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Twitter Rumor of ICE Raid in Berkeley Claimed to be False

Janis Mara (BCN)
Friday November 17, 2017 - 02:43:00 PM

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin is working to dispel a claim tweeted this morning that Berkeley police cooperated in an alleged Immigration and Customs Enforcement action. 

"Reports of an ICE raid happening in South Berkeley are not true. The police were serving a warrant and there was no ICE presence or involvement of any kind. Berkeley continues to be a Sanctuary City and we stand with our undocumented community," Arreguin tweeted. 

The original tweet, posted by a woman who identified herself as Felicia Gustin, alleged that ICE, with Berkeley police "IN FULL COOPERATION [sic], raided a construction site" at Sacramento Street and Alcatraz Avenue this morning. 

ICE and a Berkeley Police spokesmen both said ICE was not involved in the operation, which police said wasn't at the construction site. 

"It wasn't connected with us at all. It wasn't ICE out there," said James Schwab, an ICE spokesman. "They (Berkeley police) wouldn't typically be at an ICE operation." 

Berkeley Police Spokesman Sgt. Andrew Frankel said, "Our special response team served an arrest warrant this morning on the 1500 block of Alcatraz. Police cleared the area. There was no involvement by ICE." 

The action took place near the construction site, but did not involve the site. 

"We were not serving a warrant at the construction site," Frankel said. 

Gustin's tweet drew a number of responses on Twitter. One response, from a Twitter member with the handle "Independent Radio," tweeted, "Some one [sic] needs to be fired. Maybe a group of people. This is Berkeley. DO IT!" 

Others asked Gustin for evidence, tweeting such things as, "This is my neighborhood, do you have any additional information/sources?" 

A message sent by Bay City News Service to Gustin was not returned by press time.