Ex-ICE whistleblower has new views on immigration

OAKLAND » A couple of years ago, James Schwab was at Oakland International Airport escorting a local journalist reporting on the immigration deportation flights from that facility.

The former U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman — who resigned in protest earlier this year after refusing to “lie” about the results of a controversial raid warning issued by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf — has one image from the tarmac that day seared into his memory.

A shackled grandmother was being loaded onto a chartered jet. She had no criminal record. She was in the country to take care of her grandchildren while their mother and father worked, he said.

“She was here illegally, yes,” Schwab said. “But why aren’t we fixing the laws? … It was the moment I realized how serious the immigration situation was in America.”

It was just one moment in Schwab’s three years and eight months with ICE, but it helped shape his views on immigration and the job he was hired to do.

Schwab’s life and career were thrust into the national spotlight when he abruptly resigned in March, after he said his bosses told him to perpetuate a lie about immigration sweeps being shared by senior Trump administration officials and President Donald Trump himself, a fact verified in ICE emails obtained by the Bay Area News Group.

The White House had been blaming Schaaf ’ s public warning of an im- minent ICE raid for allowing more than 860 dangerous criminals to avoid capture. But Schwab said that the raid was only supposed to nab 150 to 200 individuals statewide, and was considered a success when 232 people were arrested.

Born in the smal l town of Cadillac, Michigan, Schwab, 38, joined the Army and was stationed on the Korean border for almost four years. He came to California and joined the Army Reserve before becoming a civilian Department of Defense spokesman. He worked for three years at NASA’s Ames Research Center before joining Homeland Security.

“When I started at ICE I was admittedly ignorant of immigration enforcement,” he said, adding that he felt it was important to bring transparency to all government agencies, and he checked his political leanings at the door.

His experience behind the scenes has changed him though.

“Now af ter seeing things happen, it caused me to think more intently about how ICE impacted communities and how the administration uses rheto- ric to cause pain,” Schwab said.

Schwab now lives in San Jose with his husband and is looking for a new job. He doubts he’ll work for the federal government again, but he hasn’t ruled out speaking out on immigration issues.

“I do plan to lend my voice more and more,” he said. “My opinions on immigration lie somewhere in the middle where I believe most people might be … I don’t want MS13 out here, those people need to leave. But there are people here just trying to make their lives better.”