President Trump has urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting Oakland, Ca., Mayor Libby Schaaf, whom he has accused of thwarting federal immigration laws, on obstruction of justice charges, Politico reports. Schaaf warned her constituents in February of an impending federal raid that targeted more than 1,100 undocumented immigrants and resulted in the arrests of about 200. Trump’s remarks came during a White House discussion with about 20 California elected officials and law enforcement officers who favor tougher immigration enforcement standards in their state and have opposed the California Values Act, otherwise known as the “sanctuary state” law.
Sessions, Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) were among the federal officials at the meeting. Schaaf “informed them, and they all fled — or most of them fled — and that whole operation, that took a long time to put together,” Trump said. “To me, that’s obstruction of justice.” The Democratic Oakland mayor said she intended to quell rising panic and help “law-abiding” immigrant communities in her town who were hearing rumors of such impending ICE raids in their communities. Speaking at the White House meeting about some illegal immigrants who are gang members, Trump commented, “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.” California Gov. Jerry Brown tweeted, “Trump is lying on immigration, lying about crime and lying about the laws of California. Flying in a dozen Republican politicians to flatter him and praise his reckless policies changes nothing. We, the citizens of the fifth largest economy in the world, are not impressed.”