The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a policy on Tuesday that bans federal immigration enforcement agencies from using county facilities for firearms training.
The proposal was put forward by County Supervisors Paloma Aguirre and Terra Lawson-Remer after hearing from dozens of county residents and activists. The final vote was 3-2.
“The license agreements between San Diego County and the federal Department of Homeland Security/ICE for the use of the San Diego Regional Firearm Training Center and Miramar Firearm Training Center will end 10 days after the federal government receives notice from the county,” said a statement from Lawson-Remer’s office.
County Sheriff Kelly Martinez announced Tuesday that she has notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that they will no longer have access to or be allowed to use sheriff’s facilities for purposes of training and firearms qualifications.
“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,” Martinez said in a statement.
“While ICE serves a primary mission of enforcing federal immigration law, (Customs and Border Protection’s) mission is to protect the American people, safeguard our borders and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity at the ports of entry, including land borders, cruise ship terminals and airports,” Martinez added.
Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe voted in favor of the proposal along with Aguirre and Lawson-Remer, while their colleagues Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond were opposed.
In a statement Tuesday, Lawson-Remer said the county is “not in the business of sacrificing the lives, safety and well-being of our residents in exchange for blood money from the federal government.”
“Our public facilities should serve our residents, not support federal immigration operations that disregard due process and the rule of law,” the board chair said earlier. “If the Trump administration wants to spend billions on this flawed deportation agenda, they can use their own federal resources to carry it out. Our community is a home, not a target.”
The county has existing agreements with ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection allowing the agencies to use both training facilities.
“The federal government cannot terrorize our families all week and rent our firing ranges on the weekend — not in this county, not anymore,” Aguirre said. “Our core job is to keep people safe, yet families across San Diego are living in fear just going to school or the grocery store. Ending these agreements stops our taxpayer property from being used to enable that harm.”
During public comment, many in favor of the ban said that ICE raids have torn communities apart.
“Fascism advances because institutions accommodate it, because somebody decides, ‘It’s just a facility, it’s just cooperation, it’s just training, it’s just one agreement,'” one woman said. “And every one of these decisions makes the next one easier.”
“We should not allow the federal government to hold our communities hostage with longer wait times,” she added.
Lawson-Remer said stopping federal immigration authorities from using the firearm ranges won’t prevent law enforcement officers from doing their jobs.
“It boggles the mind to think that a $110,000 contract at a county training facility could be the linchpin for a multibillion-dollar cross-border operation,” she said. “That seems to be a distraction from the real issue at stake here.”
According to Aguirre and Lawson-Remer, letting ICE use county facilities conflicts with the Civil Liberties Enforcement and Accountability Rules ordinance, which restricts federal law enforcement access to county facilities without a warrant.
They added that letting the agreements stand also violates civil liberties and Know Your Rights programs.
“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,” Escondido City Councilwoman Consuelo Martinez said at the news conference.
“We may not control federal immigration policy, but we absolutely have a say in how our local public resources are used.”
