PEARSALL, Texas – Texas Department of Public Safety troopers with Operation Lone Star found more than 300 people attempting to cross into the United States illegally in just one week.
Many people who are seeking asylum in the U.S. or another form of legal status are placed in an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility.
Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) San Antonio acting field office director (FOD) Sylvester M. Ortega told KSAT that they are “always prepared” for a possible influx of detainees.
ERO falls under ICE, and one of the South Texas facilities is the Pearsall facility. KSAT was able to tour the facility in September with the warning that no cameras or recording devices were allowed inside the detention center.
According to ICE, the Pearsall detention center has a maximum capacity of 1,842 people. ICE was unable to provide an exact number of people currently detained in the center. However, the agency confirmed there are more than 1,750 detainees inside of the Pearsall detention center.
“Normally, we have influxes in waves,” Ortega said. “So, usually, summertime is our heaviest time. Right now, because of certain policies and procedures that we have in place, the influx has not happened yet.”
While the expected influx has not yet happened, DPS troopers with Operation Lone Star continue to make apprehensions in border towns of more than 100 people at a time.
On Sept. 30, DPS troopers in Eagle Pass located a group of 230 illegal immigrants. On Oct. 2, the Texas Army National Guard requested DPS assistance. Troopers located and took in 135 people attempting to cross the border illegally. These two sets of apprehensions included people from Central Asia, West Asia, South America, and North America.
At least 41 of these detainees were taken to the Val Verde Processing Center, roughly two hours from the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall. According to the ICE website, there are 20 processing and detention centers in Texas. That does not include the Dilley facility, a center that was opened in 2014 and closed in 2024 to cut costs.
The Dilley facility was used to house women specifically and is now closed. It was about twenty minutes from the Pearsall facility. However, ICE officials said its closure did not impact the Pearsall facility as it only houses high-classification female detainees. A majority of the detainees at the Pearsall facility are men of low, medium, and high classifications.
Classifications are determined based on the person’s criminal history or lack thereof, with low classification being the lowest-risk people who are dressed in navy or dark blue uniforms at the facility. Medium-classification detainees are dressed in orange uniforms, and high-classification detainees are dressed in red. Some detainees can be separated into single units for either their safety or others safety. People who are housed in units for one person have all their movements tracked in the facility.
People who are low and medium classifications can be housed in dorms with up to 100 beds per room. Each of the dorm-style rooms has a line of telephones that detainees can use to pay to contact a person outside of the facility, whether that’s an attorney or a family member. Detainees are only able to make their initial phone calls inside the facility for free.
The Pearsall facility is also equipped with individual pods for detainees to take phone calls regarding their asylum cases. There’s a room of 34 pods that have a clear wall on the outside so the detainee can be seen while inside, but the pods are soundproof, so anyone outside of their individual pod cannot hear their conversation.
People who are taken to an ICE detention facility can stay there until they’ve “exhausted all legal options” to remain in the U.S., according to an ICE.
“One of the main misconceptions is that the detention facilities are prisons. ERO does not hold non-citizens for punitive reasons,” Ortega said.
According to an ICE, if all legal options are exhausted, an order of removal is issued. Arrangements are then made for the person to be returned to their home country unless their home country cannot receive them, in which case, they’ll remain in ICE custody.
“ERO is committed to public safety,” Ortega said. “We want to make sure that our communities are safe from any criminality or gang affiliations. We do work with our partners in law enforcement to make sure that national security threats are addressed as well as public safety threats.”