Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned her constituents of an impending federal raid that targeted more than 1,100 undocumented immigrants. | Ben Margot/AP Photo
Trump asks Sessions to consider prosecuting Oakland mayor over ICE raid
President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting the mayor of Oakland, California, whom he has accused of thwarting federal immigration laws, on an obstruction of justice charge. Mayor Libby Schaaf warned her constituents in February of an impending federal raid that targeted more than 1,100 undocumented immigrants but resulted in the arrests of only about 200.
“I mean, you talk about obstruction of justice, I would recommend that you look into obstruction of justice for the mayor of Oakland, California, Jeff,” Trump said, gesturing toward Sessions. The attorney general did not respond, and sat expressionless as the president made his comments.
Trump’s remarks came during a White House roundtable discussion with close to 20 California elected officials and law enforcement officers who favor tougher immigration enforcement standards in their state and have all taken stands against the California Values Act, otherwise known as the “sanctuary state” law.
Sessions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) were among the federal officials in attendance at the meeting.
“She informed them, and they all fled — or most of them fled — and that whole operation, that took a long time to put together,” Trump said. “To me, that’s obstruction of justice. And perhaps the Department of Justice can look into that, with respect to the mayor. Because it’s a big deal out there, and a lot of people are very angry about what happened. There was a lot of hard work and a lot of danger involved. And that was a terrible thing.”
Trump has previously accused Schaaf of obstructing justice by interfering with the raid, but Wednesday marked the first time he directly implored the nation’s top law enforcement official to contemplate legal action against the mayor.
The Democratic Oakland mayor said in February she intended to quell rising panic and help “law-abiding” immigrant communities in her town who were hearing rumors of such impending ICE raids in their communities. An ICE spokesman in the region resigned his post in the aftermath of the event, citing what he called fabrications about the events surrounding Schaaf by Homan.
Schaaf didn’t respond directly to Trump, but said on Twitter Tuesday she was working with homeless groups, adding: #NotDistracted #NotObstructing #DoingMyJob.
California Gov. Jerry Brown responded in advance of the president’s meeting with the California leaders, saying via Twitter: “Trump is lying on immigration, lying about crime and lying about the laws of California. Flying in a dozen Republican politicians to flatter him and praise his reckless policies changes nothing. We, the citizens of the fifth largest economy in the world, are not impressed.”
The local officials in the White House session uniformly showered praise on the president, calling him a champion of immigration enforcement, while offering sharp critiques of SB54, the measure which has become known as the “sanctuary state” law.
The law’s author, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, held his own forum in Los Angeles Wednesday to counter the Trump effort, which he said involved a “cherry-picked” crowd of Trump supporters and involved no immigrant communities affected by the law. De Leon, who is running for Senate against Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has said the president continues to spread misinformation about SB54, which he said was never aimed to shield criminals but to instead allow immigrant communities to feel safer in reporting crimes to law enforcement.
Still, Trump called California home to “the dumbest immigration laws on the planet, and at one point motioned to McCarthy, saying of the House GOP leader, “He can take care of it.” The president repeated his long-standing campaign mantra to build the border wall, and vowed to defeat the sanctuary city movement in California, calling it a threat to public safety.
Sessions did not respond directly to the president’s directive on Schaaf, but told the group that on the issue of immigration enforcement, Trump "made clear to all of us what we have to do better. We are going to do better." He called on Congress to come up with a bill which allows ICE and border security officers to do their job, and added: "If we all get behind our leader, well get something done this year that is historic.”
The forum provided a national platform for several California Republican officials, among them San Diego Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, who is running for the House seat to fill the vacancy of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa. Gaspar told Trump that the meeting attendees represented “what Gov. Brown classifies as low-life politicians,’’ she said, adding defiantly, “well, here we are.”
She claimed she had compiled a stack of 3,000 emails from constituents in her district supporting Trump, and a “tiny little stack” of less than 50 opposed to his policies.
Gaspar also told Trump she brought along a photo of a young man “gunned down by an illegal immigrant,’’ saying that under the current state laws, “we’ve created a situation where Gov. Brown makes San Diego a great place to commit a crime because you have options.”
Criminals can flee across the border to Mexico, or “you have the option of staying put, shielded by Gov. Moonbeam,’’ she said.
Trump responded with scathing words for Mexico, saying: “Mexico does nothing for us. They do nothing for us. Mexico talks but they do nothing for us, especially at the border... they do nothing on trade, but especially at the border.”
Mayor Pro Tem Warren Kusumoto of Los Alamitos, the first city to rebel against the sanctuary city law, told Trump that the movement has taken hold in conservative bastions because “the citizens of our state, and our city, feel that they have less rights than the entitled illegal aliens.”
Homan said that he believed it was “backwards" that California doesn't want to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out and instead wants to keep them in. He told the president: "I've worked for six presidents, and I respect them all, but no president has done more than you" for border security.
Trump appeared to bask in the glow of the praise from the assembled officials, vowing to help them in their fight against the sanctuary city laws. “We are, step by step, bringing it back ... we will not fail,’’ he said.
And the president added, “I had a lot more support in California than the people understand ... Check the voting records.”
The final tally compiled by the California Secretary of State showed Trump was trounced in the state, receiving 32 percent of the vote in 2016 or 4.4 million votes, compared with 62 percent or 8.7 million votes for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
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