ICE agents conduct arrests as part of an earlier nationwide operation. Credit: Courtesy Photo / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Some members of the Alamo City Reddit community said they have left r/sanantonio for greener pastures, prompted by the online forum’s controversial move to censor posts about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Seeking an outlet where they can discuss that topic — and others — more freely, some Alamo City redditors said they’re jumping to forums including r/SanAntonioUSA.

The new local subreddit, launched in December, describes itself as “a place to discuss San Antonio without the heavy moderation and the low-effort posts of the larger SA subreddit.”

“Guess this sub is my new home,” u/bradloh_2k said in a post. The user added that they’d been banned from r/sanantonio for saying “reddit mods are the worst kind of people” on a share of the Current’s article on the subreddit’s censorship of posts about ICE. “I got banned from the other sub for accusing the mods of speech restriction,” u/holdmybeerTX added.

“Yeah I dipped out on the other group,” u/stoneausarusrex said. “They’ll remove your post and say it violated a rule, but wont tell you what rule it is you violated.”

Last week, r/sanantonio’s moderators revealed they would no longer allow any posts alerting forum users about ICE operations in the city unless they include “substantial evidence” and “specific details about the situation.”

Some users who jumped ship to r/SanAntonioUSA posited that the mods in the city’s primary subreddit have conservative leanings that cause them to suppress anti-ICE content.

“They take great personal offense and delete your post when you call an ICE agent a piece of shit,” u/skratch posted.

“Their mods are not representative of San Antonio at all,” u/bettercallsaul3 added.
The new sub appears to have become a space for banned users to vent about their reasons for being booted and to share progressive news they said they might not have been allowed to share in the more-established subreddit.

“This sub [was] specifically created as a safe space and free speech forum because of //that other sub// and [its] insane bans,” said u/throw667, another member of r/SanAntonioUSA, which had 2,300 members as of press time. That compares to the more-established group’s 253,000. 

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This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 9, 2025.

Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.