Oakland Mayor Received over 1,000 ‘Angry Calls’ After Defying ICE

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf received over 1,000 “angry calls” in protest against her decision last weekend to warn illegal aliens of an impending raid by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

Schaaf — who told the Washington Post, “I definitely consider myself part of the resistance” — angered ICE officials, who made 232 arrests over several days but said that 800 illegal aliens evaded arrest due to her warning. Many of the illegal aliens targeted in the raid already had criminal convictions, according to ICE officials.

The East Bay Times reports:

The rough, subjective tally, as of Friday afternoon? Love her decision: 153. Hate it: 1,037.

…

The 1,190 calls, emails and voicemails, a few dozen of which were reviewed by this news agency, are another indication of how deeply Americans are divided on immigration. In a world in which anonymous comments flood social media, upset citizens will still sometimes pick up the phone. And while the angriest of them did not leave their name, others did and asked for a call back.

Like Debbie from Fresno and Fred from Illinois, who were polite in their criticism.

“I do not understand you protecting people who are not American citizens while you are abandoning the American citizens who put you in office,” Debbie said in a voicemail. “Why don’t you help the homeless instead? Clean up our streets, our country looks like an impoverished country in many ways.”

Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE, said the Department of Justice is investigating Schaaf for obstruction of justice. In January, Schaaf vowed to go to jail to protect her city’s status as a “sanctuary city.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.