150 are arrested in three-day California immigration sweep

Federal agents arrested more than 150 people suspected of violating immigration laws during a three-day sweep across Northern California, authorities said Tuesday.

About half of those arrested have criminal convictions. A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said he thought others were able to elude arrest after the Oakland mayor alerted the public about the upcoming raids.

ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan blasted so-called sanctuary laws in San Francisco and Oakland, saying they endanger immigration officers who aren’t allowed in jails and therefore must make more arrests in the community.

“The Oakland mayor’s decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens — making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold,” Homan said in a statement.

He added that 864 immigrants with criminal histories are still at large despite the raids this week.

“I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor’s irresponsible decision,” Homan said.

Among those at large are Oakland residents with multiple prior removals, said James Schwab, a spokesman for ICE in San Francisco, a field office that spans 49 counties from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. They include someone convicted of carrying a loaded firearm and selling drugs, and another suspected of transporting cocaine and having sex with a minor.

Immigration detainers lodged against them have been “repeatedly ignored,” Schwab said.