Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's decision to alert the Bay Area last month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was on its way to conduct a raid already appears to have had dangerous consequences. Three of the illegal immigrants who heeded Schaaf's warning and fled the area before ICE showed up have already committed new crimes, according to ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan.
“Three of the people we couldn’t locate have since reoffended,” Homan told President Trump at a roundtable discussion about sanctuary cities on Tuesday.
Schaaf had no regrets sharing the information, however, insisting she posted the now infamous message to protect citizens. When ICE showed up, they only managed to find 232 of the 864 illegals on their radar. Many of those individuals had criminal records.
During his conversation with law enforcement officials, Trump put a lot of blame on Democrats for jeopardizing national security with their sanctuary city policies.
“Democrats' priority is to protect criminals, not to do what is right for our country,” he said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions agreed.
“At bottom these policies of these sanctuary jurisdictions call for open borders; it is an affront to the fundamental federal immigration law in America,” he said.
In the immediate aftermath of Schaaf's decision to alert the illegal immigrants the Bay Area, Sessions said she should be "ashamed" of herself and Trump said it was a "disgrace."
Now, the Trump administration is wondering if a verbal rebuke is insufficient. As they review whether Schaaf's actions were illegal, Tuesday's latest report from ICE won't help her case.
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