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OPINION: My Flight to Canada to See How America Has Changed ... see page 7
Oakland Post “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
62nd Year, No. 31
Weekly Edition July 30 - August 5, 2025
postnewsgroup.com
Homeless Advocates Condemn City’s ‘Sweeps’ of Homeless Encampments
Community Rallies for Oakland Palestinianowned Café Facing Trump Administration Lawsuit Former U.S. Vice President Kamal Harris. File photo.
Former Vice President Harris Will Not Run for Governor in California
By Post Staff
iStock. By Ken Epstein Oakland’s Homeless Advocacy Working Group (HAWG) has issued a public statement to the elected and administrative officials strongly objecting to the city’s policy of homeless “sweeps,” which it says result in the “total and rapid elimination of homeless settlements without the provision of alternate accommodations and essential services.” Instead of the current policy that places the city’s vulner-
able homeless residents under the “threat of violent displacement and inhumane encampment removals,” HAWG urges officials to take a more humane approach, making “vacant land and unused buildings available as livable accommodations for Oakland’s unhoused residents,” according to the statement. To be livable, these alternate sites must provide “ease of access, sanitation, electrical power, access to health care, case man-
agement, housing navigation, education, and employment opportunities,” the statement said. Defending the current policy, Oakland City Councilmember Ken Houston told the Oakland Post he supports the sweeps because that is clearly what Oakland residents want city government to do. He said supporting homeless residents is the responsibility of Alameda County, not the City of Continued on page 8 during the two times he was detained. “Every day, when I hug and kiss my mother goodbye, I don’t know if I will be coming back to her,” he said. “I am a survivor of the dehumanizing and racist for-profit immigration detention, where I was shackled from wrists, face, and legs, and sent to two cages that are located in Kern County where I was subjected to water-stained,
Hundreds joined a “No ICE in Dublin” rally in Dublin, CA, Saturday, July 19. Photo by Ken Epstein.
torn undergarments, as well as dirty and ripped jail uniforms.
On Wednesday, former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she will not seek the office of governor of California next year. “Over the past six months, I have spent time reflecting on this moment in our nation’s history and the best way for me to continue fighting for the American people and advancing the values and ideals I hold dear,” Harris said in Continued on page 8
Abdulrahim Harara, owner of the Jerusalem Coffee House at 5443 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland, speaks at a press conference on July 30. Photo by Ken Epstein. By Ken Epstein
“These past two years, the cafe
Community supporters rallied this week at a press conference to defend the Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland, which is being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice in a civil rights lawsuit for antisemitic discrimination and related suits filed by two pro-Israel organizations.
has faced unprecedented harassment, and unprecedented repression – highly organized systemic repression by the government and by Zionist organizations. I really want to thank the community for standing in solidarity for us, acting as an infinite backbone,” said café Continued on page 8
ICE Arrests Are Skyrocketing in the Bay Area and California, New Data Shows
By Magaly Muñoz
With just over six months
into Donald Trump’s second presidency,
his
promise
of
arresting and deporting millions
of immigrants is slowly coming to fruition, data shows.
The Data Deportation Project,
a group started by lawyers and professors in California, has
published datasets accumulated
“I was forced to clean the dor-
from multiple organizations on
The rally was organized by
the Post, arrests from immigration
that had a capacity of hold- arrests, detainments, encounters, Protesters gathered outside of San Francisco City Hall in February to Japanese Americans and mitory ing 100 people for $1 a day, with and removals of people in the U.S condemn Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. Photo by Magaly Allies Say: ‘No ICE in no proper equipment or training by immigration enforcement as Muñoz. work with dangerous cleaning early as September 2023. Across the state and country, he entered office in late January, Dublin; Never Again is Now’ tochemicals.” According to an analysis by many arrests and raids have been most of which have been taken to
By Ken Epstein
Hundreds of Japanese Ameri-
Demonstrators, who gathered
at Don Biddle Community Park in Dublin, held and posters and
cans and their allies held a rally
handmade signs. Some of which
Saturday, July 19 to stand with La-
read “Keep ICE out of Dublin”
tino, Black, Asian, and other im-
and “Hands off our immigrant
migrant communities to oppose
neighbors.”
the potential reopening of a shut-
Speaking at the rally, Jose Ru-
tered federal prison in Dublin, CA
ben Hernandez, a Freedom Cam-
as an Immigration and Customs
paign coordinator from the In-
Enforcement (ICE) detention cen-
terfaith Movement for Integrity,
ter.
described what happened to him
Tsuru for Solidarity, the ICE Out of Dublin Coalition, several labor unions, and other organizations. Tsuru for Solidarity is a Japanese American social justice group that organized the rally in solidarity with immigrant communities to protest the opening of detention centers in Northern California, especially focusing on the former Continued on page 8
Mayor Barbara Lee Hosts Community Listening Session at Skyline Church
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee. Special to the Post Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee held her fifth community listening session Wednesday evening at Skyline Community Church, bringing together District 6 resi-
dents and city leadership for a dialogue on community safety, beautification, and economic prosperity. The session, part of Lee’s One Oakland initiative, featured Council President Kevin Jenkins, Councilmember Rowena Brown, Police Chief Floyd Mitchell, Fire Chief Damon Covington, Violence Prevention Chief Dr. Holly Joshi, Transportation Director Josh Rowan, and Economic Development Director Ashleigh Kanat. During the 90-minute forum, residents raised concerns about Oakland’s fiscal recovery, crime
reduction strategies, illegal dumping, housing insurance issues, and city governance. Topics ranged from stalled developments like the Coliseum project to the effectiveness of emergency response programs and the city’s commitment to environmental goals. Rev. Laurie Manning of Skyline Community Church moderated the structured discussion, which included both pre-submitted and live audience questions from neighborhood advocates, civic leaders, and small business owners.
enforcement in California’s San Francisco Area of Responsibility (AOR) was 1.5 times higher in the
month of June (563 arrests) than in the first 30 days of Trump’s
presidency (364 arrests) in the beginning of the year.
In the first six months of the
year, immigration officers have
arrested just over 2,000 people in the same AOR, double what
the last six months of 2024 data shows (1,008 arrests), according to the Data Deportation Project.
reported in communities with
the courts by state litigation.
56,000 arrests have been made
ending
Immigration.
at the southern border, ending the
heavy immigrant presence. Over nationally, according to TRAC
Locally, several individuals
have been detained by Im-
migration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Francisco
at immigration court hearings,
particularly in the last three months.
Trump has made several
executive
orders
and
other
actions against immigration since
Orders and actions include birthright
citizenship,
declaring a national emergency Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
app
that
allowed
appointments,
and
enactment
migrants to schedule asylum of the Laken Riley Act, which
allows law enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants who commit minor crimes.
But arrests are not only being
made for those with criminal convictions.
In June 2024, 137 people with
criminal convictions were arested
and 24 for other immigration violations. But last month, 251
arrests with criminal convictions and 241 arrests with other immigration
violations
were
made by ICE and other agencies.
The arrests with non-criminal
actions increased 10 times that of only a year ago.
The surge of arrests and raids
in California and other states led Continued on page 8