OAKLAND, Calif. (CNN) – Since Sunday, federal immigration agents in Northern California have arrested over 150 people alleged to have violated immigration laws, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday. Half of them had criminal convictions, according to the agency.
In the same statement announcing the arrests, ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan also lashed out at Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who had publicly warned of the impending ICE operations the day before it began.
“My job is to make my city safer,” Schaaf said. “What I did was my job as the mayor of Oakland and reflective of the values of the people I represent.”
The mayor of a California sanctuary city defended her decision to warn residents over the weekend that federal immigration agents were planning on conducting raids in their area.
Mayor Schaaf said, “This is something that I thought about very carefully before bringing this information forward. Residents should know that they do not have an obligation to open their doors.”
But the ICE deputy director and others say not only was her warning dangerous, but possibly illegal.
“She is on the threshold of obstruction of justice for doing what she did,” said former federal prosecutor Tony Brass. “You put agents in danger. You put police in danger – and you put neighbors in danger.
Since Sunday, ICE agents have arrested more than 150 people in northern California who had allegedly violated immigration laws. The agency says half of them had criminal convictions. But Shaaf sees these latest arrests as a scare tactic and political retaliation. She said, “The Trump administration and ICE has already stated that they are targeting California and targeting sanctuary cities like Oakland, because of our political stand.
Many took to the streets Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area to protest the recent ICE actions in their communities.
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