Increased federal immigration enforcement has now been halted in the East Bay as well

A planned increase in federal immigration enforcement in the Bay Area is now on hold across the region and in major East Bay cities, not just San Francisco, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said Friday.

Lee said in a statement that Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez “has confirmed through her contact” with federal immigration officials that the planned operation “has been canceled for the Greater Bay Area — which includes Oakland — at this time.”

The announcement follows lingering concerns about immigration enforcement among East Bay leaders after President Trump and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lowry announced Thursday that a planned “surge” in San Francisco has been canceled.

Trump and Lowry specifically addressed San Francisco, even as additional Border Patrol agents were stationed on Coast Guard Island Bay, which is in the waters between Alameda and Oakland.

In a press conference after Trump’s announcement in San Francisco, Lee said the situation remains “contested,” that she has not received any assurances about the East Bay and that Oakland continues to prepare to step up immigration enforcement in the region.

Alameda District Atayi. Ursula Jones Dixon previously warned that the position announced in San Francisco may be a sign that the administration is focusing on Oakland instead – and make an example of it.

“We know they beat Oakland, and therefore San Francisco, is suddenly off the table,” Jones-Dixon said Thursday morning. “So I’m not going to be quiet about what we know is coming. We know their expectation is that Oakland is going to do something to make them an example of us.”

The White House on Friday directed questions about the scope of the pause in operations and whether it applied to the Department of Homeland Security in the East Bay, which the Times referred to in Trump’s statement on Friday about San Francisco — though he made no mention of the East Bay or Oakland.

In the statement, which was posted on his social media platform, Trump wrote that an “extra” was planned for San Francisco on Saturday, but that he canceled it after speaking with Lowry.

Trump said that Lowry had “very well” requested that Trump “give him a chance to see if he can run around town,” and business leaders — including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff — had expressed confidence in Lowry.

Trump said he told Lowry it would be “easy” to secure San Francisco if federal forces were sent in, but told him, “Let’s see how you do.”

Lowry cited the city’s declining crime rate and homeless population in recent days, and said in his announcement of his position that he had told Trump that San Francisco was “on the rise” and that “military and military immigration enforcement in our city will stop us from recovering.”

In California and elsewhere, the Trump administration has aggressively sought to expand the reach and authority of the Border Patrol and federal immigration agents. Last month, the DOJ fired its top prosecutor in Sacramento after she told Border Patrol El Centro Sector Director Gregory Bovino that he could not conduct indiscriminate immigration raids around Sacramento this summer.

In Oakland on Thursday, the planned increase in enforcement sparked protests near the Coast Guard’s entrance to the island, drawing widespread condemnation from local liberal officials and immigration advocacy organizations.

On Thursday night, security officers at the base fired at the driver of a U-Haul truck that drove the truck toward them, injuring the driver and a nearby civilian. The FBI is investigating the incident.

Some liberal officials had warned that federal agents who violated California’s rights could face consequences — even possible arrest — by local law enforcement, which condemned federal officials.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanch responded Thursday with a scathing letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and others in which he wrote that any attempt by local law enforcement to arrest federal officers in the course of their duties would be considered by the Justice Department to be “illegal and futile” and part of a “criminal conspiracy.”

Blanch wrote that the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prohibits any federal law enforcement official from being “arrested on a state criminal charge where the alleged crime occurred in the course of the performance of his federal duties” and that the Justice Department would take legal action against any state official who advocated for such enforcement.

“In the meantime, federal agents and officers will continue to enforce federal law and will not be deterred by the threat of arrest by California officials who have abandoned their duty to protect their constituents,” Blanch wrote.

The threat to arrest federal officers was made in part with San Francisco Dist. Attiy Brooke Jenkins, who wrote on social media that if federal agents “come into San Francisco and harass our residents illegally…I will not hesitate to do my job and hold you accountable like any other lawbreaker.”