On Saturday night, the Mayor of Oakland warned the city’s residents that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may be about to launch immigration raids. Mayor Libby Schaaf released a statement toward the end of Saturday, in which she said that many credible sources had given her reason to believe that ICE is gearing up to conduct operations in Northern California’s Bay Area, which would include her city.
Schaaf said that she did not give the warning to send residents into a panic, but to protect them, and could not give precise locations as she is unaware of the exact areas likely to be targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She tweeted that her priority was the safety and well-being of the city’s residents, particularly the most vulnerable.
Schaaf said that she believes the city is safer when community awareness is encouraged, information shared, and neighbors cared for. Oakland City Council voted last summer to end their agreement with ICE, which enabled them to work with local police, and then increased its sanctuary city status by banning any cooperation with the federal immigration agency by city officials.
Schaaf insists that the warning was her duty and moral obligation, and law-abiding immigrants in Oakland should be able to live without the constant threat of deportation. But, ICE says operations are conducted every day and that it is unclear precisely what the Mayor was referring to in her tweets.