Federal law enforcement officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have arrested 232 people since Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area after a sweep for illegal aliens.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is now reportedly investigating Democratic Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who tipped the public off about the raids in what ICE claims “created another magnet for more illegal immigration.”
Oakland, like many cities in California, has declared itself a sanctuary city and a hub for illegal immigrants. Those arrested were reportedly suspected of violating immigration laws.
Fox News noted that the four-day raid, which ended on Wednesday, was “the second in California since a statewide sanctuary law took effect in January. Agents arrested more than 200 people last month in the Los Angeles area.”
The Los Angeles Times noted, “Of those [arrested], 115 had prior convictions for “serious or violent” crimes or “significant or multiple” misdemeanors. The offenses include sex crimes against children, weapons violations, and assault, the agency said.”
On Tuesday, ICE’s acting director, Thomas D. Homan, told Fox & Friends that Mayor Schaaf’s warning helped an estimated 800 “criminal aliens” avoid capture. He reportedly added that federal authorities were examining her actions and compared her alert to “a gang lookout yelling ‘police.'”
Homan also said in a statement Tuesday, “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.”
During her Thursday press briefing at the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reportedly said, “I think it’s outrageous that a mayor would circumvent federal authorities and certainly put them in danger by making a move such as that.”
For her part, Mayor Schaaf is proud of her actions. “I consider myself a law-abiding citizen. I consider myself a believer in an American democracy that moves towards a more just society. And I definitely consider myself part of the resistance,” she told the Washington Post.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Professor Robert Weisberg of Stanford Law School suggested Schaaf will not likely face obstruction of justice charges.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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