The State - News from July 13, 1986

Oakland’s City Council voted to make the city a sanctuary for refugees from South Africa, El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti. “We hope this means that Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Haitians and South Africans living in Oakland will live their daily lives with less fear,” Joan Lohman of the Oakland City of Refuge Committee said after the council voted 9 to 0 to adopt the proposal. But David N. Ilchert of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service condemned the measure, saying it could give illegal aliens the notion they would be safe in Oakland from pursuit for any past crimes. The largely symbolic measure bars city police from making arrests for immigration violations.