Oakland leader’s alert: Several detained amid fears of Bay Area sweep
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf ’s warning that U.S. immigration agents were preparing to conduct a major enforcement operation in the Bay Area put advocates for immigrants on alert, and heightened the tension between federal and local authorities over California’s limited cooperation with deportation efforts.
Several people were reported to have been detained by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents around the region Sunday, but it was not clear whether the reported arrests were part of a larger immigration enforcement action.
Hotlines for immigrant advocacy groups at the
same time were flooded with calls as reports and rumors of ICE activity swirled.
At least one person was detained by ICE agents in Napa around 9:40 a.m., said Susan Shawn, co-director of the North Bay Organizing Project. ICE agents also detained people with deportation orders Sunday in El Sobrante, Pinole and Atwater (Merced County), said Maricela Gutiérrez, executive director of the San Jose’s Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, or SIREN.
The Power, Not Panic immigrant alliance said Sunday night that advocates had confirmed 11 arrests in Northern California, including five in Merced County, two in Sacramento County, and one apiece in Monterey and Napa counties.
Officials did not provide further details on the arrests.
The Chronicle reported in mid-January that federal officials were preparing for a big Northern California operation designed to send a message that immigration policy will be enforced in the sanctuary state.
At a Sunday afternoon news conference, Schaaf said she learned about the immigration operation from “multiple sources” that she would not identify. She said the information did not come “through official channels.”
“My understanding is this is ICE activity, and it will be Bay Area-wide,” she said.
ICE officials gave a statement to KGO-TV on Saturday night, saying, “There are ICE operations every day and it is unclear what the mayor is referring to.” ICE did not respond to several email requests for comment by The Chronicle.
Schaaf said she sought legal counsel before taking to social media Saturday evening with an alert about immigration action. She called the warning an “ethical obligation.”
She acknowledged sending the alert could perpetuate fear within immigrant communities, but nevertheless, said it was her duty. “This is an opportunity for people to learn their rights and responsibilities,” she said.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said Sunday that he had learned of “a few isolated arrests,” and urged families to avail themselves of legal resources without giving in to fear.
“I want to make sure that families are not keeping their kids home from school, and they’re not refraining from taking sick family members to the doctor because of some fears that are being stoked by ICE activities,” he said.
ICE has taken a series of enforcement actions in California in recent weeks, while expressing frustration with sanctuary laws, which by restricting cooperation between local and federal authorities seek to persuade immigrants not to live in the shadows. President Trump said Thursday that he was “thinking about” pulling ICE out of California, but it appears that his administration is doing the opposite.
An operation in Los Angeles this month resulted in 212 arrests of immigrants suspected of being undocumented, ICE said. Federal agents also told 122 businesses there that they will be auditing their hiring records to determine whether they are following immigration law, according to officials. Last month, immigration agents visited 77 Northern California businesses in one week, demanding proof that employees were allowed to work in the United States.
Schaaf referred anyone targeted by immigration enforcement officials to the website of Centro Legal de la Raza, a legal services organization that advocates for the immigrant community.
Its hotline had received an influx of calls since Schaaf ’s announcement from worried residents asking for more information, said Malena Mayorga, a coordinator for the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership. The group works in conjunction with Centro Legal as part of a “rapid response network” that seeks to deploy observers to ICE operations, document interactions and enlist legal defense for families.
Hundreds of volunteers were notified of the potential sweep Sunday, and attorneys were standing by, Mayorga said. “We are doing everything we can to make sure that things are running as smoothly as possible and that we have as many people available as possible.”
Advocates at SIREN sent text messages to 2,000 community members reminding them of their rights should a federal officer show up at their door, Gutiérrez said.
“This is the message that has been going out since Trump got into office — a message of tearing families apart. But families are resilient. We are strong. We are powerful,” she said, explaining that the group’s hotline was expanded to 24 hours, with three attorneys on call.
Schaaf said residents should understand their legal rights in advance of federal actions. She noted that Oakland public schools have strict protocols in place to protect students, that city police officers are prohibited from participating in ICE enforcement, and that state law limits business owners in assisting ICE.
“I have reached out to local leaders and partners in our immigrant communities to share this information,” Schaaf said. “Our shared message is clear: We want residents to prepare, not panic. We understand ICE has used activity rumors in the past as a tactic to create fear; our intent is for our community to go about their daily lives without fear, but resiliency and awareness.”
The Chronicle reported last month that a planned ICE operation in Northern California was expected to go after people who have been identified as targets for deportation, including those who have been served with final deportation orders and those with criminal histories. According to a source familiar with the plans, the number of arrests could increase if officers come across other undocumented immigrants in the course of their actions and make what are known as collateral arrests.
The tension between the White House and liberal leaders in California intensified after the July 2015 killing of Kate Steinle on a San Francisco Bay pier. The undocumented immigrant shooter, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, had previously been released from San Francisco County Jail under the city’s sanctuary ordinance, even though immigration officers had asked that he be turned over for a sixth deportation.
After Garcia Zarate was acquitted of murder charges in November, Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE, blamed the city for Steinle’s death, saying the shooting “could have been prevented if San Francisco had simply turned the alien over to ICE, as we requested, instead of releasing him back onto the streets.”
While San Francisco was a pioneer as a sanctuary city, statewide legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year limits the circumstances under which jails across California turn over undocumented inmates to the federal government. It also forbids police officers from arresting people on civil immigration warrants and from joining federal agents in task forces intended to enforce immigration laws.
Under the Trump administration, ICE has repeatedly warned that if the agency can’t detain people from local jails, it will be forced to arrest them in the communities that hold such policies.
“Because sanctuary jurisdictions like Los Angeles prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, our officers are forced to conduct at-large arrests in the community, putting officers, the general public and the aliens at greater risk and increasing the incidents of collateral arrests,” Homan said.
Last week, when he threatened to remove federal immigration authorities from California, Trump said, “If I wanted to pull our people from California you would have a crime nest like you’ve never seen in California . ... In two months they’d be begging for us to come back.”