A small but fired-up crowd gathered near Broadway and Loop 410 in Alamo Heights on Sunday, demanding the release of a local family taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody earlier in the week. Demonstrators said two elementary school children and their stepmother were detained while waiting at their neighborhood bus stop.
Protesters Call For Immediate Release
Organizers with the Party for Socialism and Liberation led the roadside protest, arguing that ICE picked up the family even though they had followed the rules of the asylum process and had no criminal record. "They're abducting children in broad daylight as they try to go to school," organizer Corrie Rosen told the crowd, according to local TV coverage by Fox San Antonio.
Family Identified And Transferred To Dilley
Local reporting identified the family as the Uzategui-Labrador household. Two siblings, a fifth grader and a second grader, attend Cambridge Elementary in Alamo Heights. Their relatives and the office of Rep. Joaquin Castro say the family arrived in the United States in 2021 seeking asylum and had valid work authorization. ICE transported the two children and their stepmother to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Frio County, where they remained in custody as of last week, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Court Rulings And National Backdrop
The Alamo Heights arrests are unfolding against the backdrop of a national legal fight over the administration's expansive "mandatory detention" policy, which shapes when ICE can hold immigrants without bond. On April 28, a federal appeals court ruled that the no-bond approach raises "serious constitutional questions," a decision that could still be appealed to the Supreme Court, the Associated Press reported.
Neighbors Organize Support
Parents in Alamo Heights have launched a GoFundMe to help cover the family's legal expenses and have taken turns standing watch at the Lynette Street bus stop to make sure students get on their buses without incident, neighbors told reporters. Rep. Castro said he is leading a congressional delegation to Dilley to meet with the family and press for their release, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Protesters said they plan to keep the pressure on, calling for the family's release and for tighter limits on interior immigration enforcement until federal officials respond. Hoodline will update this story if authorities release new information or if the family is freed.
