ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) – The City of Escondido is facing political pushback regarding a renewed contract with the Department of Homeland Security.
ABC 10News reported this week that the Escondido Police Department said it renewed a contract with Immigration & Customs Enforcement this January to allow its agents to use Escondido PD’s firing range.
The Department said, while there were previous agreements with ICE dating back to 2014 to use the range, the current controversy is center around the 2024 contract with the federal government that was renewed.
“Recently we found out that the city of Escondido had renewed a contract they had with ICE,” Richard Cannon, who created a Change.Org petition to end the contract, said. “So the Change.org petition is to pressure the city council to work out with the government to cancel that contract.”
Cannon’s petition has nearly 2,000 signatures thus far. He told ABC 10News the reason for the petition is following the unrest in Minneapolis.
“We wanted to let the city council know that it wasn't acceptable that they should continue to allow ICE agents into our community and use those firing ranges,” Cannon said.
ABC 10News spoke with Escondido’s Mayor Dane White on Tuesday and Councilmember Christian Garica on Wednesday about the contract.
White told us previously that the contract was renewed solely through the Escondido Police Department, that the city council wasn’t aware of the renewal, and didn’t vote to do so.
“Truthfully, I would have liked to have an opportunity to have that conversation before the stir that this has caused in the community,” White said on Tuesday.
Garcia said he didn’t know about the renewal either.
“I think it makes sense that it is coming to the city council or it was brought to our attention,” Garcia said. “And so I think what we had to do is we had to approach this in a way that's reflected to the community's concerns.”
As we reported, the City Council is set to meet near the end of February to discuss the contract.
ABC 10News asked both White and Garcia about the calls from those to end it.
"The city council certainly does have that authority, but I think one of the things that needs to be taken into consideration and cannot be ignored is the consequences of that action and the question of does that make us a bigger target for ICE moving forward,” White said.
Both were asked how they would feel if ending the contract came before the City Council for a vote.
“What I really want is I want the chief of police and the police department as a whole to revisit the terms of the contract and make sure that they are being sensitive to the community's needs and the community's concerns as well,” Garcia said.
Those who are pushing for the contract to be ended are hoping the council decides to do just that.
"They've been threatening to sue every city, state agency in the entire country for not falling in line with exactly what they want to do, whether or not that's legal, so. Bring it on is what I would tell them,” Cannon said.
