The Midweek #81: Put ICE’s Plan on Ice

Before we see more immigrant families, including children, warehoused in a makeshift prison, before we see uniformed ICE storm troopers with little to no vetting or training shoot and kill more civilians in street encounters, let’s do whatever it takes in nonviolent resistance to stop the Trump administration from opening a massive detention and deportation center in San Antonio.

I find conservative media commentators expressing continuous criticism of modest local tax, fee, and utility rate increases in one of the country's fastest-growing, most energy- and water-demanding regions. Yet they say nothing about the Trump administration's wasteful and profligate spending that will cost local taxpayers far more while delivering far less. Add the impact of tariffs on consumers and the difference is even more dramatic.

In this case, it is the unnecessary cost in treasure and reputation as federal authorities engage in indefinitely imprisoning people who are not criminals at the same time they continue to push to build a $46.5 billion Big Bend border wall that would permanently damage one of the state's great natural settings while addressing a problem that exists only in the narrow minds of xenophobic politicians in Washington, D.C.

I wrote this while awaiting my flight back to San Antonio from New York, where a downtown view of the Statue of Liberty reminded me that we are a country founded by immigrants from Europe who violently displaced the original inhabitants. That’s not exactly how we teach U.S. history in our schools, but we all know under the bedrock of democracy built over 250 years is a less inspiring story of conquest and communicable disease.

That democracy is now under assault, and the absence of any ethical or legal foundation anchoring the executive branch has led to the current crisis in San Antonio, and yes, it is a human crisis. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE are preparing to imprison without due process as many as 1,500 immigrants in the East Side warehouse starting next year. ICE acquired the vacant warehouse for $66,112,500 in taxpayer dollars paid to its private-sector owners in cash. Add to that the $17.3 million for the finish-out contract that ICE has agreed to pay to turn the property into a detention center.

Let’s look at the transaction leading to the current moment if we want to engage in a little fiscal analysis.

Oakmont Industrial Group, an Atlanta-based real estate development firm, purchased the property near the I-10 and Loop 410 East Side Interchange in 2021 and developed the speculative warehouse in 2022, expecting to sell or lease it in this fast-growing metro area. The company described Oakmont 410 as the “largest speculative industrial development“ ever undertaken in San Antonio, a massive, 639,595-square-foot shell covering most of 39.8 acres.

Oakmont has been in a partnership for many years with Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group, one of the largest private equity partnerships in the country. Oakmont likely paid as much as $6 million for the vacant land and, according to its initial agreement, intended to spend an estimated $24.3 million on construction.

The San Antonio project is one of multiple warehouse deals totaling nearly $900 million that ICE has done with these and other politically connected entities. A Washington Post report estimated that sales prices were all inflated over market value in a no-bid process.

The San Antonio warehouse was a bad bet. Warehouse capacity here and across the country exceeds demand. Developers are restrained in the current economy by abundant inventory, a lack of demand and high interest rates. It wouldn’t be wrong to call Oakmont 410 a white elephant. The warehouse has never had a tenant or a buyer until ICE came along with its open checkbook and lack of interest in negotiating on behalf of taxpayers. It’s sat empty for four years now.

As year after year went by, logic suggests the Oakmont developers would have grown more flexible in their asking price on the warehouse and the firm’s $31 million estimated investment. There has been no public disclosure of the firm’s asking price, but one assumes it was built with borrowed capital, and with each passing year, Oakmont probably was willing to negotiate an exit allowing them to recoup their investment and cut their losses on the carrying costs.

Fast forward to Feb. 3 this year when ICE paid $66,112,500 cash for the empty warehouse. In all likelihood, it paid more than double what Oakmont had invested only five years earlier. Don’t we all wish we could double our money every five years? That figure should give every citizen pause, even before the conversation turns to the moral and legal issues swirling around the Trump administration’s indiscriminate campaign against immigrant communities.

Who determined the sales price, and why are there no market comparables even remotely close to the $66 million payoff? Did a disappointing, badly timed development project lead to its owners pocketing a 100% return on their investment? The $84 million ICE outlay for the property and improvements does not include likely cost overruns or future operational costs. The detention center could easily cost taxpayers $100 million before the first detained family is locked up there.

The sale is something to consider for Republican deficit hawks and voters who might also want to take a closer look at the $46.5 billion in the Trump administration's “big, beautiful bill” allocated for that West Texas abomination of a border wall.

By the way, when Oakmont 410 was first announced by the Trump administration, the opening date was given as September 2026. That has been pushed to Q2 2027, which gives opponents of the plan time to vote in the November 3 midterm election and lobby state officials to intervene in the ill-conceived deal. There’s no way for taxpayers to recoup the bad investment ICE has made, but the more important human tragedy on ICE’s drawing board can be stopped. One call from Gov. Greg Abbott would probably do the trick, especially if he can persuade the president and his inner circle that Republicans have all they can handle in the coming election and don’t need another immigrant prison to further inflame public opinion, which is strongly opposed to the administration's heavy-handed, anti-immigrant offensive.

The first popular demonstration against the ICE detention center occurred in April, and an even larger demonstration that attracted hundreds of marchers was held Oct. 3. Both the City Council and Commissioners Court are considering legal challenges to the project, opposition that may accomplish more in the court of public opinion than with the judiciary.

I can’t think of any other proposed project in San Antonio that is so anathema to our city’s culture, its character, its identity. It’s a project that should have never been started and it is one that should never be realized.