ICE’s lease at 15727 Anthem Parkway is located across I-10 from UT-San Antonio’s main campus. Credit: Michael Karlis

Another new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility is coming to San Antonio, this time in the city’s Northwest quadrant, according to tech publication Wired.

ICE is leasing office space at 15727 Anthem Parkway as part of a nationwide facilities surge, Wired reports, citing federal documents. While the building’s leasing broker, CBRE confirmed 27,000 square feet of the space are open for lease, officials wouldn’t say how much ICE is preparing to take over.

The new site will be directly across I-10 from UT-San Antonio’s main campus and in walking distance of Methodist Hospital Landmark and a South Texas Radiology Imaging Centers facility. The building also houses medical offices, a law firm, a title company and an apartment rental agency.

Word of the lease comes days after ICE purchased a 640,000-square-foot industrial space on the East Side for more than $66 million. The federal agency reportedly plans to convert the warehouse into a 1,200-bed migrant processing center.

Last year, the White House tasked the federal Public Buildings Service with cultivating ICE’s physical expansion nationwide. The immigration agency is scouting for space for its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and its Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Wired reports.

Locally, ICE’S ERO unit — charged with the actual arrest and removal of migrants — currently operates from a field office in Northeast San Antonio off Loop 410 near the airport.

ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda didn’t respond to the Current’s request for comment about how the agency plans to use the Anthem Parkway site and how that might change plans for its current field office.

However, it’s worth mentioning that as part of the “surge,” specific leasing locations are required to be equipped with sally ports — secure, controlled entryways used in prisons and police stations, according to Wired.

A spokesman for Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said ICE representatives didn’t inform the mayor’s office about the latest San Antonio lease. The agency also didn’t let the mayor or San Antonio officials know when they struck a deal for the massive East Side warehouse.

“It’s another unfortunate example of the lack of transparency regarding ICE activities in our community,” spokesman Andrew Fuentes said in an emailed statement.

District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez, whose district includes the new ICE facility, said she’s concerned about the agency’s intentions for the space.

“I will continue to work with my colleagues to monitor this situation,” Meza Gonzalez said. “The safety of our neighbors is my main priority.”

ICE’s pursuit of additional San Antonio buildings comes amid a national outcry against the Trump administration’s aggressive mass-deportation program, prompted in part by two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal agents. More than two-thirds of Americans said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “gone too far,” according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. 

San Antonio City Council last week held a meeting last week to explore possible legal avenues to stop ICE from utilizing its East Side warehouse as detention facility.

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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,...