U.S. immigration enforcement personnel carry out an arrest. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / usicegov

City Council voted Thursday to direct staff to explore legal options for preventing ICE from leasing office space at Brooks and blocking the agency’s plan to open an East Side immigrant detention center.

The 9-2 vote came after City Attorney Andy Segovia said Tuesday that the city sued the federal government for failing to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as it sped forward on opening the East Side lockup.

The motion on Thursday’s City Council agenda was initially intended to target the East Side facility. However, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones proposed an amendment to the proposal directing staff to explore options to prevent or delay ICE’s planned leases at Brooks.

While the East Side site is expected to house migrants before they are deported, ICE’s 75,000 square feet of leased office space at Brooks will be used for legal proceedings and hearings, the Current recently reported.

“It’s important that we are clear to the community that we do not support that presence in light of the depressing economic impact it would have, but also I think a deeper presence in our community that we do not welcome,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said.

The amendment passed, with council members Phyllis Viagran, Misty Spears and Marc Whyte voting against it.

Spears and Whyte, who also voted against the final resolution, argued it’s not City Council’s place to fight the federal government and expressed concern that further legal action would cost taxpayers money.

“Are we now going to pick and choose which entities can lease office space in the city of San Antonio based on whether some council members like them or don’t?” Whyte asked.

Viagran, who voted against Jones’ amendment but voted in favor of the final resolution, argued that the mayor’s amendment was redundant.

The 75,000 square feet of office space ICE plans to lease at Brooks will be used for legal proceedings and hearings. Those leases would add to two existing ICE field offices already operating on San Antonio’s North Side.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...