Vice President Pence slammed Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) on Monday, saying her actions warning residents of upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids were “utterly unacceptable.”
“The mayor’s actions are disgraceful on a couple levels. Number one, she’s setting aside her oath of office to uphold the laws of the land, the rule of law,” Pence told Sean Hannity on Fox News.
{mosads}”I spoke to the attorney general about this. The majority of individuals who are being targeted by immigration and customs enforcement had a criminal record. So for the mayor of Oakland to warn them in advance of actions by ICE personnel actually put those law enforcement officers at risk; that’s just utterly unacceptable,” he said.
President Trump criticized Schaaf at a Cabinet meeting last week, calling her a “disgrace.”
“What the mayor of Oakland did the other day was a disgrace. Where they had close to a thousand people, ready to be gotten, ready to be taken off the streets. … The mayor of Oakland went out, and she went out and warned them all: scatter,” Trump said.
“So instead of taking in a thousand, they took in a fraction of that, about 150,” he continued. “It’s certainly something we’re looking at with respect to her, individually.”
Schaaf warned residents of upcoming raids in the Bay Area last month.
The mayor also drew the ire of Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week, who called her out in remarks announcing a lawsuit against California for its “sanctuary city” laws.
“How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders agenda,” Sessions said.
Schaaf fired back in a speech last week.
“How dare you vilify members of our community by trying to frighten the American public into thinking all undocumented residents are dangerous criminals,” she said.