ESCONDIDO, Calif. – For over a decade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have quietly utilized a local gun range for training in a Southern California city, largely unnoticed by its residents. However, the spotlight shifted due to President Donald Trump’s heightened focus on immigration and recent tragic incidents involving U.S. citizens and federal agents.
Escondido, a quaint city nestled north of San Diego with a population of approximately 150,000, surrounded by picturesque farms and horse ranches, has become a hub of protest. Citizens are rallying to demand that the city terminate its agreement allowing ICE agents access to the police department’s shooting range, mirroring a national wave of dissent against the administration’s immigration policies.
“We want ICE out of Escondido and away from our police,” declared Richard Garner, 71, as he joined others in a protest outside the city’s police headquarters.
Recent polls indicate that a significant portion of Americans believe Trump’s deployment of federal immigration agents across U.S. cities has been excessive. Nationwide, from Minneapolis to New York and California, communities are voicing their opposition to long-standing agreements between ICE and local governments. These contracts, which include access to training facilities and parking spaces, now face scrutiny. Additionally, the agency’s controversial plans to establish massive detention centers in large warehouses, capable of holding up to 10,000 detainees, have further fueled public outrage.
In response to the escalating controversy, congressional funding for the Department of Homeland Security has been stalled. Democrats have declared they will withhold support for additional funding unless new restrictions are imposed on federal immigration activities, especially following the recent fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.
The Escondido City Council is set to deliberate on the existing ICE contract during their upcoming meeting on Wednesday.
Immigration and policing
Unlike many California cities, Escondido had an especially close alliance with ICE in the past that allowed immigration officers to work at police headquarters and coordinate on vehicle stops. That partnership ended after California passed a law in 2017 limiting such collaboration with immigration officials.
Protesters in Escondido said they were unaware of the contract allowing ICE to train at the gun range in the city’s hillsides until advocates found the agreement online. They said they fear word of the deal will make immigrants afraid to report crimes to local police, weakening public safety in a city where Latinos make up about half the population.
Some say they don’t want to give ICE agents a reason to come to their community or lend support to an agency they don’t trust will follow U.S. laws. The concern is high, both among immigrants and U.S. citizens who worry about masked federal immigration agents ′ use of deadly force.
Police Capt. Erik Witholt said Escondido provides the space under a deal signed by ICE in 2024 and renewed this year, though ICE has been training at the outdoor range off a winding road outside Escondido’s downtown for more than a decade.
The city will receive $22,500 a year for up to three years under the agreement involving the San Diego branch of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, which investigates crimes including human trafficking and drug smuggling.
“We don’t train with them. We don’t train them,” Witholt said, adding 22 agencies use the site and each brings its own range master, targets and ammunition.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not comment on the backlash and would not confirm locations where its officers train, citing security concerns.
But several of those locations have been brought to light as communities demand an end to such agreements.
Debates in other communities
In Cottage Grove, Minnesota, 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Minneapolis, Ruth Jones and other residents have been asking the community to end its contract allowing ICE to use its regional training center. But Mayor Myron Bailey said the center was built with state bond funding and is rented out to some 60 law enforcement agencies and other groups, including ICE.
“Contractually we cannot discriminate against any public agency,” Bailey said in a statement.
In Islip, New York, community members urged local officials last year to rescind a longstanding contract to use a rifle range for training, but the local government also kept the deal.
Hartford, Connecticut, has moved to end a contract for ICE employees to use a city-owned parking lot.
Not everyone in Escondido is opposed to the city’s contract with ICE. Luke Beckwith, 26, said he feels access to the site should be left up to police.
“I personally don’t care,” Beckwith said. “It’s bringing revenue to the city.”
Edgar, who is from Mexico and asked that his last name be withheld over deportation fears, said barring ICE from the city’s gun range will not remove the threat for immigrants like himself.
“If they want to come, they will come,” he said.
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