Escondido, California — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers training at a local gun range went largely unnoticed by residents of a Southern California city for more than a decade, until… President Donald Trump’s campaign against immigration and the recent fatal shootings of American citizens by federal agents.
The arrangement in Escondido, a city of about 150,000 people north of San Diego surrounded by farms and horse pastures, sparked weeks of demonstrations. Residents are demanding that the city stop allowing ICE agents to train within their local police department, reflecting growing dissatisfaction across the country with the department’s immigration actions.
“We don’t want ICE to be anywhere near Escondido or to fraternize with the police,” Richard Garner, 71, said as he rallied against the deal outside the city’s police station.
Most Americans lately Opinion polls indicate Trump has ‘gone too far’ In sending federal immigration agents to American cities. Along with massive street demonstrations in Minneapolis, people in communities from New York to California are objecting to long-standing contracts between ICE and local governments for services ranging from use of training facilities to parking spaces. The agency also angered local communities who were caught off guard ICE plans to occupy giant warehousesSome of them can house up to 10,000 detained migrants.
In the midst of this debate, funding for the Department of Homeland Security was suspended. Democrats say they won’t help approve even more money New frontiers They were placed in federal immigration operations after two American citizens were shot and killed Alex Pretty and Rene is good Last month in Minneapolis.
The Escondido City Council is scheduled to discuss the contract with ICE at a meeting Wednesday.
Unlike many California cities, Escondido has had a particularly close alliance with ICE in the past allowing immigration officers to work at police headquarters and coordinate vehicle stops. That partnership ended after California passed a law in 2017 limiting such cooperation with immigration officials.
Protesters in Escondido said they were unaware of the contract allowing ICE to train at a shooting range in the city’s foothills until advocates found the agreement online. They said they feared announcing the deal would 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 provide support to an agency they don’t trust will follow American laws. Anxiety is high, both among immigrants and American citizens who feel anxious Masked federal immigration agents ′ use Deadly force.
Escondido is providing the space under a deal ICE signed in 2024 and renewed this year, even though ICE has been training at the outdoor range off a winding road outside downtown Escondido for more than a decade, Police Capt. Eric Withholt said.
The city will receive $22,500 annually for up to three years under the agreement that includes 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,” Withholt said, adding that 22 agencies use the site and each brings their own main range, targets and munitions.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has not commented on the backlash or confirmed the locations where its officers are training, citing security concerns.
But several of these sites have come to light as communities demand an end to such agreements.
In Cottage Grove, Minnesota, 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Minneapolis, Ruth Jones and other residents asked the community to end their contract that allows ICE to use its regional training center. But Mayor Myron Bailey said the center was built with state bond funding and leased to about 60 law enforcement agencies and other groups, including ICE.
“Contractually, we cannot discriminate against any public agency,” Bailey said in a statement.
in IslipIn New York, community members urged local officials last year to cancel a long-standing contract to use a rifle range for training, but the local government also kept the agreement.
HartfordThe state of Connecticut has moved to terminate a contract for ICE employees to use a city-owned parking lot.
Not everyone in Escondido opposes the city’s contract with ICE. Luke Beckwith, 26, said he felt access to the site should be left to the police.
“Personally, I don’t care,” Beckwith said. “It brings revenue to the city.”
Edgar, who is from Mexico and asked that his last name be withheld because of deportation concerns, said banning ICE from the city’s gun range would not remove the threat facing immigrants like him.
“If they want to come, they will come,” he added.