Escondido residents denounce contract with ICE for shooting range

from Deborah BrennanCalMatters

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The Escondido City Council refused to cancel a contract to share its police precinct 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: citizen or immigrant alike,” Escondido resident Robin Ferguson told the city council.

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

A City Council discussion on the issue on Wednesday drew about 200 protesters who held placards outside City Hall proclaiming “ICE OUT” and “Get in trouble” along with various obscenities. Hundreds of cars honked their horns at the busy intersection.

During the meeting, which ran from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., dozens of public speakers denounced the agreement, calling ICE’s activities in San Diego communities “state-sponsored terror” and denouncing the city’s contract as “blood money.”

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

Other council members did not support her proposal, leaving the contract in place. They argued that firearms training would allow ICE to operate more safely, or that canceling the contract would incur the wrath of the Trump administration and trigger increased immigration raids in Escondido.

“As far as the escalation, it’s already happening,” Martinez said, citing recent immigration arrests in the predominantly Hispanic city. “As far as Minneapolis coming to Escondido, it’s already here. Terminating this contract doesn’t put a target on our backs. It’s already here.”

Escondido’s ICE contract

Escondido police operate the range on Valley Center Road for their own training and lease it to other agencies, said police Capt. Eric Whitolt. The $67,500 contract covers three years at $22,500 per year and allows up to 200 agents for up to 20 days during the 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 immigration arrests in san diego quietly increased by 1500% between May and October compared to the same period of the previous year.

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

“They go up there and practice on their own,” he said. “We don’t train them, we don’t train with them and then they leave for the day when they’re done.”

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

“Once we open that door, it becomes harder to close,” said Escondido resident Angela Spews. “Tonight is not about bullets and 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 believe the ICE involved shootings that we’ve seen are tragic and they also show the need for well-trained officers at all levels of law enforcement,” she said.

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

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

“How to shoot is easy. When to shoot 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.

“It’s easy to train how to shoot,” he said. “When you shoot it’s hard, especially to do well.”

Multiple speakers argued that the $22,500-a-year contract offers limited benefit 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 engage with law enforcement, public safety is weakened for everyone.”

Local activists protested the agreement as news site LA Taco reported it last monthand over 2,500 people signed a petition urging city leaders to reverse it.

The dispute has drawn unusual opposition from other elected leaders as well. on Monday, 33 local officials sent a letter request by Escondido to rescind the contract. Officials, including Democratic Assemblyman David Alvarez, San Diego County supervisors, neighboring city council members and school board members, wrote that the partnership with ICE has “harmful consequences that transcend city limits” and “is not consistent 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 good that this has been secret and behind closed doors,” she told council members.

City officials said the agreement fell short of 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.

Escondido’s landfill is one of only a few in San Diego County, and the city leases it out 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 and classroom. Police officials said the range had no running water or electricity and no personnel or supplies.

“They bring their own firearms, targets and personnel,” Whittolt said. “We provide the field and they provide everything else.”

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

City officials worry ‘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 ICE, cancellation fines or the loss of up to $1 million in federal grants to the city. City officials said the contract contained a clause that allowed them to cancel without penalty, but some said they feared federal reprisals.

Councilman Joe Garcia said he has been stopped and handcuffed by ICE officers before and understands the resistance to supporting the agency. But he warned that ICE officials would retaliate if the city rejected the landfill contract.

“You have testified and made it so clear that this is an organization that is vindictive,” he said. “I believe that if the contract is voided, I believe that all these bad things will happen.”

Escondido has a history of working with ICE; In the early 2000s, the city maintained a controversial partnership with the agency for conduct joint DUI checkpoints which also served for immigration checks. Critics have condemned the program, saying it discourages cooperation between local police and immigrant communities in the predominantly Latino city. Speakers on Wednesday complained that the ICE contract perpetuates those conflicts.

“The reality that this has divided our community,” Garcia said. “It hurt so many people. No matter what decision is made, there are going to be so many people who are upset.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.