The issue of sanctuary cities and federal laws on immigration are heating up. Oakland California’s Mayor Libby Schaaf may prove to be the first test case of law enforcement pertaining to illegal aliens in this country.
Earlier this week, more than 850 illegal immigrants managed to elude deportation by officers conducting operations in Northern California. The main reason for that may well have been the mayor’s public warning about the impending raids with information supplied to her by federal authorities. She claims it was “unofficial.”
In layman’s terms, she helped them to escape arrest. More than 150 migrants were eventually apprehended in the ICE operations, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Roughly half of the detainees had criminal convictions.
The disturbing part of this episode is the role a duly elected politician played in the operation. Taxpaying American citizens need to know that one of the arrestees was a 38-year-old Mexican who belongs to the Sureno gang who had been deported four times before. Many others arrested had weapons, domestic violence, and drunken driving convictions.
The question becomes whether the mayor has the legal right to interfere in a federal operation. Some 864 criminals ICE was seeking remain at large in the Oakland and San Francisco region, ICE reported. How many of them slipped away because of the mayor’s public announcement of the impending raids? Her answer that she wanted them to be aware and to take needed steps to protect themselves may not be good enough for many non-politically correct citizens.
The top official at ICE, Thomas D. Homan, certainly thought so. He expressed alarm and irritation with Schaaf claimiung her actions put his officers at risk, and endangered her own citizens. “I have to believe that some of them [illegal immigrants] were able to elude us thanks to the mayor’s irresponsible decision,” Homan said.
One of the many suspected illegal criminals that evaded the police dragnet should alarm parents of young children in Schaaf’s city she swore to protect. ICE reported one of those men was a Honduran previously arrested for transporting cocaine and for sex with a child under 16. He had been deported multiple times.
Ms. Schaaf’s retort to the raids was she made a decision, “an obligation,” to protect the city’s residents, “particularly our most vulnerable.” That would be those that federal agents were attempting to detain for possible violations of American law. A pious Schaaf said, “I believe it is my duty and moral obligation as mayor to give those families fair warning,”
Now facing possible federal obstruction charges, Schaaf may change her tune. She defended herself by citing the law actively bars ICE from going into employee-only areas of businesses. Really Ms. Schaaf? You may have thrown yourself into the Trump administration’s first test case of radical political correctness at the risk of innocent American lives.
Dwight L. Schwab, Jr. is an award-winning national political and foreign affairs columnist and published author. He has spent over 35 years in the publishing industry. His long-running articles include many years at Examiner.com and currently Newsblaze.com. Dwight is an author of two highly acclaimed books, "Redistribution of Common Sense - Selected Commentaries on the Obama Administration 2009-2014" and "The Game Changer - America's Most Stunning Election in History." He is a native of Portland, Oregon, a journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, and a resident of the SF Bay Area. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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