Ahead of planned immigration protests this weekend, San Antonio city leaders say they’re preparing to “support peaceful demonstrations” — while Texas GOP leaders are sending in reinforcements.
Crowds numbering in the thousands in Los Angeles have drawn tear gas and arrests as they protested President Donald Trump’s deportation policies. But so far, immigration protests in San Antonio have been relatively low key.
A few hundred protestors gathered outside City Hall on Sunday, holding signs with messages like “stop racist deportations” and “families belong together.”
On Saturday, a group called No Kings is organizing another event in Travis Park, with similar protests in nearby Boerne, Seguin and San Marcos. The Bexar County Democratic Party and North East Bexar County Democrats are two of several co-sponsors of the upcoming “Not My King, Not My Circus” protest.
An invitation says it’s a “national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies.” It also notes that a core principle is “a commitment to nonviolent action.
Another protest, planned by different organizers, is scheduled for Wednesday night at the Alamo, according to San Antonio officials.
On Wednesday morning, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, City Manager Erik Walsh, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus and Mayor-elect Gina Ortiz Jones held a press conference laying out the city’s plans to be involved, ensuring public safety.
“The San Antonio Police Department fully supports the right of peaceful demonstration,” McManus said. “We’ve established protocols to ensure demonstrations are managed safely and effectively … with strong emphasis on de-escalation and maintaining order.”
Meanwhile, Texas GOP leaders are preparing a bigger response.
San Antonio Police Department Assistant Chief Jesse Salame said Tuesday that McManus “was able to confirm that [Gov. Greg Abbott] sent members of the National Guard to San Antonio.”
McManus said Wednesday that so far, he hadn’t seen any activity at the protests that warranted such a response.
City officials received no outreach from the state, McManus said, and tracked down news of the National Guard deployment from other sources.
After learning of plans to send the National Guard, the Bexar County Democratic Party and other event organizers put out a statement reaffirming their commitment to “nonviolence and civil expression.”
Organizers of Saturday’s protest attended Wednesday’s press conference to speak with McManus and assure him of their plans to maintain a peaceful protest.
The move comes as the Trump administration has deployed the U.S. Marines and the National Guard to California, and is feuding with city and state leaders about its authority.
Nirenberg said on social media Tuesday night that “feelings of fear and frustration” about the federal government’s “crude interpretations of immigration law” and “cruel approach to human rights” were “more than justified.”
Still, he urged San Antonians to keep their protests peaceful, and vowed that local law enforcement was being sent to help out.
“We are confident that San Antonio knows how to do this right,” Nirenberg said.
Early test for a new mayor
In many recent examples, San Antonio’s level of protest for efforts like defunding the police, have been far more peaceful than in other large cities.
With a new progressive mayor coming into office, and ICE deportations happening across San Antonio, dealing with the issue could be an early test for Jones.
Jones said Tuesday that she was moved by a video of a San Antonio mother being taken into custody while yelling that her children were in school.
“If this woman was, in fact, the sole provider for that family, what is going to happen to those kids?” she said. “That’s my real concern with the approach that’s being taken at the federal level. There seems to be a real disregard for the kind of second and third order consequences of these decisions, and they’re impacting families and the most vulnerable.”
As for the protests, Jones said: “People have their First Amendment rights, right. They can peacefully protest.”
“Obviously, though, people should not engage in crimes or damage property, because there will be consequences as a result of that,” she said.
Jones did not provide remarks at the press conference Wednesday.
Nirenberg, meanwhile, was surrounded by TV cameras after the press conference.
He said San Antonio has been through many protests, and long been an outlier in its peaceful approach compared to other large cities.
“I think it’s about the residents and the culture of the city,” he told reporters Wednesday. “We are a city that embraces the diversity of cultures. Here, we are a city of many different communities coming together on common ground, working out conflicts. That’s our tradition.”
He also credited San Antonio’s high level of respect for law enforcement and service members.
“We’re a military city. We respect and appreciate service in uniform,” he said. “A lot of factors mix into the fact that San Antonio is a place where we defend the rights of our democracy and the citizens in it, and we will continue to do that.”
