{"id":16673,"date":"2018-03-19T15:01:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T19:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16673"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:44:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:44:01","slug":"lock-american-peoples-case-oakland-mayor-libby-schaaf-looks-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/03\/19\/lock-american-peoples-case-oakland-mayor-libby-schaaf-looks-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"Lock Her Up? The American People\u2019s Case Against Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Looks Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sanctuary state of California just can\u2019t keep itself from escalating the lawless insanity to new heights.\u00a0 Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf had already said <\/a>that she was willing (and maybe even eager) to go to jail to defend illegal aliens and her city\u2019s extreme sanctuary policies that protect them. \u00a0She should get her chance.\u00a0 By now the whole country knows that on February 24, she tweeted<\/a> a warning to illegals that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was about to conduct targeted operations directed at criminal aliens in the San Francisco Bay Area.<\/p>\n

President Trump rightly called Schaaf\u2019s actions<\/a> \u201ca disgrace.\u201d\u00a0 Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked her<\/a>, \u201c[h]ow dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open border agenda?\u201d\u00a0 And Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan, who has been calling for the criminal prosecution of sanctuary city officials for months<\/a>, said<\/a> \u201c[w]hat she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling police.\u201d\u00a0 The Department of Justice (\u201cDOJ\u201d) is reviewing the possibility<\/a> of filing criminal charges against her.\u00a0 But do they actually have a good case?<\/p>\n

Yes. There are several federal criminal statutes that her actions appear to have likely violated.\u00a0 The first is the so-called alien \u201csmuggling\u201d statute<\/a>, which makes it a crime for \u201c[a]ny person who \u2026 knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place.\u201d\u00a0 Under this law, a defendant faces up to five years in prison \u201cfor each alien\u201d<\/u><\/strong> [emphasis added]who is the subject of the crime.\u00a0 Since Schaaf\u2019s warning may have led to \u201cabout 800\u201d<\/a> illegal aliens escaping from arrest by ICE, that certainly could add up to a lot of time for her, if she was found guilty.<\/p>\n

Another charge that might fit the evidence could be Obstruction of Justice, specifically 18 U.S. Code Section 1505<\/a>.\u00a0 Unlike some of the other sections of the Obstruction chapter, this section doesn\u2019t require that a court already be involved for the defendant\u2019s action to be a crime: DOJ only has to prove that a defendant \u201cimpede[ed]or endeavor[ed]to influence, obstruct, or impede\u201d a \u201cproceeding\u201d before a federal department or agency.\u00a0 It might not apply to all the illegal aliens who Schaaf\u2019s warning managed to scatter, but it probably does apply to any of them who\u2019ve previously been in immigration proceedings, especially if they\u2019ve already been ordered deported.\u00a0 ICE indicated that in May 2016 there were more than 950,000<\/a> of these so-called immigration fugitives on the run who\u2019ve already received such orders. Thus, it is a virtual certainty that among who responded to the mayor\u2019s tip-off and fled were fugitives from justice.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the conspiracy statute<\/a>, which would require DOJ to prove Schaaf first agreed with someone to commit either or both of the two crimes above, and then did \u201cany act\u201d<\/a> to further that agreement.\u00a0 The act was obviously the tweet itself.\u00a0 Although Schaaf says she relied on<\/a> \u201cunofficial sources,\u201d there\u2019s nothing in the law that says that matters.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t even matter whether the government knows, or can prove, who the agreement was made with, just that it was made.\u00a0 Conspiracy indictments charge that defendants conspired with \u201cpersons known or unknown\u201d all the time.<\/p>\n

None of this means a conviction is ever guaranteed, of course: in the age of the Kate Steinle verdict<\/a>, you never know what a jury might do even when the evidence of guilt is overwhelming.\u00a0 But it looks like there\u2019s more than enough that it\u2019s worth trying.\u00a0 The rule of law practically demands it.