Leaders Testify and City Responds with a Lawsuit

With San Antonio ranking fourth in migrant deportations — and after hearing hundreds stories from immigrants and witnesses to the disappearances of fellow parishioners — COPS/Metro proposed to US Congressman Joaquin Castro a public field hearing on ICE practices, to document the impact of deportations and detention practices on the local community. Congressman Castro agreed and San Antonio’s first public field hearing was organized.

Close to 200 COPS/Metro leaders crowded into a library conference room for the field hearing.  They were joined by TX State Senators Jose Menendez, Roland Gutierrez, TX Representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, and San Antonio City Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran, along with other local elected officials.

COPS/Metro leader and pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, Fr. Jimmy Drennan, testified about Kimberly, who, 8 months into her fourth pregnancy, faced ICE agents who stormed into her home without an arrest warrant and removed her husband.  He was moved from detention center to another -- the locations of which were not always known to his family -- before being deported.  Kimberly was left on her own to work day and night to support her four children, all under the age of 10.  Fr. Drennan also shared stories of American citizens profiled and detained, and desperation driving detainees to drink water out of toilets.   

Allies from the Texas Immigration Law Council detailed instances of rape and sexual assault, where access to lawyers has been extraordinarily limited and official information about detainees effectively nonexistent.  TILC Director Kristen Etter declared privately-run detention centers "essentially black sites" in practice.  

Within hours of public testimony, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones announced a lawsuit.  Bexar County officials pledged to do the same. 

After extensive organizing by EPISO to block the largest planned ICE detention center in the nation, the Trump administration is now abandoning its proposal – a major victory for leaders who’ve fought for decades to protect local water and the dignity of their neighbors. 

The Rev. Loyd Divinagracia encouraging parishioners with EPISO after meeting with Lower Valley Water District Board in Socorro, Texas

In their town of 30,000, EPISO leaders from Socorro, TX learned that ICE bought three warehouses for $123M to create one of the largest immigrant detention centers in the country, threatening to detain 8,500 people. Refusing to accept this, they organized hundreds of residents, ultimately scaling back detention center plans and postponing the construction start date.

Uniting leaders from a local soccer club, HBCU, and historic Black and Latino churches, Central Texas Interfaith won approval for a city-sponsored park on Austin’s East Side with a full soccer field and facilities, helping end decades of disinvestment rooted in redlining.

After hearing testimony at one of six public hearings One LA-IAF has held since November 2025, Congresswoman Luz Rivas introduced the HEART Act, a bill to redirect $76 billion to mental and health services for communities impacted by ICE raids.

During his U.S. tour, Fr. Mattia Ferrari, Coordinator of the World Meeting of Popular Movements at the Vatican (an initiative of Pope Francis), met with TMO, EPISO, CTI, One LA, and COPA leaders to hear stories of organizing and discuss the importance of popular movements being led by poor and working-class people. They were joined by César Piscoya, Pastoral Advisor for the Latin American Episcopal Council, and Luca Caserini, Founder of Mediterranea Saving Humans.

After over a year of organizing with Mountain Voices Project (MVP), residents of Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park in Colorado’s Roaring Fork have raised millions of dollars and negotiated a contract with their landowner to purchase the land under their homes.

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A new effort in the San Joaquin Valley is bringing together residents, educators, faith groups, and civic leaders to address the region’s most pressing issues.

More than 700 people filled an auditorium at Fresno State on May 3 for a “founding convention” of the newly created organization called United San Joaquin.

At the urging of the Inland Communities Organizing Network (ICON), Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval organized a public hearing with over 100 people to allow residents to testify on their experiences with detainments and encounters with federal immigration agents.

Responding to declining school enrollment, pervasive fear, and what one ICON leader described as "a crisis of disappearing families," this was the second public hearing emerging from One LA's award-winning freedom school strategy.

A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy (AMOS) is at the center of a major milestone for housing in Des Moines: the first two permanently affordable homes have now been built in Des Moines' South Side.