Residents want local governments to end contracts that let ICE train on their gun ranges

Residents in a Southern California city want local police to stop letting federal immigration agents train at a publicly owned firing range

ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers training at a local gun range largely went unnoticed by residents of one Southern California city for more than a decade, until President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the recent fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents.

The arrangement in Escondido, a city of about 150,000 people north of San Diego surrounded by farms and horse ranches, has sparked weeks of demonstrations. Residents are demanding that the city stop allowing ICE agents to train at the local police department range, reflecting growing discontent across the country with the administration's immigration actions.

“We don’t want ICE anywhere near Escondido or fraternizing with the police,” said Richard Garner, 71, while rallying against the deal outside the city’s police station.

A majority of Americans in recent polls have said Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into American cities. Beyond the mass street demonstrations in Minneapolis, people in communities from New York to California are objecting to longstanding contracts between ICE and local governments for services ranging from the use of training facilities to parking spaces. The agency has also angered local communities caught off guard by ICE's plans to occupy giant warehouses, some that could house as many as 10,000 immigration detainees.

Amid the debate, funding for the Department of Homeland Security has been put on hold. Democrats are saying they will not help approve more money until new limits are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good last month in Minneapolis.