According to CalMatters Housing, San Diego County supervisors are moving to ban federal immigration agencies from using county-owned firearms training facilities. Two supervisors, Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and Chair Pro Tem Paloma Aguirre, argue that public county resources should not support federal immigration operations, particularly what they characterize as aggressive enforcement tactics that affect local residents.
The supervisors point to what they see as a pattern of disruptive immigration raids in the county. CalMatters reporting found that immigration arrests increased significantly during a recent period, and federal authorities removed more than sixteen thousand people from San Diego County over a span of months. High-profile operations have included raids at restaurants and arrests outside schools, which the supervisors say generate fear in communities and may discourage residents from cooperating with law enforcement.
The county currently allows immigration agencies to use the San Diego Regional Firearms Training Center in Otay Mesa and a separate range at a Marine Corps installation. According to the board, these agreements bring in roughly one hundred twenty-six thousand dollars in annual revenue and were approved administratively without requiring a board vote when they were initially signed in twenty twenty-one. The supervisors plan to bring their proposal to vote, seeking to terminate both agreements.
Federal immigration authorities did not respond to CalMatters' inquiries, though a Customs and Border Patrol official indicated through another outlet that losing training facilities could affect operations at border crossings and the airport. The supervisor who addressed this criticism dismissed it as an exaggeration, noting the contracts represent a small portion of federal operations.
This push reflects broader county efforts to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The county passed what they call the CLEAR ordinance in January to restrict immigration agents' access to non-public county spaces, and supervisors recently won a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over health inspections of a local detention facility.
What I am seeing locally here in the Bay Area is how these debates down in San Diego reflect tensions that we're grappling with statewide about the role county facilities play in federal enforcement. Whether you're a buyer, seller, or someone just trying to understand your community's direction, these policy decisions ultimately shape what kind of environment we're creating for people to live and work in our regions.
