Federal immigration enforcement surge now paused in East Bay too
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said Friday that a planned increase in federal immigration enforcement in the Bay Area is currently on pause not just in San Francisco but across the region and in major East Bay cities.
Lee said in a statement that Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez “confirmed” through communications with federal immigration officials that the planned operations “are currently canceled for the greater Bay Area, which includes Oakland.”
The announcement follows ongoing concerns among East Bay leaders about increased immigration enforcement after President Trump and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the cancellation of a planned “surge” in San Francisco on Thursday.
Trump and Lurie had specifically addressed San Francisco, as additional Border Patrol agents were deployed across the bay on Coast Guard Island in the waters between Alameda and Oakland.
At the press conference held after Trump’s statement about San Francisco, Lee said that the situation remained “fluid”, that he had not received such assurances about the East Bay, and that Oakland was continuing preparations to increase sanctions against immigrants in the region.
Alameda County District Attorney. Ursula Jones Dickson had previously warned that the resignation announced in San Francisco could be a sign and an example of the administration wanting to focus on Oakland.
“We know they set Oakland up, and that’s why San Francisco is suddenly off the table,” Jones Dickson said Thursday morning. “So I’m not going to stay quiet about what we know is coming. We know their expectation is for Oakland to do something that will make them look up to us.”
The White House on Friday fielded questions about the scope of the pause in operations and whether it applied to the Department of Homeland Security for the East Bay; This led The Times to Trump’s statement about San Francisco on Friday, although he did not mention the East Bay or Oakland.
In this statement published on the Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that an “attendance” was planned for San Francisco starting on Saturday, but he canceled it after talking with Lurie.
Trump said Lurie “very politely” asked Trump to “give him a chance to see if he could fix things” in the city, and business leaders including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff expressed their confidence in Lurie.
Trump said he told Lurie it would be “easier” to make San Francisco safer if federal forces were sent in, but he told him “let’s see how you do it.”
Lurie has touted falling crime rates and the number of homeless camps in the city in recent days, and in his own recall announcement said he told Trump that San Francisco was “on the rise” and that “having militarized and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.”
In California and elsewhere, the Trump administration has aggressively sought to expand the reach and authority of the Border Patrol and federal immigration officials. Last month, the Justice Department fired its attorney general in Sacramento after he told Border Patrol El Centro Sector chief Gregory Bovino that he could not conduct indiscriminate immigration raids around Sacramento this summer.
In Oakland on Thursday, a planned enforcement increase sparked protests near the entrance to Coast Guard Island and drew widespread condemnation from local liberal officials and immigrant advocacy organizations.
On Thursday night, base security guards opened fire on the driver of a U-Haul truck who reversed the truck toward them, wounding the driver and a nearby civilian. The FBI is investigating this incident.
Some liberal officials have warned that federal agents who violate Californians’ rights could face consequences, even arrest, from local law enforcement, prompting condemnation from federal officials.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche responded In a scathing letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and others wrote in a statement Thursday that any attempt by local law enforcement to arrest federal officers doing their job would be viewed by the Justice Department as “both illegal and futile” and part of a “criminal conspiracy.”
Blanche wrote that the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prevents any federal law enforcement official from being “arrested on a state criminal charge if the alleged offense occurs in the performance of his federal duties” and that the Justice Department would take legal action against any state official who advocates such enforcement.
“In the meantime, federal agents and officers will continue to enforce federal law and will not be deterred by the threat of arrest by California officials who have abdicated their duty to protect their constituents,” Blanche wrote.
Threats of arrest to federal officers were made in part by San Francisco Dist. Lawyer. Brooke Jenkins wrote on social media that if federal agents “come to San Francisco and unlawfully harass our residents… I will not hesitate to do my job and hold you accountable as I do other law violators every day.”
