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The Escondido City Council declined to cancel a contract to share its police firing range with ICE, after a five-hour meeting where protestors 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 firing 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 of the item Wednesday drew about 200 protestors who held signs in front of city hall declaring “ICE out,” and “Make good trouble,” along with various obscenities. Hundreds of cars honked in approval at the busy intersection.
During the meeting, which stretched from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., scores of public speakers denounced the agreement, framing ICE activity in San Diego communities as “state-sponsored terror” and denouncing the city contract as “blood money.”
Councilmember Consuelo Martinez proposed terminating the contract immediately and said she considers ICE “a rogue agency.”
Other council members did not second her motion, leaving the contract in place. They argued that firearms training would enable ICE to operate more safely, or that cancelling the contract would draw the wrath of the Trump administration and trigger intensified immigration raids in Escondido.
“As far as the escalation it’s already happening,” Martinez said, citing recent immigration arrests in the majority Latino city. “As far as Minneapolis coming to Escondido, it’s already here. Terminating this contract does not put a target on our back. It’s already here.”
Escondido’s ICE contract
Escondido police operate the firing range on Valley Center Road for their own training, and lease it to other agencies, Police Captain Erik Witholt said. The $67,500 contract covers three years at $22,500 annually, and allows up to 200 agents for up to 20 days over the course of the year.
That contract has sparked outrage among activists and local elected leaders, as San Diego communities face aggressive immigration raids. CalMatters reported that immigration arrests in San Diego quietly surged by 1500% between May and October, compared to the same time period the previous year.
Witholt said the city provides no other support or resources beyond use of the range.
“They go up there, they do their training 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 reassure demonstrators at the council meeting, who said they fear that shared facility use will eventually lead to joint operations.
“Once we open that door it becomes harder to close,” Escondido resident Angela Spucess said. “Tonight isn’t about bullets and targets. It’s about boundaries.”
Councilmember Judy Fitzgerald, a former police officer with Oceanside and Carlsbad Police Departments, said she understood the horror over recent ICE killings, but said training is necessary to prevent that.
“I believe that the ICE involved shootings that we’ve seen are tragic, and they also show the need to have well-trained officials at all levels of law enforcement,” she said.
Mary Davis, a member of San Diego County’s Alpine Community Planning Group and one of only two speakers who supported the contract, said firearms training is necessary to develop muscle memory and shooting skills.
“I am urging you to keep this contract,” she said. “I have people who come to me and they want to buy a gun, and my first question to them is always, how often are you going to train with that gun?”
“How to shoot is easy. When to shoot is hard.”
But Ronald Willis, a Marine firearms instructor, said ICE agents need education on constitutional law, de-escalation and decision-making, not just target practice.
“How to shoot is easy to train,” he said. “When to shoot is difficult, especially to do well.”
Numerous speakers argued that the contract, at $22,500 per year, offered limited benefit at a steep cost to the city.
“That’s a minimal financial impact, but the impact on the community trust is significant,” Escondido resident Juan Vargas said. “When people are afraid to engage with law enforcement, public safety weakens for everyone.”
Local activists have protested the agreement since the news site LA Taco reported it last month, and more than 2,500 people signed a petition calling on city leaders to reverse it.
The dispute has also drawn unusual opposition from other elected leaders. On Monday, 33 local officials sent a letter asking Escondido to cancel the contract. The officials, including Democratic Assemblymember David Alvarez, San Diego County supervisors, neighboring city council members and school board members, wrote that the partnership with ICE has “harmful consequences that go beyond city limits” and “does not align with Escondido’s core values.”
Local political leaders and candidates also condemned the ICE contract at the meeting Wednesday, arguing that the range-sharing agreement compromises residents’ safety.
“We know that our immigrant communities care about public safety, but what ICE is doing is not public safety,” said Ammar Campa-Najjar, a candidate for the 48th Congressional district in San Diego. “They are undermining public safety. They are terrorizing communities.”
Vista Councilmember Corinna Contreras said the Escondido City Council should have voted on the contract, instead of entrusting it to police approval.
“This is not okay that this has been under wraps and behind closed doors,” she told council members.
City officials said the agreement fell below a $200,000 threshold for council approval, and Mayor Dane White argued that it would be impossible for council members to track what he estimated were thousands of small contracts the city maintains every year.
Escondido’s firing range is one of a handful in San Diego County, and the city leases it about 200 days per year to various local, state and federal agencies, Witholt said.
The contract allows ICE agents to use the range for half or full days, and provides basic facilities including a rifle range, handgun range, equipment storage and classroom. Police officials said the range has no running water or electricity, and does not provide staff or supplies.
“They bring their own firearms, targets and staff,” Witholt said. “We provide the grounds and they provide everything else.”
CalMatters requested records for ICE usage of the facility, but the city has not provided them.
City officials worry “bad things will happen”
Plunkett said the city could face consequences for terminating the contract, including legal action by the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, cancellation fines or loss of up to $1 million in federal grants to the city. City officials said the contract contains a clause that allows them to cancel without penalty, but some said they feared reprisal by federal authorities.
Councilmember Joe Garcia said he had been previously stopped and handcuffed by ICE officers, and understood opposition to supporting the agency. But he warned that ICE officials would retaliate if the city rejected the firing range contract.
“You have been testifying and expressed so clearly, this is an organization that is vengeful,” he said. “I do believe that if the contract is cancelled, I do believe that all these bad things are going to happen.”
Escondido has a history of working with ICE; in the early 2000s, the city maintained a controversial partnership with the agency to conduct joint DUI checkpoints that also served as immigration checks. Critics denounced the program, saying that it discouraged cooperation between local police and immigrant communities in the majority Latino city. Speakers Wednesday complained that the ICE contract perpetuates those conflicts.
“The reality that this has divided our community,” Garcia said. “This has hurt so many people. No matter what decision is made, there’s going to be so many people upset.”
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