After more than four hours of public speakers, a majority of the Escondido City Council Wednesday said they support maintaining a contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for use of the city-owned firearms training range.
Councilmember Judy Fitzgerald said as a former law enforcement officer that she knows how important training is and that she strongly supports maintaining the contract with the agency, better known as ICE.
“We should welcome any opportunity to create spaces for officers to improve their abilities,” she said.
Consuelo Martinez was the only council member who spoke in opposition to the contract. She made a motion to cancel the contract, but failed to get a second needed for a vote.
“I do believe that ICE is a rogue agency. It’s unaccountable,” she said. “I want to protect you. I hear you. I see you.”
Before the council’s discussion at the often-chaotic meeting, members of the public pleaded with council members to cancel the contract.
Anthony DiMartino, an Escondido resident, told the council he gets anxious every time his young son leaves the house with his grandparents, fearful that they’ll be targeted because of how they look. Like more than half of Escondido residents, DiMartino is Latino.
“I no longer feel safe in my city,” he said. “It shouldn’t be this way, and it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Before public comments, Police Chief Ken Plunkett gave an overview of the history of the firing range and the contract. He said there could be legal and financial ramifications if the contract were canceled now.
Deputy Mayor Joe Garcia said he was concerned that if the contract was canceled there would be retribution from the federal government.
“I am concerned that the violence that has happened other places could come to Escondido,” he said.
Escondido Mayor Dane White asked for an informational item on the topic to be placed on Wednesday’s agenda after news broke about the contract.
Councilmember Christian Garcia said he doesn’t want “vigilantes or poorly trained people” patrolling Escondido. However, he said that he values the work that the Department of Homeland Security does to curb drug and human trafficking.
Many people watched the meeting from an overflow room because the council chambers quickly filled up before the meeting started. Early on in the meeting, there were chants from that overflow room as well as banging on the chamber door as people spoke.
At one point nearly three hours into the meeting, Mayor White called a recess after audience members who were upset about time limits for speakers started shouting at the city clerk and members of the council.
Since news of the contract started to spread last month, members of the public have passionately spoken out against the contract at every City Council meeting.
“Wherever ICE is, no one is safe, citizen or immigrant alike,” Escondido resident Robin Ferguson told the council.
Out of more than 100 public speakers, only two spoke in favor of maintaining the contract, saying they support law enforcement.
Escondido awarded the one-year contract to the Department of Homeland Security last month for $22,500 with two optional one-year extensions for a potential total of $67,500. The contract was approved without the need to go to the City Council because it was below the threshold that required council approval.
Escondido has operated its 22-acre training facility outside the city on Valley Center Road since the 1940s. It is made available to other agencies as needed, usually for a fee to cover the cost of operations.
ICE teams have used the firing range since at least 2013. It’s one of about a dozen local, state and federal agencies that use the facility. However, some speakers said that current ICE leadership can’t be compared with those under previous administrations.
“The current ICE is not your father’s ICE. The current ICE is criminals,” Escondido resident Joe Muga said. “Shame on you to knowingly afflict fear on our community, especially those who are Latino.”
A coalition of civic and religious groups organized a rally before the meeting that included speakers, anti-ICE signs and information for community involvement. There were more than 100 people at the rally.
“This is our money. This is our city. This is our community. And we’re going to keep it safe,” Vista City Councilmember Corinna Contreras said at the rally. “No one is safe until everyone is safe.”
Several of the public speakers lambasted the city’s historic cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“I have seen attack after attack after attack,” Escondido resident Alejandra Ramos said. “This is a rerun of over two decades.”
Most local agencies, including Escondido, routinely cooperated with federal immigration enforcement until state Senate Bill 54 took effect in 2018. The law prohibits police from asking individuals about their immigration status or holding them for immigration authorities except when they have criminal convictions. It also specifies that schools, hospitals and courthouses are not to assist with federal immigration enforcement efforts, and that local agencies are not to provide federal immigration officers with private information such as phone numbers and home addresses.
Community members hold up signs in protest against a contract renewal with DHS and the use of the city’s firing range at Escondido City Hall on Wednesday.(Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)