California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are calling for a probe into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an ICE spokesman resigned over what he called false statements from the Trump administration about federal raids in California.
Feinstein and Harris wrote a letter Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security's acting Inspector General, John Kelly, urging an investigation into the resignation of James Schwab, the San Francisco spokesman for ICE until last week.
Schwab resigned last week, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that he was frustrated by official statements blaming Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) for tipping off hundreds of undocumented immigrants to upcoming raids.
"We have serious concerns that Trump administration officials are misrepresenting the facts and statistics surrounding this enforcement action for political purposes," the two California senators wrote Thursday. "ICE has since reversed its previous statements, saying it 'can't put a number on how many targets' evaded arrest due to Mayor Schaaf's alert."
“Public policies and law enforcement operations must be informed by facts,” the letter continues, “not the fabricated overstatements or distortions of political officials.”
Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan derided the mayor's efforts as "irresponsible" at the time, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed earlier this month that Homan told him that as many as 800 undocumented immigrants avoided the sting as a result of her comments.
“ICE failed to make 800 arrests that they would have made if the mayor had not acted as she did. Those are 800 wanted aliens that are now at large in that community," Sessions said.
President Trump referenced the number the next day, which he said was "close to 1,000."
During the four-day operation, ICE made 232 arrests. Schwab reportedly believed the number of immigrants who avoided the sting to be much lower than 800, and was uncomfortable with orders to "deflect" questions about the figure from the media.
“I quit because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts,” Schwab told the Chronicle. “I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn’t agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit."
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