She’s being hounded by right-wing media. Protesters have targeted her with signs calling for her to be locked up. Donald Trump has been obsessed with her. Except it’s not Hillary Clinton, it’s Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Since she became a national name for calling on her immigrant residents to learn their rights in anticipation of an imminent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, she’s been a fresh target of the anti-immigrant right. She’s pushing back, though, calling it a “continued distraction from the broken immigration system”:
“It’s a continued distraction from facts — that immigrants, and undocumented immigrants have been shown to commit fewer crimes than American born citizens.”
Citing news reports which she said underscored a matter of real concern in her community, Schaaf said the Trump administration has more than tripled the number of deportations from people with no criminal background whatsoever.”“
In the raid targeting Northern California, half of the immigrants swept up by ICE had no criminal record at all. Of course you won’t hear that from state propaganda channel Fox News, which instead claimed that immigrants “who dodged California ICE raid” were later “re-arrested for new crimes.” But Schaaf said that “there is no evidence that any of these immigrants were from Oakland,” pointing out that considering ICE’s San Francisco spokesperson just quit rather than to continue spreading lies for Trump officials, there’s plenty of reason to doubt anything coming out of ICE’s filthy mouth:
The Oakland mayor raised questions about the veracity of the acting ICE director’s attacks. “I think the strongest statement about ICE’s credibility is [former San Francisco regional spokesman] James Schwab’s resignation because of his refusal to continue to lie for this administration,’’ she said.
Schaaf also pointed to this week’s resignation of Fox News military analyst Ralph Peters, a retired lieutenant colonel, who said the network has become a “propaganda machine” for the administration. In doing so, Schaaf said, Peters “has acknowledged that the media is continuing to perpetuate outrageous lies and fear mongering, and that no American should take part in that.”
The fact is that so-called “sanctuary city” policies make cities safer, because when immigrant communities are able to trust local police, our communities become safer for all. Trump, Homan, and other officials’ fearmongering is “a continued perpetration of a racist lie, that immigrants are not valued members of our society,” Schaaf said, saying that “this administration has really emboldened bullying, lying and hatred.” But, “we in Oakland know better. We in Oakland have a community that welcomes and honors all people, no matter where they came from—no matter how they got here.’’