Escondido residents denounce contract with ICE

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The Escondido City Council refused to cancel a contract to share a police shooting range with ICE after a five-hour meeting in which protesters called the immigration agency a danger to residents.

“Wherever ICE is, no one is safe: not citizens, not immigrants,” Escondido resident Robin Ferguson told City Hall.

The Escondido Police Department has leased its shooting range to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2013 and signed a formal contract with the agency in 2024, Police Chief Ken Plunkett said.

A town hall debate on the issue on Wednesday drew about 200 protesters carrying signs with phrases such as “ICE Out!” and “Make Good Trouble,” as well as various profanities. Hundreds of cars honked their horns at the busy intersection.

During the meeting, which ran from 5 to 10 p.m., dozens of members of the public denounced the agreement, calling ICE’s activities in San Diego communities “state-sponsored terrorism” and denouncing the city’s contract as “blood money.”

Council member Consuelo Martinez suggested ending the contract immediately and said she considers ICE a “dishonest agency.”

Other councilors did not support his proposal and left the contract in place. They argued that the firearms training would allow ICE to operate more safely, or that canceling the contract would draw the ire of the Trump administration and trigger increased immigration actions in Escondido.

“As far as the escalation, it’s already happening,” Martinez said, citing recent immigration arrests in the majority-Hispanic city. “As far as Minneapolis coming to Escondido, it’s already here. Terminating that contract doesn’t put us in the crosshairs. It’s already here.”

The Escondido ICE contract

Escondido police operate the shooting range on Valley Center Road for their own training and lease it to other agencies, Capt. Eric Whitolt said. The $67,500 contract covers three years at an annual cost of $22,500 and allows up to 200 agents for a maximum of 20 days per year.

That contract has sparked outrage among activists and local elected leaders as San Diego communities face aggressive immigration crackdowns. This was reported by CalMatters San Diego immigration arrests up 1,500% between May and October compared to the same period last year.

Whitolt said the city does not provide any support or resources other than using the shooting range.

“They go out there, train on their own,” he said. “We don’t train them, we don’t train with them and then they leave at the end of the day.”

That didn’t appease protesters at the council meeting, who said they feared the shared use of facilities would eventually lead to joint operations.

“Once we open that door, it becomes harder to close it,” Escondido resident Angela Spuses said. “Tonight is not about bullets or targets. It’s about boundaries.”

Council member Judy Fitzgerald, a former police officer with the Oceanside and Carlsbad police departments, said she understands the horror of the recent ICE killings, but said training is needed to prevent it.

“I think the shootings we’ve seen involving ICE are tragic and also show the need for well-trained officers at all levels of law enforcement,” he said.

Mary Davis, a member of the San Diego County Alpine Community Planning Group and one of only two speakers who supported the treaty, said firearms training is necessary to develop muscle memory and marksmanship skills.

“I urge you to honor this treaty,” he said. “I have people come to me wanting to buy a gun, and my first question is always: How often are they going to practice with this gun?”

How to shoot is easy. When shooting is hard.

But Ronald Willis, a Marine Corps firearms instructor, said ICE agents need training in constitutional law, de-escalation and decision-making, not just target practice.

“Shooting is easy to practice,” he said. “Photography is hard, especially to do it well.”

Many speakers argued that the $22,500-a-year contract offers limited benefits at a high cost to the city.

“It’s a minimal financial impact, but the impact on community confidence is significant,” Escondido resident Juan Vargas said. “When people are afraid to interact with law enforcement, public safety is weakened for everyone.”

Local activists protested the agreement as news site LA Taco reported it last month and over 2,500 people signed a petition asking city leaders to cancel it.

The dispute also drew unusual opposition from other elected leaders. on Monday, 33 local officials sent a letter demanding that Escondido void the contract. Officials, including Democratic Assemblyman David Alvarez, San Diego County supervisors, neighboring city council members and school board members, wrote that cooperation with ICE has “harmful consequences that reach beyond city limits” and “is inconsistent with Escondido’s core values.”

Local political leaders and candidates also denounced the ICE contract at Wednesday’s meeting, saying the scope-sharing agreement compromises the safety of residents.

“We know our immigrant communities care about public safety, but what ICE is doing is not public safety,” said Amar Campa-Najjar, a candidate for San Diego’s 48th Congressional District. “They undermine public safety. They terrorize communities.”

Vista Councilwoman Corina Contreras said the Escondido City Council should have voted on the contract instead of leaving it up to police approval.

“It’s not right to keep this secret and behind closed doors,” he told council members.

City officials said the deal was below the $200,000 threshold for council approval, and Mayor Dane White argued it would be impossible for council members to track what he said are thousands of small contracts the city maintains each year.

The Escondido gun range is one of only a few in San Diego County, and the city leases it for about 200 days a year to various local, state and federal agencies, Whittolt said.

The contract allows ICE agents to use the range for half or full days and provides basic facilities, including a rifle range, pistol range, equipment storage room and classroom. Police officials said the shooting range had no running water, no electricity, no staff and no supplies.

“They bring their own firearms, targets and personnel,” Whittolt said. “We lay the ground and they take care of everything else.”

CalMatters requested records of ICE’s use of the facility, but the city did not provide them.

City officials are worried that bad things will happen

Plunkett said the city could face consequences for terminating the contract, including legal action from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), cancellation fines or the loss of up to $1 million in federal grants. Municipal officials have indicated that the contract contains a clause that allows them to terminate it without penalty, but some have expressed fear of retaliation from federal authorities.

Councilman Joe Garcia said he has been detained and handcuffed by ICE agents before and that he understands the resistance to the agency’s support. However, he warned that ICE agents would retaliate if the city rejected the arms deal.

“You testify and you make it very clear: this is a vindictive organization,” he said. “I firmly believe that if the contract is cancelled, I firmly believe that all these bad things will happen.”

Escondido has a history of cooperation with ICE; In the early 2000s, the city had a controversial collaboration with the agency conduct joint DUI checks which also served for immigration control. Critics have slammed the program, arguing that it discourages cooperation between local police and the city’s majority Latino immigrant communities. Speakers on Wednesday complained that the contract with ICE perpetuates those conflicts.

“The reality is that this has divided our community,” Garcia said. “It hurt so many people. Whatever decision is made, there are going to be a lot of upset people.”