has been talked about earlier, it's gonna put potential federal and state funding um on the line.

And these are funds that our citizens here um rely on uh to a large degree.

So um, you know, there was a comment earlier, uh, I think it was by Councilman McKee Rodriguez, uh, to the effect of I'm ready to get litigious.

Um, I'm not uh because just in the two and a half years that I've been here, um I've seen the city get litigious and spend hundreds of thousands, if not seven figures worth of citizen taxpayer money um in lawsuits that we should never be involved in.

Uh and that's money that could be going to adding public safety uh to fixing our aging infrastructure.

And and that's where the money should be going.

So listen, I I uh uh I I appreciate that my colleagues want to be responsive to their residents, but I also know that it's our responsibility as elected officials to sometimes have to have those tough conversations with our constituents uh and say, listen, some of this is is out of our hands.

There's a higher authority uh and per the laws on the books, both at the state and federal level.

Um, we have to uh comply um with uh again with these immigration enforcement efforts.

So um I appreciate the conversation, and those are all my comments.

Thanks, Mayor.

Councilmember Boy, would you please comment on the frequency with by which you'd like updates on progress on the items in the resolution?

Yeah.

Sure.

I I think whenever whenever um there's any substantial progress, and and Eric thinks it's um appropriate to update everybody.

Okay, Councilmember Corps.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank my colleagues for the resolution and member they put forward to have this conversation.

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez alluded to other folks signing, and I think he knew that I would have been happy to support this effort.

Um, I was thinking about as we were sitting in the back, that when I was elected two and a half years ago, I had the privilege of representing the migrant resource center, and that was located in the heart of District One, and it was truly a privilege.

While it wasn't a the best situation, the city had folks that were coming through and wanted to provide supports.

They partnered with Catholic charities, the San Antonio Food Bank was providing free meals.

There was pack and place that little kids were being able to use that were donated, and the community was volunteering to help these folks get to where they needed to get to.

And it was beautiful.

Sure, there was folks that were um upset about the the fact that the city was leading, but that's the city that I'm proud to be a part of.

The one that steps up and says, we don't want these folks sleeping on the streets in front of a Greyhound bus station.

We're gonna create a support space for them, even though we haven't even been funded some of that money that we're deserved that we would like back.

That's the city that I want to continue to be part of.

And I know that we have, as my council colleagues have said, the majority of us that truly do want to help and care for and are compassionate for all of our residents in our city.

Um, but that being said, two and a half years later, and we're in a completely different political climate, and it is frustrating.

So the first thing I'll say is what I think council member Galvan alluded to at the very end, which is people power.

We have a very important election coming up, and we have to step up because Congress has to stop funding this paramilitary institution that's just going into houses and without warrants and miscorrectly identifying people.

Uh we have to stop funding them.

We absolutely do.

And unfortunately, we can't control the funding for them, but our federal government can.

So let's make sure we go out and vote and flip the Congress this year so that we can actually stop this funding.

Um, what can we do though?

And I think I I understand when my council colleagues that said is we would have liked this sooner, but sometimes, no offense, city staff, y'all don't work very fast sometimes, and at least you guys heard all of the things that we said in the last session and listed it out for us.

So I personally appreciate every single item that was shown and what's possible and at least starting the exploration.

I do um, as feedback, think if the city manager can give us reports as he has updates and if that's weekly, great.

If that's biweekly, whatever Eric can provide, I support that in his reports.

Um, as far as the things that you guys have already done, I did get good feedback from I had asked during the specialized session if we could get um some training for our specifically our librarians and our city staff, and you guys already stepped up and took that action, at least the first of what I understand is going to be additional that happened last Friday, and I got some good feedback about how that session allowed for QA for folks that need it.

So thank you for taking that on.

But I also would like to double down on item 19 to see what else is possible, particularly if an enforcement action is occurring.

For item number six, which is the accountability, I think a couple of my council colleagues have already alluded to it.

I think this is actually the most important.

I think folks don't know what's what's going on, and we have to be able to show this.

I know it's IT, which is tricky, and and Craig's probably like, this is gonna be hard to manage with safety and security, but we gotta put up something where folks can start saying this incident happened and this is what occurred.

Even if I understand SAPD may not be able to act on it, but at least we can say this is what's going on.

Because right now we can't even say that.

It's so frustrating to see the ICE numbers that they're sending us because we don't even know what's real and what's not.

So at least with community provided information, we know who is coming from, and maybe there can be a way for multiple people to say we saw this too, or something like that, so that there's affirmation of other folks that are that have witnessed it.

Um not and again, accountability is very important in today's age where it just feels like there's no holding anyone accountable.

For the justice fund, item number 12.

I think I understand we cannot, as a result of grant limitations, support folks that don't have documentation.

But we were at the immigration court yesterday, and there are folks that we could be helping that are in the process and just need additional funds for to help get attorneys.

The judges, when you don't have an attorney present, the judges don't even uh the judges treat you differently.

I'll just say I feel like that's what we saw.

And so we really need to push the justice fund.

So if there's anything that we can do, if that means us contributing from carryover, I'd like to see like what a plan would look like for us to be able to create this justice fund as quickly as possible, um, ideally before budget season, if there's way we can find additional funding to support at least folks that are un wrongfully detained, because as we heard a couple of weeks ago that one one of the folks from the San Pedro raid spended 25,000 in legal fees, and I think those are things that we could be helping support our residents with, especially if they don't have the ability to do so.

Um, and then the signage piece.

I would love to see what's possible.

Like, can we get billboards that say don't answer if you know we I understand SAPD can't necessarily say that, but what if we put it on billboards everywhere?

Because quite frankly, I don't know that every single person is clicking on our city website.

I'd love to think that our website gets all the clicks, but I I think we gotta go bigger and broader with how to convince people or how to show people what they are are required to do and what they're not required to do.

Um I uh a little ode to Councilmember Palais, we did those signs in the bathrooms, and I know, okay, I was one of them.

I'm like, is this gonna be effective?

I go to every restaurant and I see those domestic violence signs, and I'm like, you know what, this was actually effective.

So maybe there's something like that that we can do in combination with Metro Health, because no matter where you go, you see it.

So I'd love for us to explore signage as much as we possibly can.

Um I'll end up off with, and just for what it's worth, I did ask um She Salome in the back if he felt like as our SAPD officers were actually asking about that, what what your documentations or what your immigration status is.

And he said that he didn't believe it was happening.

And I I also said this the last time.

I truly do believe our SAPD officers, especially our SAFE officers, and many of them care about us.

So I'd love for Maria to for you to continue to work on looking at the software that allows us to see AI through using AI through body camera footage to determine whether that statement is truly what we think it is.

Um, and then I'll end off uh talking about the detention facility.

This detention facility just makes me cringe every time I think about it.

I mean, someone in the speakers defined what a concentration camp is, and I mean it that I really do feel like what did what was it like when it certain groups are just being continuously discriminated against.

And I kind of quite frankly felt this.

Not all immigrants are even.

I'm an immigrant, I'm a f I'm a first gen.

And I felt a little bit of racism in that courtroom for different groups based on who they were, what language they spoke.

And I just think that this is truly going to be uh a terrible thing if it gets off the ground.

So I would urge us to figure out everything we possibly can.

I thought someone told me like cut off electricity.

I was like, that's a great idea.

And I was the first one to ask Andy about it.

And we and again the sewage, Eric brought up what a warehouse isn't built for sewage, enough sewage pipelines to is for to keep people in there.

It's meant to stack boxes.

And so, what is that going to do to the environment in and around the area and district two?

So I completely understand why this is such a terrible idea.

And I will support anything and everything we can.

I'd love if we could try to figure out how to get that environmental assessment done by someone who's credible enough to actually do a real environmental assessment, because otherwise, you I mean, you could say whatever you want to say without thinking about all of the impacts.

And so I will end with that.

Yes, we have to continue to work together as a community to figure out what's possible.

And at the end of the day, we have a very important election coming up in November.

Thanks, Mayor.

Councilwoman Spears.

Mayor, can I ask just a quick follow-up question?

Uh, Councilwoman Corr, your your uh your point about further evaluation around the justice fund justice fund.

There were three items in that chart, and I just want to be uh I wanted to clarify you're you're referring to the one uh number 12 on the list.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Colleagues, what we are seeing right now is not a local crisis.

It is the predictable result of a federal policy decisions made by the prior administration.

And we are now forced as a nation to overcorrect these mistakes, requiring the need for additional detention facilities.

Engaging in interference of federal law enforcement at the local level is ineffective, irresponsible, and dangerous.

What's being proposed here?

Blocking permits, denying utilities, penalizing local business owners, violating private property rights, or otherwise trying to obstruct a federal detention facility is not only misguided, it is legally futile.

Under the supremacy clause, the city of San Antonio does not get to veto federal action.

We do not control federal law enforcement, and pretending otherwise misleads the public.

More troubling is the message that this sends.

Efforts to deter or obstruct ICE enforcement does not protect communities.

By attempting to interfere with federal law enforcement, we are not helping innocent people.

We are shielding individuals accused or convicted of serious crimes, child sexual assault, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and other violent offenses, all while claiming moral superiority.

Dakara Thompson, 19, killed in Bowie, Maryland.

Her body was later thrown off a bridge.

Lakin Riley, 22 years old, a nursing student attacked while jogging, beating beaten with a rock, suffocated, and assaulted.

Rachel Morin, 37, a mother of five, abducted while hiking on a Maryland trail and killed, bludgeoned with rocks, strangled, and her body hidden in a culvert.

Kayla Hamilton, 20, a young woman with autism, was bound, assaulted, and strangled in her home.

Jocelyn Nungary, 12 years old, abducted, assaulted, and killed in Houston, Texas, and her f body was found in a creek.

Larissa Sherrell Thompson, 40 years old, fatally shot during a random attempted robbery while driving in South Carolina.

Damil Shaw, 17, a high school student shot and killed in a drive-by after being confronted and mistaken for a rival gang member.

Roughly two hours ago, it was announced that ICE found over 3,300 missing children in Minnesota.

The last federal administration lost those children and was not even looking for them.

My hope is that the media will start talking about these things that are good for our community.

Locally, in January alone, ICE here has arrested 21 individuals committing egregious crimes.

A few of those are from a 60-year-old citizen in Mexico who is convicted of aggravated robbery, driving while intoxicated in a probation violation.

A 57-year-old citizen from El Salvador for possession of controlled substance and pending a charge for sexual assault and rape.

A 29-year-old citizen of Mexico with a criminal pending charge for murder.

A 34-year-old citizen of Guatemala with a criminal arrest for sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14.

A 24-year-old citizen of Venezuela charged with injury to a child, elderly or disabled individual.

A 73-year-old citizen of Cuba with criminal convictions for sexual assault and kidnap and false imprisonment.

Taking the side of criminals over our citizens and our law enforcement is not compassion.

It is reckless.

Citizens simply must come first.

There has been a lot of rhetoric about wrongful arrests and lack of due process.

What is consistently left out is this critical fact.

The vast majority of individuals being arrested already have deportation orders.

They have already received due process.

They violated those orders.

That is why enforcement is occurring.

Due process questions belong in the courts in front of judges with evidence, briefing, and the rule of law.

City council is not a substitute for the judiciary.

Further, claims that innocent people are being randomly arrested are simply not supported by facts, particularly here in San Antonio.

Repeating those claims scares people into staying home, skipping work, and pulling their kids from school.

That fear is being manufactured by rhetoric and not reality.

What we we are doing here is inflaming emotions, fueling misinformation, and encouraging hostility toward law enforcement.

And this has real consequences.

It creates fear, it escalates tensions, and it distracts from the responsibilities we are tasked to handle, such as public safety, infrastructure, housing, and quality of life issues in our city.

Our police chief has been abundantly clear.

The SAPD has only been involved in two ICE-related incidents in an entire year, last year.

One was perimeter support, and one was a traffic stop that escalated.

Accusations that SAPD is overstepping or that local law enforcement is deeply entangled in federal immigration enforcement are gross exaggerations.

They do not reflect what is actually happening on the ground.

And there is another fact we cannot ignore.

San Antonio taxpayers are still owed roughly $30 million tax dollars by the federal government for operating the migrant facility this city chose to open.

And that money has not been reimbursed years later.

And at this point, we aren't sure we're even going to get it.

And I don't recall the outcry for sympathy for the people who lived around that migrant center, which was in a residential neighborhood, where illegal aliens were free to come and go, and these neighborhoods were gripped by crime, drugs, and prostitution and property crimes.

Yet some here want to risk additional federal funding, openly antagonizing the federal government and interfere with federal enforcement efforts.

But to what end?

The federal government will not be pressured by this council.

The only thing this approach accomplishes is putting San Antonio in a worse position financially and legally.

To be clear, this is not about bending the knee.

This is about following the law, the law of the land we all live under in the finest nation in the world, and easily the best state in this nation.

We are fortunate to live in a country where we can sit here, speak freely, and disagree openly, but freedom of speech does not give this body authority to subvert federal law or obstruct federal agencies.

If you are not committing a crime, not interfering with police activity, and not here illegally, you don't really have anything to worry about.

And if a mistake does occur, be sure that the judiciary exists to correct it.

This is how our system is designed and how it works.

Suggesting otherwise is irresponsible.

It scares people, it causes real harm, and it must stop.

The courts handle due process.

Federal agencies enforce federal law, and we should focus on doing our jobs responsibly, lawfully, and honestly.

We should stop trying to play federal immigration court on this dais.

Let the courts resolve due process claims, let law enforcement do their job, and let this council focus on governing responsibly.

This is our role, and we need to get back to it.

I am emphatically against all of these proposed measures, and I would say the frequency of any reporting should be at any substantial progress.

Thank you, Mayor.

Eric, you had a just one uh one point I wanted to share with the council.

Um, it it is it is um the federal government does owe us about 30 million dollars for three primary reasons.

Um, 13.6 million dollars of that is from the uh operations of the migrant resource center, and the balance is uh winterstorm Ure and um uh COVID.

So I just wanted to make sure the council understood and the public that that of the um of that 30 million dollars, 13 13 and a half roughly is uh the MRC.

Okay, thank you, Eric.

Has everyone's that would like to speak on this issue spoken.

You had one more.

Go ahead.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

I just uh thank you, Councilwoman Castillo, um, for bringing up uh the action that we proposed, which was if residents feel that their rights are being violated by ICE to call SAPD.

And I just wanted to be clear the intent with that is um as you alluded to um for tracking and documenting purposes, we need to know is this happening two times in our city or two thousand times in our city.

So we know that uh SAPD can't necessarily follow up with action, but it is for tracking and and monitoring and and documenting, so that in case we need to escalate further, we can.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Thank you.

Uh Mayor, can I underscore something, please?

Um in terms of the reporting what we're gonna look into based on council direction, as the last slide pointed out, it'll all be uh recommendations that are within the parameters of state, local, federal law.

Yeah, thank you for that, Andy.

Okay.

Um let me uh reiterate my my thanks to everybody that has um taken the time uh to come to us over the last couple of weeks, share your feedback um and your comments, and of course your concerns, many of which we share, obviously, as this affects all of us.

This isn't none of this is exclusive to one district.

Um allegations of violations of of constitutional rights in military city USA where the vast uh large uh number of folks have have taken an oath to support and defend the constitution, I think is something that this community would uniquely take offense to in light also of our of our demographics.

So I want to express my thanks um whether you came here uh today in front of us or whether you're one of those 16 year old kids from Bracken Redge high school just the other day that came in City Hall.

Thank you for utilizing your first amendment rights and and thank you for being engaged.

I also want to thank our legal team.

Um our legal team has really uh uh worked to ensure that we can thread the needle here and and help manage expectations.

I think we all there's been lots of ideas and and certainly that makes sense as in light of our neighbors watching and hearing what is happening in other communities and understanding that yes, we are different, but but how different and and how where can we push and where can we do that?

So I want to thank the legal team uh that worked expeditiously, frankly, um, since the uh since the special session and even before that, as ideas were trickling in, I appreciate their work.

Um and I know that was complicated just a little bit as you all merged um a couple of products together to get us to where we are today.

Um but thank you.

Uh thank you for your work, Andy and Liz and and the rest of the team.

Um just yesterday, as as many have alluded, um, some of this is is not within our purview.

Uh we in fact uh rely on the leadership, the courage of our federal delegation.

And so we anticipate a vote on a bill that would provide funding for the facility on the east side.

Um, because as I note in the letter that I sent to our federal delegation, those members representing our city, um, we have yet, my office has yet to, city staff has yet to receive any formal notification about that facility or proposed activities there.

Um so we continue to ask these questions.

Unfortunately, we are just not getting a lot of answers.

Um, and at times reading about these things for the first time with many of our neighbors, which does not allow us to do uh what we would like to do on on behalf of you.

So um again, we reiterate the work that is is happening and continues to be unsatisfying to many of us as well.

Um Liz uh and Andy, feedback in terms of some of the ideas here.

I want to make sure always um that just because we can do it, um, that may not necessarily mean the city is the best posture to do it.

Um my concern with with um uh tracking of any data, for example, um, and I uh can certainly appreciate the intent as Councilwoman Aldrete Gavito um alluded to.

My concern is that when you're reporting um allegations of constitutional violations, reporting it to SAPD may in fact be a deterrent.

Folks might not feel comfortable if that is the entity to which they were um um report it.

So um what we are interested in is getting the data.

So Liz, I appreciate your exploration of solutions, but potentially third party, uh potentially those in the civil rights space um that are already resourced and frankly trained to do this, um, by which we may be able to um have some kind of um agreement with that would allow us access to the information that we care about um and get us closer to the intent.

If you'd like to comment on that, you're you're more than welcome to.

I could do that, Mayor.

As we look at all of the different steps that uh Liz uh pointed out, we will not only uh highlight what legal challenges we have, but also what implementation challenges we have.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Andy.

Um to your specific request for for feedback, Liz on the individual items.

Um mentioned third party resource on 18.

Um on number 19.

Um the uh development of training for city staff on rights and responsibilities related to the prevention of harm caused by immigration enforcement.

I certainly appreciate um the intent here.

Uh this is one that is is quite broad though, and so I'd I welcome you all helping us understand um uh you know what what compliance looks like versus um what uh a broader understanding, which may be actually broader thereby more difficult to implement and potentially more legally risky, and that's okay as long as we understand what those grades of risk are as a result of understanding how far we are going to prevent, right?

Okay.

24 um use of city resources and services identify areas where city resources services or discretionary approvals may be limited to the minimum required by law based on your previous information that you've shared in this body.

We are only providing what we are asked to provide, correct?

So we're already operating at only providing a minimum the minimum required by law support for these activities.

Correct, Andy or Liz.

Yes, Mayor.

Uh uh, I mean, up till today, we've only uh done what was specifically asked for by ICE, and we haven't done anything further than what was asked for.

Okay.

So continuing the that approach, um I am supportive of here.

Number 25, it sounds like again, that is also standard practice for us currently.

Um actions that avoid unlawful discrimination, retaliation, or preemption concerns right while preserving our autonomy.

That is already how we guide our actions, correct, Andy.

That is correct, Mayor.

And if I can also clarify one thing, we we're obviously talking here a lot about immigration enforcement, but a lot of the things you're talking about about mitigate mitigating uh violence to others or preserving constitutional rights, they they apply really to any law enforcement agency.

They could apply to local, state, federal, law enforcement agencies.

Okay.

Um and in terms of the the last one you asked for guidance on uh Liz evaluate opportunities to hold uh federal law enforcement officers accountable, um, as you all outlined, um, our SAPD officers are already required uh to report any violation of law as they understand it.

Um so I am comfortable with that with that current approach.

Um I understand my colleagues may provide additional guidance um in terms of what they may have meant uh with that provision, but um I appreciate what we're already doing and support the current approach.

Okay.

Um as mentioned by numerous of my my colleagues up here.

Um we got here because of an election, we'll have something different, something better because of an election.

Early voting starts on the 17th, runs through the 27th.

Um, and make sure you know where those county officials, those state representatives, and those federal representatives seeking your vote where they are on these issues.

Are they okay with using state laws uh to potentially silence students exercising their first amendment rights?

Are you okay with a federal representative that thinks that a detention center is a jobs opportunity?

Um so please make sure you vote wisely and make sure that you um encourage all of your friends and family to do so.

Thank you again to the staff for all of the hard work.

I hear Eric, um, if you'd please summarize the the key tasks and and frequency of reporting uh updates that you heard today.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um so yeah, a lot of follow-up that we'll do.

This this has been helpful for us to uh to to get the council's feedback.

Um what I'm what I'm thinking now um in kind of in accordance with what some of you said um uh we will start and include within the city manager's report uh beginning on March 5th.

Uh we have next week's council meeting.

We don't have a council meeting the last week in February, so we'll we'll target that March 5th City Manager's report to update you all um on um on the tasks.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um the time is now 150 and this meeting is adjourned.

Oh I'm sorry, sorry.

Gosh, sorry.

We have we have a motion and a second.

Sorry, one second.

Okay.

There being no further discussion, it is moved and seconded to approve item four.

Please vote.

Oh, um, Councilman White, if you'd please oh okay, do you see him?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, the motion carries.

Uh the next item is uh city manager's report.

Eric Um Mayor, uh let me propose that um since we're running a little bit behind uh with our one o'clock time server with Greater SATX that we just move into that.

Or if you want to take up you one about that one.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, we'll adjourn for 10 minutes.

Thank you.