All Eyes on Escondido to Stop Doing Business With ICE

ESCONDIDO, Calif. — After the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to end license agreements allowing ICE and CBP to train at two county-owned and leased firing ranges, community leaders, attorneys, and Escondido residents say the city is now the last major local holdout still renting range space to the rogue agency. They’re calling on Mayor Dane White, the City Council and Escondido Police Chief Ken Plunkett to not renew a similar firing range agreement with ICE/HSI when it comes up for renewal later this year.

Escondido’s Police Department signed a three-year, $67,500 contract in 2024 that runs from January 2026 through January 2027 and allows up to 200 agents to use the range up to 20 days a year. Mayor White and City Council members ignored the public’s outcry and refused to cancel the agreement at a five-hour meeting on February 25, 2026, despite hundreds of residents turning out in opposition and a petition that had drawn more than 2,500 local signatures. With the contract’s period of performance ending in January 2027, organizers say the renewal decision is the next real opportunity to break ties with ICE, and that the objections raised in February have not gone away.

Organizers point to continued reporting that ICE and its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) personnel have been directly involved in highly politicized and often violent “immigration” raids in San Diego and Escondido, and in multiple documented cases of abuse, and argue that the county’s decision this week removes the excuse that Mayor White made in February for keeping the contract, that other jurisdictions were still willing to host ICE training.

At the County hearing this week, Escondido Councilmember Consuelo Martinez stated, “As local leaders and policymakers, we have a responsibility to make sure taxpayer-funded facilities and public assets are not contributing to an immigration enforcement system that is inflicting fear and cruelty on our communities. I commend the County for taking action. We may not control federal immigration policy, but we absolutely have a say in how our local public resources are used. We have both the power and the responsibility to protect our communities. This is how we stop the harm and madness inflicted to our residents. Thank you Supervisors…and to all of us present and listening, please… continue to speak up.”

Community organizations, Escondido residents, and community leaders shared their thoughts about the Supervisors‘ decision, and what it means for Escondido.

“The action by the county sets a good leadership example for Mayor and City Council to follow. It shows that elected officials can stand up and protect residents. They already know where this community stands. It’s time to end Escondido’s ties to ICE,” said Maria Wallace, Escondido District 1 resident.

Speaking at the Board hearing, Escondido resident Gladys Delgadillo said, “I will always remember being in school and learning that my friends’ parents were being taken away during the Bush ICE raids. My community has always recognized ICE as a threat to our families, and the Trump Administration has made that threat more severe. Last year, over half of those arrested by ICE in San Diego and Imperial Counties had no criminal histories – nearly three thousand neighbors taken for doing no harm. The way ICE operates is antithetical to our values as San Diegans and I support all efforts to cease working with them!”

“We’ve seen ICE shoot working parents in the streets, and round up Escondido residents in the most brutal way, and the Mayor doesn’t seem to care, but his constituents sure do,” said S.G. Sarmiento, an attorney for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). “It‘s clear these contracts weren’t a minor lapse in judgment, it’s a public safety threat, it’s a liability. Now all eyes are on Escondido to see whether the Mayor and Council will keep doing business that puts Escondido families at risk.”

“During the February 25th Council Session where residents pleaded with City Council to consider ending the firing range agreement with ICE/HSI, the City pointed to the difficulties of cancelling an already signed contract. After seeing the outcry from Escondido residents, and the violence being committed by agents like this both here in Escondido, in San Diego, and across the country, the decision they now face is much different. EPD and the City need to choose between knowingly inviting rogue, lawless federal agents into the city, or support the public safety and well being of Escondido residents by allowing the contract to expire.” said Richard Cannon, an organizer with 50501 North County San Diego.

“Renting range space to ICE puts our residents at greater risk, not less. The abuses we’ve seen from ICE point to something far more serious than a training gap — they point to units operating without the basic standards and accountability we expect of law enforcement,” said Laura Hunter from Escondido Indivisible, “After the shootings in Minneapolis, the federal response was to investigate protesters and advocacy organizations rather than accountability for the killings. As a moral, legal, and fiscal matter, it is now crystal clear, ICE is far outside expected norms. We should not be in business with them.”

Background

• San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on August 18, 2026 to end ICE and CBP training agreements at the county-owned San Diego Regional Firearms Training Center in Otay Mesa and a Navy-owned range at MCAS Miramar leased by the county. Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer called continued cooperation with the administration’s immigration enforcement effort “immoral.” Supervisors Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond dissented.
• After the vote, San Diego County Sheriff Martinez agreed to stop ICE use of county facilities stating, in the Escondido Times Advocate, “Community trust and strong relationships are the cornerstone of effective local policing. Our authority to enforce the law depends on the trust and confidence of the communities we serve, and I always balance my decisions based on community trust and public safety.”
• Escondido’s contract with ICE is separate from the county’s and remains in place. It runs through January 14, 2027. However, it must be extended every year and is up for renewal.

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