San Diego supervisors kick ICE out of county-owned taking pictures vary

A showdown is shaping up between San Diego’s Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff’s Division over whether or not federal immigration brokers ought to be allowed to proceed firearms coaching on a taking pictures vary owned by the county.

On Tuesday, the board voted 3-2 to terminate agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Safety over each companies’ use of the San Diego Regional Firearms Coaching Heart in Otay Mesa.

Nonetheless, Sheriff Kelly Martinez swiftly intervened. She mentioned that though she helps ending ICE’s firearms coaching on the website, she is going to enable CBP to persevering with utilizing the taking pictures vary for coaching. It’s unclear how the battle will play out.

The supervisors who voted in favor of terminating each ICE’s and CBP’s entry to the vary argued that brokers’ use of the power threatens the group’s belief in native authorities, following issues over use of drive throughout the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Nonetheless, the Sheriff’s Division, CBP, and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce all expressed issues that kicking CBP brokers out of the coaching middle would result in longer wait instances on the border and San Diego Worldwide Airport and damage the native economic system.

“CBP officers should be capable of full this [firearms] coaching effectively and shortly return to their duties on the border ports of entry, cruise ship terminals, and the airport,” the Sheriff’s Division mentioned in a press release Tuesday. “With out this capability, [border] lanes will shut and wait instances will probably be prolonged.”

The supervisors who wrote the movement, Paloma Aguirre and Terra Lawson-Remer, say that prolonged waits on the border are the accountability of the federal authorities.

“I share our enterprise group’s dedication to quick traces and a thriving border,” Aguirre informed the San Diego Union-Tribune. “The actual risk to that economic system is a federal authorities that pulls CBP officers off the lanes to run raids in American neighborhoods.”

Sheriff Martinez mentioned Tuesday that though ICE’s main mission is imposing federal immigration legislation, CBP is concentrated on safeguarding borders and financial prosperity at ports of entry.

“Too many individuals on each side of the border could be harmed by a choice to finish CBP’s use of the power,” Martinez mentioned. “As sheriff, I’ve an obligation to guard and serve everybody who lives in or enters San Diego County.”

Supervisors Aguirre and Lawson-Remer, nonetheless, identified that CBP brokers have been closely concerned within the Trump administration’s mass deportation marketing campaign.

They mentioned that elevated immigration enforcement had led weak households in San Diego County to worry that accessing public companies would expose them to deportation.

“When County amenities are utilized by federal immigration enforcement companies, that worry is compounded, making it more durable for residents to hunt medical care, report crimes, enroll kids at school, or have interaction with native establishments,” the merchandise states.

Aguirre and Lawson-Remer couldn’t instantly be reached for touch upon what actions is likely to be taken within the wake of the sheriff’s opposition.

The board vote was cut up alongside celebration traces, with Democratic Supervisors Aguirre, Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe in favor, and Republican Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson in opposition.

The agenda merchandise famous that ICE brokers eliminated greater than 16,000 folks from San Diego County between January 2025 and April 2026. It additionally acknowledged that there had been at the least 41 taking pictures incidents, leading to 11 fatalities, involving federal immigration brokers throughout Trump’s second time period.

Most of these shootings have concerned ICE brokers; there have additionally been cases, nonetheless, the place CBP brokers’ use of drive has been questioned.

In August 2025, for instance, CBP brokers opened fireplace at a car carrying a person and his 18-year-old son whereas conducting a site visitors cease in San Bernardino. CBP alleged that the dad accelerated towards officers, however federal prosecutors later dropped all expenses filed towards him.

Since 2024, ICE and CBP have logged about 3,350 coaching hours on the San Diego Regional Firearms Coaching Heart, in accordance with the county.

ICE and CBP entered the license agreements to coach on the Otay Mesa website in 2021, with ICE paying the county about $10,000 a 12 months and CBP paying about $117,000. ICE additionally entered a separate settlement with the county in 2022 to make use of a firing vary on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, which is owned by the Navy and leased to the county.

Neither settlement initially got here earlier than the board for a vote, as a result of the sum of money concerned was sufficiently small for them to be permitted administratively. An April investigation by native information group iNewsource introduced the agreements into public gentle, prompting the controversy over whether or not they need to be allowed to proceed.

A related debate performed out in February over ICE brokers’ use of the town of Escondido’s firing vary. Nonetheless, in that case the Metropolis Council opted to uphold its contract.