San Francisco-Area Residents Warned of Immigrant Raids by U.S.

• February 26 2018
• Kartikay Mehrotra

Oakland and Berkeley are warning residents of escalating raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents searching for undocumented immigrants in their northern California communities, especially so-called criminal aliens.

Oakland and Berkeley are warning residents of escalating raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents searching for undocumented immigrants in their northern California communities, especially so-called criminal aliens.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced on Sunday she was aware of an impending operation in the region. At least four people were detained later that day in neighboring Sacramento, Napa and Monterey counties, but it’s unclear if those raids were related to Schaaf’s announcement.

Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Donald Evans emailed parents in English and Spanish the same day, citing Schaaf’s statement and acknowledging “another stressful time for many in our community.”

That note included instructions for families in the event of an ICE raid. Immigrant families were reminded of their “rights, resources and support” and encouraged to have a “family preparedness plan” that would include names of emergency contacts and caregivers.

California, the country’s first and only sanctuary state, is home to some 2.5 million undocumented residents, about a quarter of the entire country’s paperless population and 6 percent of the state’s population. Undocumented laborers in 2017 contributed more than $180 billion, or more than 7 percent, to California’s $2.4 trillion economy, state controller Betty Yee said last year.

ICE acting director Thomas Homan said in January that he planned to send additional agents to California in response to the state’s sanctuary policies. President Donald Trump said on Feb. 22 that he’s considering pulling federal immigration enforcement agents out of California altogether, which he said would prompt the state to come “begging” for their return.

Two federal judges have blocked the Trump administration’s decision to end the so-called Dreamer program in March, which protects young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. with their parents. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the administration’s appeal Monday, steering clear for now of the debate over the fate of hundreds of thousands of people.