
ICE Whistleblower interview with CBS interrupted by government agents - neo4sure
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-ice-spokesman-james-schwab-opens-up-about-resignation-trump-administration/
======
alexandercrohde
tl; dr:

1\. ICE [Immigration Control] planned to raid Oakland for illegal immigrants.

2\. Somehow, Oakland's mayor found out and warned the community (Oakland, SF,
and California are very pro-immigrant). This obviously gave opportunity for
some immigrants to elude the raid.

3\. Feeling undermined, Jeff sessions claimed that "ICE failed to make 800
arrests" because of the mayor's statement.

4\. James Schwab, who this article is about, identifies that as an outright
lie, because "We ended up arresting 232, which is 16 percent higher than our
highest estimates." Thus the 800 figure would be an outright fabrication. He
was asked not to contradict this lie, and morally objected, resigned, and blew
the moral whistle on the whole situation.

5\. In the middle of the CBS interview, at his house, some very intimidating
DHS officers came by, unannounced, who seemed to suggest that Schwab had
leaked the information to Oakland's mayor (which he cooly dismisses is
entirely false and spurious).

6\. The officers appear retreat once they realize they are on camera.

~~~
gulaschadasical
re: #4, He states 232 out of 1000 in this article, and claims the 'outright
lie' was that the mayor was letting people go.
[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/former-ice-spokesman-
sp...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/former-ice-spokesman-speaks-out-i-
was-asked-to-perpetuate-a-flat-out-lie_us_5b34ca4ee4b0cb56051fecd8)

------
onemoresoop
Lies, deception, intimidation, what's next? Is this America of the 21st
century?

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Intimidation tactics like this is how these organizations operate in
situations like this. It's been this way for a long time. Read up on the CIA
and FBI getting in each other's way in the Hoover era. They pulled all sorts
of crap like this. It's not every former administration has been standing in
the way of behavior like this and now suddenly the floodgates are open and the
departments in the executive branch feel empowered to oppress and intimidate
anyone they see as a threat, they've been doing it all along. Maybe they're
less subtle now, I dunno.

It's only now that we have a POTUS that everyone hates that people are taking
notice how foul the rest of the executive branch really is.

Edit: I know that lunch hour in CA is exactly the wrong time to post something
like this but please actually try and refute something I'm saying instead of
mashing the downvote button like you're on Reddit. We're supposed to be able
to have adult discussion around here.

~~~
acobster
Yeah, I'm not surprised by DHS at all here.

I do think it's less subtle as POTUS has made it very clear he has zero qualms
with lying routinely about almost everything, and with strongarm tactics and
intimidation. But the culture of secrecy, intimidation, and public
misdirection has been there from the beginning, and not just by happenstance
but by necessity. If you can convince yourself, as a member of
DHS/CIA/FBI/etc. that whatever project you're working on (like, say,
wiretapping MLK) is for National Security, then the ends justify the means.

------
CodeTheInternet
> Before the surprise visit, Schwab told Yuccas that both the Obama and Trump
> White Houses asked him to "spin" information.

If they would talk about how "both sides of the aisle" were doing this, it
would make it non-partisan, more news outlets would discuss it, and maybe
there would be actions taken.

~~~
yodon
> If they would talk about how "both sides of the aisle" were doing this, it
> would make it non-partisan

He told the reporter that never before had he been asked to actually lie.

There is a difference between truthful statements that deflect attention from
one place to another and outright lies (be they lies of omission or
commission), and it would be a counterfactual interpretation of the interview
to report he said both sides of the aisle asked him to lie. They didn’t.
That’s why he resigned, because this was something new and different and
serious.

[edit to add the quotation for context]

------
John_KZ
Was he send to the Gulag or not?

~~~
llukas
In US they put you on a no fly list and set credit score to 0.

~~~
rad_gruchalski
The Land Of Free.

~~~
masonic
The USA is terrible. Don't come here.

~~~
dang
Nationalistic flamewar is not welcome on Hacker News. Please don't post like
this again.

