Federal agents blast Oakland mayor
She helped illegal aliens flee authorities by warning of raids, officials say
SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials on Wednesday accused Oakland’s mayor of helping illegal aliens flee authorities by warning the public about a large-scale arrest operation, another development in the battle between President Donald Trump’s administration and California officials over immigration policy.
Mayor Libby Schaaf had announced Saturday that she had learned through “unofficial channels” that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was planning arrests in the area.
“I know that Oakland is a city of law-abiding immigrants and families who deserve to live free from the constant threat of arrest and deportation,” she said in a statement that circulated widely on social media over the weekend. “I believe it is my duty and moral obligation as mayor to give those families fair warning when that threat appears imminent.”
The mayor’s warning proved correct. Since Sunday night, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested more than 150 people in Northern California in an operation the agency said was targeting “public safety threats.”
But agency officials said the mayor’s warning jeopardized officers’ safety, and said hundreds more immigrants they had planned to arrest may have eluded the agents after the tipoff.
In a statement, the agency’s acting director, Thomas Homan, called Schaaf ’s announcement a “reckless decision” made for political purposes.
Speaking Wednesday morning on Fox News, Homan said Schaaf’s warning was “no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘Police!’ when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to an entire community.”
He blamed the mayor’s warning for agents not being able to detain 800 people they had targeted.
James Schwab, a spokesman for the immigration agency in San Francisco, said agents were targeting about 1,000 people, which appeared to be one of the largest raids since Trump took office.
“It’s larger than normal for one operation,” Schwab said.
About half of those arrested had previous criminal convictions in addition to immigration violations, he said.
Immigration advocates have occasionally sought to warn of rumors of impending Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, but Schaaf’s decision was striking because it came from the mayor of one California’s largest cities.
Schaaf said Tuesday that she did not regret issuing the warning.
“My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options,” she said. “It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together.”
Like a number of Bay Area municipalities, Oakland considers itself a so-called sanctuary city and places limits on local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Sanctuary policies differ from city to city but generally have provisions for cooperation with federal law enforcement in cases involving serious crimes.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement said a number of the people arrested in the raids had lengthy criminal records, including Armando Nunez-Salgado. The agency said he was a “documented Sureno gang member” who had been deported four times and who over the past 18 years had accumulated criminal convictions — it listed burglary and hit-and-run causing injury — in California, resulting in more than 15 years in prison.
Schwab would not confirm or deny that the Bay Area raids were continuing, but he said the agency would issue a statement once the operation was completed.