Federal immigration enforcement activity that led to a West Oakland school lockdown Wednesday started when agents in an unmarked SUV attempted to pull over a man during morning drop-off, according to an Oakland City Council member.
The man had apparently dropped off a child at Hoover Elementary School or a nearby preschool or childcare campus when he was spooked by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to Councilmember Carroll Fife.
The man drove off with agents in pursuit and soon allegedly crashed into a car parked near the intersection of 31st and West streets, just a few blocks away, Oakland police confirmed Thursday.
“So this high-speed chase in a residential neighborhood led to this grandfather, um, who was just deeply afraid, hitting a parked car, which totaled the car of a young mother, a pregnant young mother who now does not have access to a car,” Fife said in a social media post.
“This type of activity could have led to not only a detention of a person who was just dropping a child off at school but also it could have led to serious injury or death,” Fife said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that ICE agents weren’t targeting Hoover Elementary and didn’t go on school grounds, but were in the area looking for a specific person with “multiple arrests” in California and Nevada.
The man agents were chasing fled on foot following the crash and remains at large, according to DHS officials.
Fife said several people who live in the area came out to help the man and the ICE agents eventually left the area.
“They didn’t stay to address the harm that they caused in this neighborhood, they didn’t take accountability,” Fife said.
Both Fife and an OPD spokesperson said ICE didn’t inform local police about their activities Wednesday.
“This is what happens when federal agencies operate with no oversight and no guardrails, no accountability,” Fife said.
Administrators at Hoover Elementary and the nearby Harriet Tubman Preschool initiated their “secure school protocol” sometime between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. following reports that ICE agents were in the area.
In addition to the lockdown, dozens of Oakland teachers and community members gathered on the sidewalks surrounding the Hoover campus in response to the ICE activity, which was reported by people calling the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership rapid response hotline.