ICE agents can’t use city property, decrees Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee as we speak issued two government orders proscribing federal civilian immigration actions within the metropolis and directing departments to organize for the doable deployment of the Nationwide Guard or main immigration enforcement operations.

Lee introduced her orders at a information convention at Oakland Metropolis Corridor. Flanked by native, county and state officers, and union and enterprise representatives, Lee mentioned her orders are meant to forestall the forms of violence and chaos unfolding in Minneapolis from taking place in Oakland.

“We won’t enable our streets to be become fight zones,” Lee mentioned.

The Trump Administration”Operation Metrosurge“, which started in December, has flooded Minneapolis with 3,000 ICE and CBP brokers who’ve engaged in controversial patrols, typically breaking the regulation, in efforts to arrest undocumented immigrants. Protests and resistance have led to violence, together with the current deadly shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Lee was an outspoken opponent of President Donald Trump. As a member of Congress, Lee mentioned she “barely escaped” when rioters breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, making an attempt to forestall the peaceable transition of energy after the 2020 election, which Joe Biden received. She can also be nonetheless a celebration to a lawsuit geared toward holding Trump accountable for the rebel.

However thus far, Lee has supplied few particulars about her plans to cope with the president’s aggressive use of federal troops and immigrant brokers. She was confronted with this disaster virtually head-on final October when Customs and Border Safety brokers had been deployed to Coast Guard Island, a base close to Oakland, for an anticipated operation within the Bay Space.

The operation was referred to as off by Trump, however not earlier than officers controversially used pressure in opposition to protesters, together with taking pictures a neighborhood pastor within the face with a chemical weapon. In a separate incident, federal brokers guarding Coast Guard Island additionally shot at a truck that was backing towards them. A bystander was injured and the particular person accused of driving the truck, who was accused of assaulting federal officers, was additionally handled for a gunshot wound.

Different cities have seen way more chaos and violence, and the current shootings in Minneapolis have raised questions on how Oakland’s leaders will reply to comparable occasions.

What Mayor Lee’s orders say

The first implementing decision signed by Lee will prohibit federal immigration brokers from utilizing city-owned or managed properties as staging areas, processing areas, or working bases for federal civil immigration enforcement actions. Metropolis officers will submit indicators stating this. The choice additionally stipulates that any municipal worker who turns into conscious of a violation should report this to his supervisor, who will report this to the mayor. Lee’s order doesn’t stop officers from getting into metropolis property to arrest somebody if she or he has a warrant.

This order intently mirrors laws handed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors earlier this week that prohibits federal immigration brokers from utilizing county property for federal immigration enforcement.

“We won’t enable the federal authorities to grab our property for the aim of terrorizing our communities and conducting mass immigration raids,” Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas mentioned at Thursday’s information convention.

Lee’s second order directs metropolis departments to organize for the doable deployment of the Nationwide Guard, U.S. army or federal immigration personnel to Oakland. The mayor will lead an interdepartmental activity pressure to coordinate a response plan, educate communities about their authorized rights, meet with native advocacy teams to debate potential impacts, and evaluate current methods to report alleged inappropriate actions by troopers or federal brokers. Lee didn’t say who will likely be a member of the duty pressure, however the order invitations town legal professional to take part.

This order additionally reaffirms Oakland’s dedication to immigrant communities, Lee mentioned, noting that metropolis officers will proceed to make assets out there to residents, corresponding to know-your-rights flyers. Town may even proceed to help the Alameda County Immigration Authorized and Schooling Partnership, which a hotline for individuals to report ICE sightings and detentions.

“Right now, a lot of our companies, homeowners and workers reside in worry and nervousness about federal immigration enforcement. That worry does not simply keep at house. It is spreading to our streets, to our shops and all through our neighborhood,” mentioned Stephanie Tran, board chair of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.

And the order states that Lee’s workplace will work with town legal professional, the governor and the legal professional normal to guage and take authorized motion within the occasion that troopers are deployed to Oakland. Lastly, it notes that OPD will proceed to adjust to Oakland’s sanctuary metropolis coverage by not helping ICE officers in implementing civil immigration regulation. Any metropolis division that turns into conscious of immigrant enforcement actions in Oakland is required to inform the mayor’s workplace and town legal professional.

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, who just lately traveled to Minneapolis, described a go to to the positioning the place Renee Good was shot and killed by federal brokers earlier this month. She painted a grim image of town, saying the streets of Minneapolis are stuffed with whistles and other people screaming at night time.

Oakland leaders and neighborhood stakeholders “will maintain the road to make sure that each Oaklander has individuals to show to throughout this federal siege in American cities,” Simon mentioned.