The University of Minnesota will no longer rent its Rosemount gun range to outside law enforcement groups due to staffing maintenance and potential liability risks, effective Dec. 1, 2025, according to University of Minnesota Police Department Interim Chief Erik Swanson. 

The property will now be exclusively used by UMPD officers.

UMPD leased its gun range to groups outside the University, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and individual renters, for $200 per hour. The University Board of Regents accrued upwards of $18,000 from the Department of Homeland Security from 2022 through 2025, according to public federal spending data. 

Regent James Farnsworth said he was fine with the fact that the University allowed ICE to train on the University’s property, but the decision was never his to make — nor was it the rest of the Board’s. Decisions surrounding the gun range have never been discussed by the board and have always been made by higher administration. 

“From my 30,000-foot lens, according to the Board, it’s not an issue that meets board policy around delegation of authority,” Farnsworth said. “It was definitely something that feels to me like an operational decision by the administration.”

Farnsworth said he had confidence in the University’s higher administration leaders.

“I trusted our University of Minnesota Police Department and our public safety leadership, judgment on how to, and who to, rent out the facility to,” Farnsworth said.

Regent Robyn Gulley said the topic had never been discussed by the Board and said she “did not even know if it was true.

After the nonrenewal contract with ICE was publicized over the summer, students recognized the controversial working relationship translated to larger University issues. To them, this meant protection of their fellow international students.

Luzia Stern, a fourth-year and multimedia director of the University chapter of Young Democratic Socialists for America, pinned responsibility on higher administration.

“There’s this general sentiment that there’s a rise of fascism happening in our country,” Stern said. “Cunningham does not have a backbone when it comes to standing for the students of the University.”

Fourth-year and YDSA activist Eleanor Kennedy said the news of the contract made her rethink her postsecondary education decision.

“I didn’t realize that the University had a relationship with ICE,” Kennedy said.
“If I had known about that, I would have done a little more thinking before I chose to come here.”

Kennedy said she would not put it past University leaders to maintain a relationship with ICE. Both YDSA members were not surprised by this working relationship.

Stern said making the University into a sanctuary school to protect international students is part of YDSA’s petition goal, but they are far from reaching it. 

Correction: A previous headline mischaracterized the University’s agreement with ICE. A previous version ended the article by saying the reason for ending the agreement is unknown. The reason is stated in the first sentence.