E-mails show ICE's presence considered threat
By Veronica Flores-Paniagua, vflores@express-news.net
Updated 06:46 a.m., Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Comments (10)

Immigration lawyers have been aware for some time that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are allowed into the city-run Detention Center at Magistrate Court to sweep for illegal immigrants. But beyond that small group, most in San Antonio are unaware of the practice.

Presumably, ICE is targeting detainees with its Criminal Alien Program, especially those who've committed violent or drug crimes.

You won't find me quibbling with the effort to root out the criminal element, even as questions persist about the effectiveness of this approach. Where things get sticky for me, as they apparently have for city officials, according to e-mails obtained by the Express-News, is how the sweeps also have picked up illegal immigrants whose offenses might be as minor as municipal warrants for unpaid traffic tickets.

The ripple effects on the community are profound: a workplace may suddenly be without its employee and a family without its principal breadwinner. These aren't ICE's concerns. But they are for a city whose mayor and chambers of commerce regard the contributions of illegal immigrants as economic assets.

The Express-News obtained more than 100 pages of documents — mostly e-mails — in an open records request for correspondence since 2009 between city staff, and between city staff and ICE regarding the federal agency's activities in city facilities.

The documents reveal a deliberate effort to stall ICE's attempts to grow its presence at the Detention Center. And they seem to show city staff walking a political tightrope, outwardly appearing to be cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts while simultaneously trying to keep ICE at arm's length.

It's unclear what or who is directing staffers' actions. Assistant City Manager Erik Walsh directed me to the Municipal Court's top administrator, Presiding Judge John Bull. In the city's organizational chart, the Detention Center is a Municipal Court concern. Bull explained that Detention Center Marshal Rumaldo Abonce sets the facility's policies and procedures. Abonce didn't return my call. A city official close to the Detention Center told me most staffers are uncomfortable with what they view as bullying by the feds. That's in line with at least two e-mail exchanges among city staff that frame ICE's presence as a threat.

“We had another problem with folks paying for their tickets only to be taken by ICE,â€