ICE: ‘864 criminal aliens’ remain at large, partly thanks to ‘reckless’ warning by Oakland’s mayor

Jazz wrote Monday about Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s decision to warn the public that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be sweeping the city and making arrests. ICE revealed Tuesday that it had detained 150 people in its latest sweep. But ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said another 864 criminal aliens managed to elude the sweep. He added that Schaaf’s warning was probably responsible for helping some of those individuals avoid arrest. From the Mercury News:

“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,” ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan said…

Homan said ICE deportation officers were still able to remove many “public safety threats” from Bay Area streets.

“However, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community, and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor’s irresponsible decision,” he said. “Unlike the politicians who attempt to undermine ICE’s critical mission, our officers will continue to fulfill their sworn duty to protect public safety.”…

ICE officials said they made arrests in cities including Sacramento, Stockton, San Francisco and Bay Point, where they detained a Mexican citizen who had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and had been removed from the U.S. by ICE eight times. About half of those arrested reportedly had criminal convictions in addition to immigration violations.

But Mayor Schaaf isn’t backing down from her sanctuary city policy:

“I do not regret sharing this information,” she continued. “It is Oakland’s legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together. We know that law-abiding residents live in fear of arrest and deportation every day. My priority is for the long-term well-being of Oakland, and I know that our city is safer when we share information that leads to community awareness.”

Last night on Special Report, Claudia Cowan reported ICE is asking the DOJ to look into Mayor Schaaf’s actions to see if they violated the law:

ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan also appeared on Fox News this morning and repeated his criticisms of Mayor Schaaf: “I watched her statement where she says her priority is the safety of her community. Well, what she did had the exact opposite effect,” Homan said.

Acting ICE director Thomas Homan: “Being a law enforcement officer is already dangerous enough, but to give the criminals a heads up that we’re coming in the next 24 hours, increases that risk.” pic.twitter.com/edZvDTYZic

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 28, 2018

Homan also promised that ICE would not give up on doing its job:

Acting ICE director Thomas Homan: “I’ll say this to the mayor and every other politician that wants to vilify the men and women of ICE: We’re not going away, we’re going to keep enforcing the law.” pic.twitter.com/LaZDIH9UNI

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 28, 2018

The reason ICE is banging on doors and going into neighborhoods to find people is that California has forbidden local law enforcement officers from allowing ICE agents to sit in jails to process paperwork on people it wants to detain as they are released. So instead of processing many people a day in a safe environment, officers now have to go into communities where they may end up encountering other people, especially family members, who are also in the country illegally. The overall effect is to make ICE much more likely to encounter a lot of people who are not involved in criminal activity but who could be subject to deportation.