San Diego County cuts ties with federal immigration agents at firing ranges
San Diego County supervisors voted to stop letting ICE and CBP train at county-owned firing ranges, citing harm to immigrant communities.
San Diego County has voted to end long-standing agreements that allowed federal immigration agencies to use local firing ranges for training. The 3-2 decision on Tuesday terminates contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at a county-owned facility near the Mexican border and at a Navy-owned range on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, which the county leases.
Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, who supported the move, said federal immigration agents have harmed communities locally and nationwide. "We just don't want to be complicit in that," she said. The vote follows pressure from residents who see the training as support for the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, which they say has split families and led to deadly clashes in places like Minnesota and Maine.
Opponents argued the decision hurts public safety. Supervisor Jim Desmond said law enforcement should train together, and that moving agents farther away accomplishes nothing. "ICE has overreached and overstepped, but how do you fix that? You fix it with more training," he said.
CBP Chief Rodney Scott said the county range is used to train 1,700 officers. Without it, he said, mandatory firearms training would be moved elsewhere, reducing local staffing and potentially affecting trade and travel across the border. He called the decision "unprecedented" and said it undermines border security.
CBP has used the county training center since 2017, and ICE since 2021. Federal agents logged more than 3,300 training hours there since 2024. ICE also had an agreement since 2022 to use the Miramar range. County officials who backed the termination said they want to preserve trust with immigrant communities and keep local police distinct from federal agents. Board chair Terra Lawson-Remer said, "Our community is a home, not a target," adding that if the administration wants to pursue its deportation agenda, it should use its own federal resources.