6/15/18 A couple years ago, James Schwab was at Oakland airport escorting a local journalist reporting on the immigration deportation flights from that facility.
The former Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman – who resigned in protest earlier this year after refusing to “lie” about the results of a controversial raid warning issued by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf – has one image from the tarmac that day seared into his memory.
A shackled grandmother was being loaded onto a chartered jet. She had no criminal record. She was in the country to take care of her grandchildren while their mother and father worked, he said.
“She was here illegally, yes,” Schwab said. “But why aren’t we fixing the laws? & It was the moment I realized how serious the immigration situation was in America.”
