Trump calls mayor’s warning about ICE raids ‘a disgrace’

The Mercury News

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — In his first direct comments about Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf since she warned of impending ICE raids last month, President Donald Trump on Thursday called the move “very dangerous.”

“What the mayor of Oakland did the other day was a disgrace,” Trump said during a White House meeting. “They had close to 1,000 people ready to be gotten, ready to be taken off the streets ... they say 85 percent of them are criminals and had criminal records. And the mayor of Oakland went out and warned them, scattered, so instead of taking in a thousand they took in a fraction of that.”

“They were all set, this was long in the planning and she said, ‘get out of here’ and she’s telling that to criminals,” Trump said. “And it’s certainly something we are looking at with respect to her individually. What she did is incredible and very dangerous from the standpoint of ICE and border patrol. Very dangerous. She really made law enforcement much more dangerous than it had to be. So we are looking at that situation very carefully.”

Trump also spoke about sanctuary cities, like Oakland.

“Sanctuary cities, we’re working very hard, the justice department has done a fantastic job,” Trump said. “I do think we should have legislation where we put an extra line in the money that we give them. You want the money, you can’t have the sanctuary cities that way we avoid the court battles all the time, which we probably will win but who needs it.

NOAH BERGER / THE NEW YORK TIMES 2016 Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, stepped into the middle of the national debate on immigration on Feb. 25, when she warned immigrants of imminent raids by federal immigration agents in the San Francisco Bay Area.