City of San Antonio Sues DHS and ICE in Federal Court Under NEPA and the APA to Halt the East Side Warehouse Detention Conversion

On 10/13/26 the City of San Antonio filed City of San Antonio v. Mullin, No. 5:06542 (W.D. Tex., San Antonio Division), against the Secretary of Homeland Security, DHS, ICE and the acting ICE director. The complaint pleads under the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, asking the court to halt the conversion of the East Side warehouse into an immigration detention facility.

The complaint describes a 640,000 square foot warehouse that DHS and ICE “confirmed” they had bought on or about February 5, 2026, with the intention of converting it into a facility of as many as 1,500 beds. It pleads that city officials sent five letters to Defendants during 2026 seeking information about the plans. The relief requested starts with: “Declare that the Defendants’ decision to purchase, convert, maintain, and operate an immigration detention facility at the Warehouse is contrary to law and violates NEPA and the APA,” followed by vacatur of the decision and a temporary and permanent injunction.

This converts the mayor’s earlier statement of support for legal action (2026-10-02–san-antonio-mayor-ortiz-jones-backs-legal-action-to-halt-east-side-ice-warehouse) into a filed case, and it uses the NEPA theory that produced the Maryland and Gilroy injunctions (2026-09-11–gilroy-williamsport-nepa-injunctions-share-categorical-exclusion-theory). It is a complaint, not a ruling; no court has acted on it in the record read.