Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said Friday that a planned increase in federal immigration enforcement in the Bay Area has been paused across the region and in major East Bay cities.
Lee said in a statement that Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez has “confirmed through communications” with federal immigration authorities that the planned operation “has been halted throughout the Bay Area, including Oakland, at this time.”
The announcement comes as concerns persist among East Bay leaders about increased immigration enforcement after President Trump and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Thursday that a planned “surge” in San Francisco had been canceled.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Lurie very specifically mentioned San Francisco, even though additional Border Patrol agents are being sent across the bay, a Coast Guard island in the waters between Alameda and Oakland.
At a press conference after President Trump’s announcement regarding San Francisco, Lee said the situation remained “fluid” and that he had received no such assurances regarding the East Bay, and that Oakland continued to prepare for increased immigration enforcement in the region.
Alameda County District Atty. Ursula Jones Dixon previously warned that the resignations announced in San Francisco could be a sign the administration was looking to focus on Oakland instead, citing that as an example.
“We know they’re luring Oakland. That’s why San Francisco was suddenly taken off the table,” Jones-Dixon said Thursday morning. “So we’re not going to stay quiet about what’s going to happen. We know their expectations are that Oakland is going to do something to make an example of us.”
The White House on Friday directed questions to the Department of Homeland Security about the scope of the suspension and whether it applied to the East Bay, but the Times rehashed Trump’s comments about San Francisco on Friday, though it did not mention the East Bay or Oakland.
In a statement posted on his platform Truth Social, President Trump said a “surge” in San Francisco was planned starting Saturday but was canceled after speaking with Lurie.
President Trump said he had “very politely” asked Lurie to “give us an opportunity to see if we can turn things around” in the city, and that business leaders, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, had expressed confidence in Lurie.
Trump said he told Lurie that it would be “easy” to make San Francisco safer by sending in federal troops, but he also said, “Let’s wait and see.”
Mr. Lurie has touted the city’s declining crime rate and number of homeless encampments in recent days, and in his own opposition announcement, he told Mr. Trump that San Francisco is “on the rise” and that “having a military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.”
In California and elsewhere, the Trump administration is aggressively seeking to expand the reach and powers of Border Patrol and federal immigration officials. Last month, she told Gregory Bovino, head of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Division, that he could not carry out random raids on migrants in the Sacramento area this summer.
A planned crackdown in Auckland sparked protests near the entrance to Coast Guard Island on Thursday, drawing widespread condemnation from local Liberal officials and immigrant advocacy groups.
On Thursday night, a security guard at the base opened fire on a U-Haul truck driver who was backing up his truck, injuring the driver and a civilian bystander. That incident.
Some liberal officials have warned that federal agents who violate the rights of Californians could face consequences from local law enforcement and even arrest, a move that drew condemnation from federal authorities.
Deputy Atty. In response, Gen. Todd Blanche and others wrote Thursday that any attempt by local law enforcement to arrest federal agents on the job would be considered “illegal and futile” by the Justice Department and part of a “criminal conspiracy.”
Blanche said the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prevents any federal law enforcement officer from being “held on criminal charges in the state in which the alleged crime arose in the performance of federal duties,” and that the Justice Department will take legal action against state officials who insist on such enforcement.
“Meanwhile, federal officers and employees continue to enforce federal law, undaunted by threats of arrest by California authorities who have abdicated their duty to protect voters,” Blanche wrote.
Threat of arrest against federal employees in the San Francisco area. Atty. Brooke Jenkins wrote on social media that if federal agents “come to San Francisco and unlawfully harass residents…I will not hesitate to do my job and hold you accountable just as I hold other lawbreakers every day.”
