SAN ANTONIO, Texas
On Tuesday, fewer than 75 people gathered outside the federal immigration court in San Antonio, protesting President Trump’s plans for a large-scale deportation effort. The event, organized by the Socialism and Liberation Party, took place in Texas’s second largest city, which has a population of nearly 1.5 million.
This protest, dubbed “Ice Illness, Trump’s Illness,” wrapped up fairly quickly, almost without much commotion. Observers from Breitbart Texas noted that the small crowd included individuals wearing Palestinian keffiyeh, several Christian ministers, and others who listened to speeches criticizing the Trump administration’s actions against undocumented immigrants.
A group of around 70 protesters even enacted a procession that referenced the biblical tale of Jericho, demonstrating outside seven different U.S. Immigration Court offices in the downtown area. With drums echoing in the background, they sang an anti-ICE hymn. Organizers compared the march to the event that led to the downfall of Jericho’s walls.
Liliana Padilla, a pastor from the United Methodist Church, stood before a memorial for undocumented immigrants taken by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. She sang hymns in Spanish, near a PSL tent adorned with a Mexican flag.
One of the speakers told the audience that the arrests conducted by ICE symbolized not only an invitation to injustice but also a kind of failure. As the speaker put it, “These people come here and present their cases, but then they find themselves outside those doors, sometimes taken away with zip ties.”
Interestingly, organizers pointed out that usual buses for transporting detainees were not present during the protest, which drew mixed reactions. They mentioned, “It’s embarrassing for them. They didn’t bring the buses today, but they were here yesterday, taking families—hardworking people—who had sacrificed so much to reach this point.”
Similar to the “No Kings” protest in June, which condemned the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies, Tuesday’s event was facilitated by the local branch of the Socialism and Liberation Party, who provided many of the signs seen at the protest.
Moreover, PSL members encouraged participants to disseminate flyers detailing what to do in case of ICE enforcement activities and how to help undocumented individuals evade arrests. One flyer, titled “Fight Back SA,” provided practical advice, such as not opening doors to ICE officers and asserting rights to legal counsel when detained.
Regarding the site sicofice.org, organizers described the Trump administration’s deportation agenda as a declaration of war. They highlighted that, “Trump’s promise for the largest deportation operation in U.S. history isn’t just a threat to immigrant families; it affects the civil liberties of everyone. We all have a role to play in opposing these attacks.”
It’s been noted that the Trump administration has already caused countless immigrant families to be separated and has attacked freedoms essential to civil discourse.
