Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee issued two executive orders today that restrict federal civil immigration activities in the city and order departments to prepare for the possible deployment of the National Guard or big immigration enforcement operations.
Lee announced her orders at a press conference in Oakland City Hall. Flanked by local, county, and state officials, and labor and business representatives, Lee said her orders are meant to prevent the kinds of violence and chaos unfolding in Minneapolis from happening in Oakland.
“We’re not going to allow our streets to be turned into combat zones,” Lee said.
The Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge,” which began in December, has flooded Minneapolis with 3,000 ICE and CBP agents who have engaged in controversial patrols, sometimes violating the law, in attempts to arrest undocumented people. Protests and resistance have led to violence, including the recent fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Lee has been an outspoken opponent of President Donald Trump. As a member of Congress, Lee said she “barely made it out” when rioters breached the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, and attempted to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won. She is also still party to a lawsuit that aims to hold Trump accountable for the insurrection.
But until now, Lee has been short on details about her plans for how to deal with the president’s aggressive use of federal troops and immigrant agents. She nearly faced this crisis head-on last October when Customs and Border Protection agents deployed to Coast Guard Island, a base near Oakland, for an anticipated operation in the Bay Area.
The operation was called off by Trump, but not before agents controversially used force on protesters, including by shooting a local pastor in the face with a chemical weapon. In a separate incident, federal agents guarding Coast Guard Island also fired on a truck that accelerated backward toward them. A bystander was wounded, and the person accused of driving the truck, who has been charged with assaulting federal officers, also was treated for a gunshot wound.
Other cities have seen much more chaos and violence, and the recent shootings in Minneapolis have raised questions about how Oakland leaders will respond to similar events.
What Mayor Lee’s orders say
The first executive order signed by Lee will prohibit federal immigration agents from using property owned or controlled by the city as staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases for federal civil immigration enforcement activities. City officials will erect signs spelling this out. The order also stipulates that any city employee who becomes aware of a violation shall report it to their supervisor, who will report it to the mayor. Lee’s order does not prevent agents from stepping onto city property to arrest someone if they have a judicial warrant.
This order closely mirrors legislation approved by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors earlier this week that bars federal immigration agents from using county property for federal immigration enforcement.
“We will not allow the federal administration to commandeer our property for the purposes of terrorizing our communities and conducting mass immigration raids,” Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas said at the Thursday press conference.
Lee’s second order directs city departments to prepare for the possible deployment of the National Guard, U.S. Military, or federal immigration personnel to Oakland. The mayor will lead an interdepartmental task force to coordinate a response plan, educate communities about their legal rights, meet with local advocacy groups to discuss potential impacts, and review existing ways to report alleged improper acts by soldiers or federal agents. Lee did not say who will serve on the task force, but the order invites the city attorney to participate.
This order also reaffirms Oakland’s commitment to immigrant communities, said Lee, noting that city officials will continue to make resources available for residents, such as know-your-rights flyers. The city will also continue to support the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership, which operates a hotline for people to report sightings of ICE and detentions.
“Today, many of our businesses and owners and workers are living in fear and anxiety over the federal immigration enforcement. That fear doesn’t just stay at home. It spills into our streets, into our stores, and across our community,” said Stephanie Tran, board president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.
And the order notes that Lee’s office will work with the city attorney, governor, and state attorney general to evaluate and pursue legal actions in the event that soldiers are deployed to Oakland. Finally, it notes that OPD will continue to comply with Oakland’s sanctuary city policies by not assisting ICE officials in enforcing civil immigration law. Any city department that becomes aware of immigrant enforcement activity in Oakland is required to notify the mayor’s office and the city attorney.
Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, who recently traveled to Minneapolis, described visiting the site where Renee Good was shot to death by federal agents earlier this month. She painted a grim picture of the city, sharing that at night, Minneapolis streets are filled with the sounds of whistles and people screaming.
Oakland’s leaders and community stakeholders “will hold the line to ensure that every Oaklander during this federal siege in American cities, that they have folks to turn to,” Simon said.
“*” indicates required fields