ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, whose city is across the bay from San Francisco, has publicly warned illegal immigrants in the area of scheduled sweeps by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

She said she checked with attorneys who told her that in warning lawbreakers to hide because the police are coming, she wasn’t really obstructing justice.

Obviously, she wasn’t. Just as it wasn’t a deranged 19-year-old who shot and killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Fla. It was a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle that shot and killed them.

But somebody had to hold the thing while it was shooting. You grasp the nuance, right?

The opinion of the mayor’s legal hacks aside, we all know that aiding and abetting in the concealment of illegal aliens is a — well, a what?

That’s part of the problem. Illegally entering the U.S. is not a felony but a misdemeanor.

But it’s clear Ms. Schaaf likes illegals. Wants to protect them. Why? Because illegal aliens — or “undocumented migrants” as the “no borders” crowd in our midst like to say — are basically right in assuming the immigration laws don’t apply to them.

Why don’t our immigration laws apply to illegal aliens? Because, well, because they’re basically nice people.

I agree that in many if not almost all cases they are basically nice people … who nevertheless broke the law. Willie Sutton was basically a nice person — widely regarded a gentleman by the people and banks he robbed.

As for the Oakland mayor, she has every right to engage in civil disobedience by protecting transgressors of federal law because she doesn’t agree with the law. But she should have to pay the penalty for such disobedience.

If you’re thinking arrest, indictment, conviction if found guilty followed by incarceration, then you’re thinking what I’m thinking.

Deportation might seem ideal in her case but to where?

President Trump has more than enough on his plate. But if he ever gets around to it, he actually should let federal law enforcers know it wouldn’t upset him if they decided to enforce the law. How? By arresting seditious local and state officials who declare and enforce sanctuaries for illegals.

In particular, Mr. Trump could pass the word that getting this aider and abettor off the streets of Oakland will be a positive contribution to his many efforts to Make America Great Again.

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