House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released a statement Wednesday calling last week’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Northern California “unjust and cruel.”
“Just last week, President Trump decided to terrorize innocent immigrant families in the Bay Area with his unjust and cruel raids,” Pelosi said in a statement after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of California for meddling with federal immigration policies on Tuesday.
Pelosi said that the ICE raids are “a new low” for the Trump administration, adding that immigration officials are trying to promote “a mass deportation agenda.”
“The people of California will not be bowed by the Trump administration’s brazen aggression and intimidation tactics,” Pelosi said. “Californians will continue to proudly keep our doors open to the immigrants who make America more American. We will fight this sham lawsuit and will fight all cowardly attacks on our immigrant communities.”
ICE arrested 232 illegal aliens, including 180 criminal illegal aliens, in a four-day raid conducted in the San Francisco area last week.
Pelosi’s comments echoed those of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who sent a warning to San Francisco Bay Area residents of the ICE raids and encouraged “interested residents” to consult the website of Centro Legal De La Raza, a local immigration law center, in case they found themselves detained.
The Department of Justice is currently investigating Schaaf to see if her warning caused some criminal illegal aliens to evade immigration authorities, although officials declined to comment on the status of the investigation.