According to CalMatters Housing, San Diego County supervisors are moving to ban federal immigration agencies from using the county's firearms training facilities in response to the current administration's deportation operations. Two supervisors, including Board President Terra Lawson-Remer, argued that public county facilities shouldn't serve as training grounds for what they characterize as mass deportation policies. They're seeking to end agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection that have been in place since 2021.
The supervisors say these immigration enforcement operations have created a climate of fear in their communities, with families afraid to send children to school, go to the grocery store, or walk to work. They point to high-profile enforcement actions including raids at a local restaurant and arrests near schools. CalMatters reported that immigration-related detentions increased dramatically in the county, and data from a local congressman showed that over 16,000 people were deported from San Diego County during a specific recent period.
The training contracts have generated relatively modest revenue for the county and were approved administratively without requiring a board vote. The supervisors' proposal would terminate these agreements and end use of another shooting range the county leases to the Marines. Federal immigration officials declined to comment on the proposal, though a border protection official reportedly warned that losing training opportunities could affect wait times at border crossings and the airport, a claim the supervisors disputed as unlikely given the contracts' small scale.
This effort follows other recent actions by the San Diego board to limit county cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Earlier this year, the county passed an ordinance restricting federal immigration agents' access to non-public county spaces, and in June the county won a lawsuit that allowed health inspections at a detention facility. The board's Democratic supervisors supported these measures while the two Republican members opposed them.
What I'm seeing locally here in the Bay Area is that San Diego's wrestling with these questions reflects broader tensions playing out across California counties. Communities are grappling with how to balance their relationships with federal agencies against protecting residents they serve. It's a real conversation that affects housing stability and neighborhood confidence, which ultimately impacts our real estate markets and the communities we work in every day.
