City Council voted 9-2 Thursday for CPS Energy and San Antonio Water System to conduct impact studies on the proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facility on the East Side.
The city-owned utilities are expected to take until December to complete the studies, which will analyze how the planned 1,500-bed processing center could strain local water, wastewater and electricity systems.
District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears and District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte voted against the measure. They argued the move is a stalling tactic that will do nothing more than cost taxpayers money and delay the inevitable.
“If we end up filing a lawsuit, that’s going to be a further waste of money — and again, why? To delay,” Whyte told KSAT.
Indeed, the City of San Antonio also is weighing legal action against ICE and the federal government over the conversion of a long-vacant warehouse into a center to process migrants caught up in the Trump White House’s deportation spree.
Council went into executive session Thursday to discuss legal avenues to prevent the ICE lockup’s opening, but city officials have remained tight-lipped about what such a lawsuit might look like.
Even so, the city could green-light legal action as soon as next week, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Bexar County Commissioners Court is also expected to meet behind closed doors next week to discuss possible legal action to stop the detention site from moving forward.
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