Bay Area police unlikely to help ICE on immigration sweeps

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Officials from several Bay Area law enforcement agencies said Wednesday that federal officials haven’t looped them in on any plans for major sweeps for undocumented immigrants, and added that they didn’t plan to help with any such operations.


The Oakland City Council took it a step further, passing a resolution prohibiting police from providing so much as traffic control for federal immigration-enforcement actions.

The response from local jurisdictions came after The Chronicle reported that U.S. officials are gearing up for a major dragnet in Northern California, during which they will seek to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented immigrants.

Federal officials have expressed frustration with sanctuary policies adopted by the state and local governments that limit cooperation with immigration-law enforcement. Last month, the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Thomas Homan, said California “better hold on tight” and that if local officials “don’t want to protect their communities, then ICE will.”

The plan for sweeps drew a scathing reaction Wednesday from many California lawmakers. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco called it “deeply shameful,” and state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, called it a threat by the Trump administration to “weaponize federal agencies against California.”

Third World California channels its' inner John C. Calhoun...