‘Whole new low’: Oakland mayor alerted illegal aliens convicted of violent, sex-related crimes
“What she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘police’ when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to an entire community. This is beyond the pale,” acting ICE Director Tom Homan said on “Fox & Friends”.
“This is a whole new low, to intentionally warn criminals that law enforcement is coming.”
Jewish mayor of Oakland defends decision to tip off community to immigration raid
The Jewish mayor of Oakland, California defended her decision to warn the community in advance of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Northern California.
Mayor Libby Schaaf on Friday said she felt it was her duty to warn local residents of the impending raid, which ended on Wednesday. Schaaf posted the warning on Twitter last weekend.
The tip-off allowed some 800 illegal immigrants to escape arrest, Thomas Homan, ICE’s acting director, told Fox & Friends. Homan said the Justice Department is looking into whether Schaaf obstructed justice.
The four days of raids last week in Northern California resulted in the arrest of about 230 people.
“I remain confident that my actions were both legal and moral,” Schaaf said Friday, the Bay City News reported. “I find it difficult to believe even in today’s America that informing people of their legal rights could be considered illegal,” she added.
The mayor’s actions have escalated tensions between California officials and the Trump administration, the Associated Press reported. Oakland has declared itself a sanctuary city for illegal migrants.
Acting ICE director issues dire warning over sanctuary city policies: ‘More people are going to die’
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) tweeted an alert in February to her 20,000 Twitter followers that she had been notified of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and felt that the raids themselves warranted a public announcement.
According to Schaaf, her intention in publicizing the information was not to cause a panic among residents, but to protect them, and added that police are prohibited from cooperating with federal immigration officials.
California became a sanctuary state on Jan. 1.
An immigration reform activist believes that federal prosecutors should pursue criminal charges against the mayor of Oakland, California, for helping illegal aliens avoid arrest by federal immigration agents.
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