NDLON Media Adv: Documents Reveal the Public was Right about ICE contract

Uncover The Truth About Escondido’s Business with ICE

For Immediate Release // Please Excuse Cross Posting

September 21, 2026
Contact:  SG Sarmiento, sgsarmiento@ndlon.org

Uncover The Truth About Escondido’s Business with ICE
Escondido Documents Reveal the Public was Right about ICE, Support Community Demands to Stop the Renewal of the Contract to Prevent Future Harm

Escondido, California – Documents disclosed through a Public Records Act request to the City of Escondido reveal that residents’ concerns about the city’s firing range contract with ICE were valid.  Just a few of the documents, detailed below, show a concerning disregard for the safety of Escondido residents and for the violence being committed by ICE and other agents of DHS in cities nationwide.  Among other things, the documents show that agents training in Escondido are supporting controversial deployments to other cities where serious abuses have taken place.  The documents also raise more questions – about how many and which city and police officials knew about the contract with ICE, for how long, and if any officials went out of their way to keep it from becoming public.  Find disclosures of interest and the publicly available links to the PRA documents below.  

In January 2026, Escondido and San Diego residents, and even government officials, were shocked to discover that their city was doing business with ICE, renting out the city-owned firing range as it became clear the agency is serving as Trump’s de facto secret police, carrying out violent raids and shootings in the street.  Despite thousands of residents and neighbors calling for an end to the contract, Mayor Dane White and Police Chief Ken Plunkett defended doing business with ICE.  In response, a coalition filed a Public Records Act request to get answers to these issues of public interest.  As the contract is up for renewal, all eyes are on Escondido’s Mayor, Chief of Police, and Councilmembers Joe Garcia, Christian Garcia, and Judy Fitzgerald to see if they will do the right thing, or if once again they will make excuses for ICE and Donald Trump.

DOCUMENTS REVEAL ESCONDIDO RESIDENTS WERE RIGHT.  

1. THE FIRING RANGE RENTAL IS ENABLING ABUSE IN OTHER CITIES.
ICE agents, based in San Diego, utilizing the Escondido firing range were deployed to Minneapolis precisely on the dates of the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting in the leg of Julio Sosa-Celis.  Documents reveal that ICE had to re-schedule their use of the firing range because of agent deployment for the DHS occupation of Minneapolis in January of 2026.  They may have not pulled the trigger, but these deployments have been denounced nationwide, and responsible for countless abuses.
Another internal email (dated six months earlier in June 2025) reveals that the ICE agents planning to use the Escondido firing range were also being deployed to Los Angeles, precisely when the occupation of Los Angeles led to numerous documented abuses.

2. POLICE CHIEF PLUNKETT SIGNED THE CONTRACT SEVEN DAYS AFTER THE MURDER OF RENEE NICOLE GOOD. 
Escondido Police Chief, with the approval of Mayor Dane White, made the decision and signed the ICE contract renewal on January 14 – exactly seven days after the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good (January 7, 2026) – and on the very day of the shooting of Mr. Sosa-Celis, for which the ICE agent was arrested.  As the country watched with disbelief and horror at the footage of the shooting murder of Renee Nicole Good, Chief Ken Plunkett would have been aware of the public outrage and concern about the myriad of abuses taking place in Minnesota, in addition to the thousands of San Diego residents protesting ICE’s violence in the days after the shooting.

3. OFFICIALS KNEW ABOUT THE CONTRACT, AND KNEW TO KEEP IT QUIET.
The public has been told that the Mayor and Council members did not know about the controversial contract with ICE, and that it was the Police Chief’s purview.  If true, that alone is concerning, but there is more to be concerned about.  One internal text message reveals that at least some officials in the Police Department knew the contract with ICE was controversial, and knew it was meant to be kept secret – “did we find out how that info got out about the [firing] range.”  Whether there were more efforts to conceal the contract or whether other city officials knew about the contract is a matter of public interest.

4. “I AM QUITTING THE RANGE”
In one internal text, a member of the Police Department makes clear they will no longer participate in the firing range, on January 21, 2026, one week after Police Chief Plunkett signed the contract with ICE.  The officer says, “I am quitting the range… I wanted you to hear it from me.”  Like many of the internal messages and emails, and other documents that are heavily or fully redacted, without more information or context it is difficult to know what is happening inside of the Escondido police department or city government, but when public safety is at stake, the community deserves answers.  And when the city is contracting with a highly controversial agency that leads some officials to walk away, we should all be concerned.

TIMELINE & DOCUMENTS 

Given that it took an investigative journalist to uncover the existence of the contract, a coalition of organizations filed a PRA request to ensure these issues of public interest are made public.  The initial PRA request was made on February 20, 2026 by a working group of community and civil rights organizations to ensure the public receives the full truth about the Escondido’s business dealings with ICE.  The city of Escondido responded with several batches of disclosures (with links to documents online) and communicated that the city considered the matter closed and complete on April 7, 2026.

These documents were reviewed by a team of volunteers, students, and residents painstakingly reviewing hundreds of PRA records, many heavily redacted, emails, texts, and files related to the firing range agreement with ICE.  Many heavy redactions in some of the documents leave questions unanswered.  Documents not released, for instance related to secondary employment of Escondido officers, raise other questions.  The working group is discussing next steps.

LINKS TO ALL DOCUMENTS AND DISCLOSURES

  • February 20, 2026 – PRA request filed and city confirms receipt.
    • March 2nd, city asks for 14 days extra time.
  • April, 2026
    • Email April 7 – “closed.. No additional responsive records”
    • Email April 7 – your request has been published