Immigration Bond Lawyer in San Antonio, TX

Where people arrested in San Antonio are held

ICE's San Antonio field office, at 1777 NE Loop 410, covers Central Texas. Adults it arrests in Bexar County and the surrounding counties are commonly taken to the South Texas ICE Processing Center at 566 Veterans Drive in Pearsall, operated by GEO Group, to the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center in Karnes City, or to the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, north of Austin. Families are held at Dilley or Karnes. The first thing a family needs is the person's location and A-number; the ICE online detainee locator shows both, and the facilities have detainee information lines. We do this search the same day a family calls. A Mexican citizen in ICE custody also has the right to have the Consulate General of Mexico notified; the consulate at 127 Navarro Street can confirm identity and issue a passport or consular ID, which a bond application often needs.

Bond from the judge

For a person held at Pearsall, the bond hearing is at the Pearsall Immigration Court, which sits inside the South Texas ICE Processing Center. The hearing notice gives the date and the court; for people held at Karnes or Hutto, the notice names the court assigned to that facility. We file a written motion with a sponsor package: a letter from the relative who will house the client, proof of that person's status and address, evidence of the client's family ties, work history and time in San Antonio, and anything that answers the government's concerns. The judge decides two things, whether the person is a danger and whether they are a flight risk, and sets an amount or denies bond. The judge can also lower a bond ICE set.

Not everyone is eligible. Certain convictions require mandatory detention, and people classified as arriving aliens or placed in expedited removal are outside the judge's bond authority. Beyond that, the rules on who may receive bond, particularly people who entered without inspection, have shifted in the past year, and the answer can depend on the hearing date and the current state of the case law. We tell families at the first conversation which rule applies and whether the better path is a bond motion, a parole request to the ERO San Antonio Field Office, or a habeas petition in federal court. When a client chooses to accept return rather than wait in detention, our Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua offices receive them and keep working the U.S. case.

An immigration bond is paid in full by a person with lawful status and valid identification, who becomes the obligor; ICE tells the obligor where and how to pay, and it is not paid in installments. Once paid, release from Pearsall or Karnes follows. The person must then attend every hearing; the case moves from the detained docket to the non-detained San Antonio Immigration Court at 800 Dolorosa Street, or to the court nearest the address where they will live, and the bond is returned at the end of the case if every hearing was attended and any order was obeyed. Call before anyone drives to Pearsall: visiting hours, document drop-off and who can pay all follow the facility's rules, and a wasted trip costs a day. We confirm the client's location and the next hearing date first, then tell the family exactly what to bring.