No, Oakland residents did not protest ICE busting child sex traffickers

President Trump shared a story Tuesday on Twitter that erroneously claims Oakland residents protested federal agents as they broke up a child sex trafficking ring. President Trump shared a story Tuesday on Twitter that erroneously claims Oakland residents protested federal agents as they broke up a child sex trafficking ring. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Associated Press Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Associated Press Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close No, Oakland residents did not protest ICE busting child sex traffickers 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

President Trump shared a story Tuesday on Twitter that erroneously claims Oakland residents last August protested federal agents as they broke up a child sex trafficking ring.

The inaccurate assertions have been making the rounds in conservative media for the past week, getting prominent coverage in the National Review, the Federalist and the Daily Wire. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., gave the story a boost last week on his Twitter feed, before the president’s senior campaign adviser, Katrina Pierson, shared it Sunday with the caption, “The stupidity of the left was on full display in Oakland … Great job snowflakes.” Trump retweeted the post early Tuesday to his more than 53 million followers.

The stupidity of the left was on full display in Oakland. The #AbolishICE protest was actually the execution of a warrant from an ongoing criminal investigation of a child sex trafficking! Great job snowflakes. https://t.co/D9GQ6AHvDW — Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) July 8, 2018

The protest occurred on Aug. 16, as officers with Homeland Security Investigations — the division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that handles transnational crime — executed a search warrant on 27th Street in West Oakland for alleged labor trafficking. The target was a janitorial business, according to Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, who was briefed on the operation the prior day by ICE Special Agent Ryan Spradlin.

Yet, while deportation proceedings are pending for one of two Guatemalan brothers detained that morning, no criminal charges have resulted from the search of the home. The younger brother died a few weeks later in a car crash in Oakland.

The “child sex trafficking” descriptor has its roots in an erroneous initial press release and since-deleted tweet from the Oakland Police Department. Spokespeople for the department corrected the information within an hour to say the investigation was for alleged human trafficking, not child sex trafficking, but the latter term was repeated in local news reports.

Oakland police officers — though they work for a city that prohibits cooperation with ICE — were involved in the operation because Spradlin asked Kirkpatrick to provide traffic control for the federal officers. That assistance prompted an inquiry by the chair of a city commission and a rebuke from several Oakland City Council members.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks suggested Kirkpatrick should be fired for misleading the public, and Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said the chief and mayor were “colluding” with ICE.

The police chief was called before the council Nov. 28 to explain her actions.

Kirkpatrick said she approved sending the traffic control units out of concern for public safety, thinking marked city police cars could be useful on a main thoroughfare during an early-morning operation. She also mentioned a fear of “friendly fire” in which confused local and federal officers might shoot each other.

But the City Council and Mayor Libby Schaaf, who initially defended city police support for the investigation, ultimately backed away from that line of reasoning. The council approved legislation in January that prohibits all forms of assistance to federal immigration officials — including blocking off a street during a criminal investigation.

Kirkpatrick publicly apologized for the “child sex trafficking” wording in the department’s initial press release.

“I caught the error, and I had it corrected,” she told the council in her November presentation. “The mistake was made. I own it.”

It wasn’t clear whether the several dozen neighbors and immigrants-rights activists who demonstrated outside the home during the operation had seen the first press release. At the time, the protesters said they were there to support an immigrant family known in the community — not oppose the takedown of child sex trafficking.

“My safety is bound up in the safety of everybody, particularly the people who are most vulnerable,” Hadar Cohen, a neighbor, told The Chronicle during the protest.

Laura Barrios, who lived at the searched residence, said the federal officers apparently got a tip about her family’s cleaning business and “wanted to verify that it was actually a good business.” She said the agents treated the family respectfully.

Barrios said the allegations of trafficking were not true and that some of the company’s profits were sent home to relatives in Guatemala. Members of her family came to the United States seeking political asylum and escape from violence in their home village. Barrios said her sister was stabbed 13 times in one attack before she sought asylum at the border.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov