Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly plans to conduct raids in San Antonio Tuesday as part of a first wave of crackdowns on undocumented immigrants under the incoming Trump administration.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Tuesday’s planned raids will target cities including San Antonio, Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver. However, NBC News has since reported that the Chicago raid might be postponed due to media leaks.
The Current reached out to ICE’s San Antonio office for comment but receive no immediate response.
On Friday night, Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan confirmed plans for an accelerated crackdown in a FOX News interview, stating “there’s going to be a big raid across the country.”
“On Tuesday, ICE is finally going to go out and do their job,” Homan added. “We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE.”
Homan, a former acting head of ICE, added that the agency’s field offices would target the “worst first, public safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they got a problem.”
Austin immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch urged those targeted by ICE at home or in the workplace “not to open the door unless there is a search warrant.”
“Some people even put signs on the inside of their door saying ‘Do not open the door for anyone’ for their kids,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said. “In a raid, the critical thing to know is to ask if you’re being arrested,” the attorney added. “If they’re not being arrested, they should leave calmly. If they are being arrested, the only thing they need to do is identify themselves.”
That entails providing one’s name, address and phone number.
The key, Goldfinch adds, is to be prepared.
“The biggest piece of advice I have for all undocumented people right now is if they’ve been in the country for two years, they need to be able to prove it in a moment’s notice,” she said. “Because if they’ve been in the country two years they have due-process rights.”
Immigrant-rights activists have said in online posts that weather might delay ICE’s San Antonio raids. However, there’s been no official statement to that effect.
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This article appears in Jan 8-21, 2025.
