ICE Arrests More Than 150 People In Northern California Enforcement Sweep
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested more than 150 undocumented immigrants in Northern California since Sunday, and ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan says that 864 additional targets remain at large - including at least two believed to be living in Oakland.
"Thanks to the dedicated and professional work of ICE deportation officers, we were able to remove many public safety threats from the streets of the Bay Area during the past few days," Homan said in a statement.
"However, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor's irresponsible decision," Homan said, referring to a statement issued by Mayor Libby Schaaf on Saturday alerting her constituents of the impending operation.
Homan also claimed Schaaf put his agents at risk and increased the likelihood of "collateral arrests," in which individuals who were not the intended target of an operation end up getting detained.
In the days since Schaaf's announcement some have called for her arrest on federal charges, including East Bay resident Ron Cohen, who is running for congress in 2018.
Cohen filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office as well as the Alameda County District Attorney alleging that Schaaf's news conference amounted to a violation of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.
"Mayor Schaaf's statements were directly intended to impede the work of ICE officers," the complaint states.
Cohen alleges that Schaaf committed a felony by willfully impeding the work of immigration agents enforcing federal laws.
"I'm doing this because I believe in it," Cohen said this evening about his motivations. "I'm strongly upset about this."
Schaaf's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Those apprehended by federal agents in the last few days include 38-year-old Armando Nunez-Salgado in Napa County. ICE alleges that Nunez-Salgado is a documented gang member with criminal convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury as well as evading a peace officer.
Agents also arrested two Mexican nationals with previous convictions in Bay Point and San Francisco, although their names were not
provided.
They're still looking for a Mexican national with previous drug and weapons convictions and a Honduran national who's been arrested in the past for drug and sex crimes. Both individuals are believed to reside in Oakland.
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