'This Is Intimidation,' ICE Whistle-Blower Alleges as TV Interview Gets Interrupted by Federal Agents
For James Schwab, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it would have been his first solo TV interview, and with CBS News no less. Unfortunately, that was the exact moment that agents claiming to be with the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's Office chose to knock on the door.
"They just said that they wanted to talk to me about the leak with the Oakland mayor," Schwab said about the matter that the agents chose to bring up to him, then of all times.
Schwab resigned from ICE back in March, saying he was disillusioned with the way the agency would allegedly ask him to "spin" information. Putting good-sounding sound bites on otherwise unpalatable updates was part and parcel of his job, even through both the Obama and Trump administration.
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The last straw, though, was drawn after the current administration reportedly asked him to lie about a certain incident, one that would turn out to cause friction with Oakland's mayor, according to CBS News.
ICE was running a series of raids in the San Francisco Bay area back in February, and already high tensions in the area are threatening to boil over. Schwab was assigned to interface with the media about the raids, right at the time that Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned people that raids are coming.
"We ended up arresting 232, which is 16 percent higher than our highest estimates. So internally, that was considered a success," Schwab noted, adding that he was tasked to help craft a statement about some people eluding arrest due to the mayor's interference.
It was then that Attorney General Jeff Sessions said "ICE failed to make 800 arrests" because of the mayor's statement," a revision that Schwab called "a flat-out lie."
Asked by reporters where the number came from, Schwab was ordered to avoid disputing Session's statement. "I have never been asked to perpetuate a lie, which is the same as lying," Schwab said.
