What federal contract data tell us about ICE spending in Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, where a graduate student was detained and stripped of his student visa late last month, is the country’s only university actively contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, having leased its gun range to the agency since 2022 according to public federal spending data. 

A Minnesota Reformer analysis of ICE contracts also found that a gun range jointly owned by the cities of Cottage Grove and Woodbury holds one of the largest contracts for gun range leasing to ICE in the country, while a manufacturer in Anoka, Minn. provides more ammunition to the agency than any other contractor. 

Overall, contractors in Minnesota receive less in ICE contracts than those in states like Virginia and Texas, which each have had over $400 million in contracts since Jan. 2024, compared to Minnesota’s $7 million. Still, the data shows the two ways that Minnesota stands out: in producing ammunition and leasing gun range facilities to the agency. 

The findings come at a time when the Trump administration has been actively ramping up its immigration enforcement tactics, which have included a flurry of executive actions and what legal experts deem a legally questionable expansion of ICE’s reach. Immigration enforcement is becoming notably more aggressive in higher education, with hundreds of foreign students, including five from Minnesota State-Mankato, getting their visas revoked in recent days. Students and faculty nationwide have responded with protests against ICE, including at the University of Minnesota, where the existence of the gun range contract seems largely unknown. 

University of Minnesota leases gun range, making it ICE’s only existing contract with a university

The University of Minnesota has received $17,395 since 2022 to lease its Rosemount gun range to federal immigration enforcement for training, according to the spending data. The currently active contract, which ends in May, amounts to $18,867 to be paid over twelve months. 

Apprehension around immigration enforcement is high at the university, where Turkish graduate student Doğukan Günaydin was arrested and stripped of his student visa on March 27 for a 2023 drunken driving conviction, the New York Times reported. University president Rebecca Cunningham called the arrest, whose reasons were initially unknown, “deeply concerning” in a statement the day after. Elected officials quickly responded on social media, and activists organized a protest in downtown Minneapolis. 

In an email, university spokesperson Jake Ricker confirmed that the campus police department manages a firearm range on university property, which ICE, along with other law enforcement agencies, has reserved and used “for several years.” 

“As a public university, decisions about reviewing space requests” are required to be made “in a viewpoint neutral manner,” Ricker added. 

The last time another educational institution received contracts from ICE was when the Vermont State Colleges provided leadership training to the agency in 2023, according to the spending data. Johns Hopkins previously received over $1 million in ICE contracts, which, after a year of campus protests, were ended in September 2019 — though the school has since signed contracts with Customs and Border Protection, according to a Mother Jones report. 

The larger University of Minnesota community seems unaware of the agreement. Luisa Gaona, president of the university’s chapter of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, an organization that helped circulate a petition to support immigrants and non-citizens on campus, said she was surprised to hear about the contract. 

“I just don’t know why the university is collaborating,” Gaona said. “I don’t see the point there.” 

Gaona said that the contract will likely diminish trust in campus police among already-wary students. 

In her statement, university president Cunningham noted that campus departments “do not enforce federal immigration laws, and our officers do not inquire about an individual’s immigration status.” 

“Their focus remains on public safety, fostering trust and maintaining strong relationships across the University community,” Cunningham wrote. 

Still, Ricker previously told the campus newspaper that the university “cannot ignore federal court orders or subpoenas.” 

The Trump administration has rescinded prior protections from immigration enforcement in schools and is detaining international students with no charges. ICE had largely been targeting students who have expressed criticism of U.S. support of Israel in the Israel-Gaza war. The decision to arrest and jail Günaydin for an old DWI signals a worrying expansion of ICE’s authority, according to immigration lawyers.

Twenty miles away from the university gun range is HERO Center and Shooting Range, a gun range jointly owned by Cottage Grove and Woodbury, Minn., that has received over $290k in contract payments from ICE since 2020, according to Cottage Grove spokesperson Phil Jents. 

That’s the second highest of active agreements ICE has with gun ranges, according to the spending database. In February alone, ICE spent $5,292 using the facility, Jents said. 

In other cities, contracts with ICE to use local training facilities have been controversial. In September 2019, Portland, Ore., police terminated a two-year contract to lease its training facility to immigration enforcement following criticism. 

Minnesota leads in ammunition manufacturing for ICE

Minnesota is also the top producer of rifle ammunition for immigration enforcement, with over $28 million in contracts since 2020. That number is driven largely by the Kinetic Group, formerly Vista Outdoors, a Czech-owned ammunition manufacturer based in Anoka, Minn. with over $6 million in active contracts with ICE. 

A 2023 press release confirms that one of the company’s brands received a contract from the Department of Homeland Security for ammunition “made exclusively for law enforcement and at our Anoka, MN headquarters,” though the press release did not give a dollar amount. 

The company’s most recent contract was signed in February for over $500k of ammunition and lists the principal place of performance as Fort Benning, Ga., a U.S. Army post where, as of 2019, ICE had plans to build a “hyper realistic” urban combat training facility modeled after a city in Arizona. 

A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a spokesperson for the Kinetic Group both declined to comment on the contract.