Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, D-Calif., on Thursday stood by her decision to warn illegal immigrants of a possible impending Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid after President Donald Trump called her a “disgrace.”
Schaaf said she’s grateful to live in a country where everyone is allowed to criticize elected officials.
“Throughout this journey with this new administration, we are navigating the complicated power relationship between local, state, and federal governments,” Schaaf said. “And that’s part of the beauty of our Constitution, that’s the beauty of our Democratic form of government.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf stands by her decision to warn of ICE raid after President Trump calls her a “disgrace” pic.twitter.com/8FBLT1usdb
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 9, 2018
Schaaf warned illegal immigrants last month in a statement that ICE could be raiding the area. Oakland has become what is known as a “sanctuary city” in which the local government has made it unlawful to cooperate to the fullest with federal immigration officials, making it harder for them to locate and deport illegal immigrants.
Trump criticized Schaaf Thursday for her warning and said his administration was looking into the statement she had issued ahead of the operation in the Bay area.
“What the mayor of Oakland did the other day was a disgrace, where they had close to 1,000 people ready to be gotten, ready to be taken off the streets. Many of them, they say 85 percent of them, were criminals, had criminal records. The mayor of Oakland went out and she warned them all: scatter,” Trump said during a Thursday Cabinet meeting.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice have filed a lawsuit against the state of California for their so-called sanctuary cities and their refusal to cooperate with federal immigration officials and the laws they follow.
Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown said the move amounted to a decision by the federal government to go to “war” against the state.
