Government agents interrupt TV interview with ICE whistleblower

Agents from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s Office interrupted a TV interview being given by a whistle blower for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Former ICE spokesperson James Schwab was giving his first TV interview with CBS News about why he left the agency in March when two men knocked on the door of his home to speak to him about an incident involving the mayor of Oakland, California, who had publicly warned her city that ICE agents were going to conduct a raid. 

Former ICE spokesperson James Schwab was giving his first TV interview with CBS News about why he left the agency when DHS agents knocked on his door

He said agents wanted to talk to him about an incident with the mayor of Oakland 

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) ICE agents frisk a suspected MS-13 gang member and Honduran immigrant after arresting him at his home in Brentwood, New York.

He described his concerns with his being asked to ‘spin’ his statements to the press and the incident that led to his resignation and his questioning by agents. 

Schwab told CBS News that both President Donald Trump and President Barack Obama’s administrations asked him to ‘spin’ information he released to the public.

But he cited an incident under the current president that led him to quit the agency. 

In February, ICE agents in the San Francisco Bay area where planning to carry out a raid. 

The day before the raid took place, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned the community about it.

Schwab’s job made him the point of contact with journalists about the raid and Schaaf’s warning about it.  

He said the agency arrested a few hundred illegal immigrants but publicly blamed Schaaf and her warning for letting people get away.

He helped craft a statement to the media saying, ‘Some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor’s irresponsible decision.’

But he said the raid was considered an internal success at the agency.

‘We ended up arresting 232, which is 16 percent higher than our highest estimates. So internally, that was considered a success….But what they publicly said was that she let people go,’ Schwab said.  

He was comfortable with that statement, because: ‘This is a spin statement. This is what every public affairs officer does.’

But a week later Attorney General Jeff Sessions used noticeably different language when he talked about the raid. He said ‘ICE failed to make 800 arrests’ because of the mayor’s statement.

Schwab said he was uncomfortable with the language Sessions used. 

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf issued a public warning about ICE raids

Mexican nationals who illegally crossed the California border are apprehended and handcuffed 1 mile inside U.S. territory by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents

‘Completely false…that made me extremely uncomfortable,’ Schwab said. 

‘After they failed to correct it – it’s a flat-out lie. They know it’s a lie. It was just shocking to me that no one wanted to fix that,’ Schwab said.

Troubled by the incident and what he called a ‘public deception,’ Schwab turned in his resignation.

‘I could not fathom staying at an organization that was OK with lying to the American public. I hate that. In 17 years in the military, at the Department of Defense as a civilian, at NASA, and now at Homeland Security, I have never been asked to lie. I have never been asked to perpetuate a lie, which is the same as lying,’ Schwab told CBS News.

But during his interview with CBS on the incident, some three months after he resigned, Schwab was interrupted by a surprise visit from men who said they were agents from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s Office. 

He was ‘completely shocked’ to see them.

Schwab said his conversation with the agents had to do with Oakland’s mayor.

‘I’ve never met her before. I never contacted Libby Schaaf,’ Schwab said. ‘Never. I would never tell her. I would never tell anyone…They were very serious. He was very stern with me, and it was concerning.’

Schwab said it was ‘absolutely’ an intimidation technique.

‘Why, three months later, are we doing this?’ Schwab said. ‘This is intimidation. And this is why people won’t come out and speak against the government.’

Asked if he believes other agencies are struggling with the same thing, Schwab said, ‘I know that they are, because they’ve reached out to me.’

Schwab said he’s speaking out now because he’s talked to others in the federal government with similar concerns.

‘That’s one of the most important reasons that I’m doing this is that – so that people hear that someone else stood up, that someone else said, ‘No.’ And was concerned with it…To actually prepare and stand out in front of the public and perpetuate something that you know is absolutely false is not okay. And no special agent from the Department of Homeland Security is gonna stop me from saying that,’ Schwab said.

The ICE told CBS News they disagree with Schwab’s claims he was ordered to lie, but do believe the Oakland mayor’s warning helped targets evade arrest.  

 

 

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