https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...969e4b009b705d5b50b?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000313
ICE Spokesman Quits, Bashes Trump Administration On Immigration Raids
James Schwab said that officials have spread misleading information about a recent immigration crackdown.
A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Francisco resigned over the Trump administration’s handling of a
recent immigrant raid in the Bay Area.
James Schwab told the San Francisco Chronicle late Monday that administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump, grossly exaggerated the number of undocumented immigrants who avoided arrest after Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tipped off the public days before the raid began on Feb. 25.
“I quit because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts,” Schwab said. “I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn’t agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit.”
Schwab added that even if there had been no prior warning about the raid, “we were not ever going to be able to capture 100 percent of the target list.”
ICE said 232 people were arrested in the sweep, but claimed the number could have been higher.
“Efforts by local politicians have shielded removable criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and created another magnet for more illegal immigration, all at the expense of the safety and security of the very people it purports to protect,” the agency said in a statement.
Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan claimed that 864 “criminal aliens” escaped arrest, and Trump railed that close to 1,000 people would have been swept up, calling Schaaf’s warning “a disgrace.” Sessions accused the Oakland mayor of promoting “a radical open-borders agenda.”
Schwab disputed the claims and told CNN he could no longer “bear the burden ― continuing on as a representative of the agency and charged with upholding integrity, knowing that information was false.”
Schaaf applauded Schwab’s decision.
“Our democracy depends on public servants who act with integrity and hold transparency in the highest regard,” the mayor said in a statement.
Sessions escalated the dispute last week by filing a lawsuit against the state of California over its so-called sanctuary cities― areas that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) characterized the move as “basically going to war against the state of California.”
The timing is uncanny, as Trump begins his first visit as president to California on Tuesday to check out prototypes for a border wall and attend a Republican fundraiser.
Let me see if I’m understanding this correctly. There are federal immigration laws in place. The state of California is actively aiding the violators of the law. Then, when the Feds announce they are going to conduct a raid, Schwab sounded the alarm which reduced the effectiveness of the raid. Now his is claiming someone was telling him to lie about the number of illegals aliens that escaped the raid?
Seems to me, he was on his way out for, at best, not enforcing federal immigration law and actually obstructing enforcement efforts. How would he even have enough credibility to have the opportunity to participate in the workings of government. It is not credible that they trusted Schwab enough to think he would be willing to lie for them. And why lie about a few illegals in the first place? The huge issue is why this guy was not doing his job.
Schwab should be charged with obstruction, slander, and conspiracy. His co-conspirators, including certain local government officials should be charged for conspiracy and obstruction as well.
It is a political freeroll, the Republicans are not going to lose California and should stop playing nice to the side that was behind the Russia collusion scam.
The Important US immigration laws should be enforced and those who obstruct these laws should be charged accordingly.
In order for the US to rein in illegal immigration, it is necessary to have border security and to have an effective system in place to punish and return illegals to their country of origin.
Punishment is important because less people will want to illegally enter the United States when word gets around.
Just as the Democrats argue that the cause of gun crime is due to guns being able to be purchased in nearby states, The Republicans can argue that sanctuary cities perpetuates illegal immigration. The difference is that Republican’s have the law on their side and the Democrats do not.