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.
The field hearing in San Antonio was preceded by a press conference and followed by a march the next day where Fr. Jimmy Drennan (holding sign at right) walked with COPS/Metro leaders and alongside Congressman Castro and former Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Drawing hundreds of local San Antonians, the march attracted national attention.
In response, the White House announced a visit to San Antonio's East Side.
The West/Southwest IAF hearing approach builds on a strategy developed by One LA-IAF, in which community leaders established a platform to publicly talk about the havoc wreaked by ICE practices and enter into the public record the impact of detentions, deportations and civil rights violations.
[Photo Credit: Alex Roush, SA Current]
During San Antonio Field Hearing, Castro, Local Leaders Demand Accountability For ICE Operations and Proposed Warehouse, Congressman Castro, 20th District of Texas
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