ICYMI: Congresswoman Simon on Protecting the East Bay from Illegal and Violence ICE Actions

OAKLAND, CA - Last week, on January 29, 2026, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) joined Mayor of Oakland Barbara Lee as she signed two Executive Orders directing City departments to protect Oakland residents and resources in response to the Trump administration's threats to deploy National Guard troops and surge immigration enforcement operations in the city.

In case you missed it, Congresswoman Simon's remarks can be found below, and you can watch the entire event here:

"I do want to articulate that the California's 12th Congressional District comes from a long line of folks who were clear about what our floor was for our people. Congressman Dellums led us, followed by our forever Congresswoman Barbara Lee. And why I bring this up - the federal responsibility, the responsibility of the administration is to protect and be the good. Reverend Dereca Blackmon [from the East Bay Church] will tell you that folks in Oakland, across faith, across race - we are Micah 6:8 people. Our job is to defend the least of these, folks with the least amount of resources, the least amount of government support. And we together come together to lift them up. I want to say this, as now your new Congressmember, I applaud Mayor Lee and members of this elected and social community. Supporting folks who are literally struggling to survive. We are better because of our immigrant communities.

"Oakland is one community across race, across faith, across ethnic origin; and I will say this, folks, I traveled in solidarity to Minneapolis, Minnesota, just a couple of weeks ago, and stood at the site where Ms. [Renee] Good was murdered by federal law enforcement. She was shot in the upper components of her body three times. The administration became the judge, the jury, and the executioner. We are saying here today, 'NOT IN OAKLAND.'

"We also met organizers very similar to the ones that you see here, and they said that in the beautiful city of Minneapolis…what you hear at night are two things: you hear whistles and you hear screams. The whistles come from the thousands of community members - white, Black, Latino, Asian American, Native American - who have come together to bear witness to the butchery that is happening in Minnesota. They are bearing witness to those crimes inflicted by an administration. Men, women and children are being carried out of their homes in the middle of the day, carried out of their schools and places of worship. Those men and women, like we are doing here, have organized to bear witness and to provide sanctuary and love for the least among us. The screams you hear are from men, women, and children being drug out of their places.

"In Oakland, not only will we bear witness, but our elected leaders, our community service, our health providers, our law enforcement leaders will hold the line to ensure that every Oaklander, during this federal siege in American cities, that they have folks to turn to. I'm so proud to represent one of the best cities in the world - Oakland, California. We will hold the line."

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