Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were on the move in the East Bay earlier today. From our story:

OAKLAND — Ongoing enforcement tactics by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel caused panic to erupt at several East Bay school districts Tuesday, although ICE officials said that many of the rumors that swirled among parents and school staff were false or overblown.

“This whole experience is so terrifying that it really brought out the greatest fear in everybody,” said Mark Coplan, a spokesman for the Berkeley Unified School District, where the schools superintendent issued a recorded phone message to parents Tuesday promising that he “will not allow any child to be taken away from the school.”

Some of the rumors — for example, that Berkeley middle school students were being carted off in vans — turned out to be false. But others — for example, that ICE agents were conducting surveillance near an East Oakland elementary school — were true and prompted Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and others to rally outside the school in protest.

“We were not at a school,” ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. “We were at residences. There may be a situation where a residence is near to a school.”

Local elected officials are seriously peeved.

“I find today’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence at our schools reprehensible. The Bush Administration espouses the virtues of No Child Left Behind and yet they provide no funding. If the President wants to help our nation’s children he should send funding — not federal agents to our schools,” said state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland. “It is clear that ICE raids jeopardize the stability of our communities and families. There should be an immediate freeze on ICE raids directed at school children while legislation aiming to fix immigration is considered.”

And Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said she’s “deeply troubled and concerned about the tactics employed by ICE. Conducting an operation of this nature in Oakland is a direct violation of the spirit of the city’s sanctuary resolution.”

“Although ICE officials assured my district office that they did not physically enter public school property, the presence of the ICE van near or parked in front of the Esperanza Academy and Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy is of grave concern to me,” Lee said. “In an effort to address the controversial tactics that have been used by ICE, my district office has been in contact with them to convey my concerns. I will be working with my colleagues to oppose the use of this troubling approach, and I am personally committed to reviewing any ICE policies that may create a culture of fear and intimidation, especially near a school or place of worship.

“To conduct such an operation near or around a public school campus is a violation of the sanctity of the education process, and is intentionally meant to intimidate those who live in the community,” Lee continued. “I do not support these intimidation policies and I am planning a district outreach event in the future to hear directly from my constituents about their experiences with agency officials.”

PLENTY of opportunities to vent this week.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will speak on cyber security to the 2008 RSA Conference, a big gathering of information security professionals, at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, April 8, at the Moscone Center, 747 Howard St. in San Francisco. Ordinarily I’d say this would be the Bay Area’s “event most likely to be protested” for the week, particularly given Chertoff’s recent decision to issue waivers bypassing the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmental protections for construction of the U.S.-Mexico border fence — thereby angering environmental activists AND immigration activists in one fell swoop.

But this is a special week, of course: The Olympic torch will be carried through San Francisco this Wednesday, April 9, starting at McCovey Cove at 1 p.m. and following a six-mile route mostly along the Embarcadero, looping through North Beach and returning to finish at Justin Herman Plaza at about 3:30 p.m. The big protest against China’s human-rights abuses in Tibet will coalesce at about 10 a.m. in Ferry Park, between Washington and Clay streets off Drumm.

Still have something to get off your chest? East Bay Pesticide Alert is sponsoring a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in the Ecology Center at 2530 San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley to discuss the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s plan to do aerial pesticide spraying of the East Bay from Crockett down to the Oakland/San Leandro border, as well as San Francisco and southeastern Marin county, starting Aug. 1 to eradicate the light brown apple moth.

…two steps forward, one step back.

SCAAP stands for State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the federal government’s reimbursement to state and local governments for the costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens. The office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sent out a news release about half an hour ago noting the Senate today had unanimously approved her budget amendment increasing SCAAP’s budget authority for FY 2009 to $950 million.

“State and local governments bear the burden of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens, and SCAAP is the only means of reimbursing these costs,” she said in the release. “This is a federal responsibility, and the federal government should not shortchange state and local governments. This would be patently unfair, because it penalizes state and local governments for the failure of federal immigration policy. This amendment will provide much-needed relief to state and local governments.”

Actually, no, it probably won’t — it never does.

President Bush’s FY 2009 budget requested no funding for SCAAP — just as in past years. The Senate Budget Committee voted $417 million for the program, but SCAAP is authorized at $950 million for each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2011, so Feinstein’s amendment aims to restore $533 million to the program.

But Congress dances the SCAAP tango every year. The President proposes not to fund it at all. Then some money is restored, then all of it — and then, invariably, it’s pared back by about half. Congress approved $250 million for it in 2003; $296.8 million for 2004; $301 million for 2005; $405 million for 2006; $399 million for 2007; and $410 million for 2008, with governors including Arnold Schwarzenegger — whose state usually gets about 40 percent of the total allocation, but pays out more than $700 million a year to incarcerate illegal immigrant felons — calling for full funding each year and never, ever getting it.

And so, on to the House of Representatives… cha, cha, cha!

(Sorry I didn’t get this stuff posted yesterday; I spent much of Monday on the road with Barbara Lee…)

McNerney tours the border: Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, said Monday morning he was enjoying “a very impressive tour” of the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego County, meeting with Border Patrol officials and other federal agencies about their efforts to stem the tides of illegal immigration and drug trafficking. “What these agencies are facing is an immense challenge… They’re doing good work and we need to support them with any resources they require. It’s hard to understand the depth of the challenge just from reading over briefings and going to hearings,” he said, adding he’d like to see Washington ratchet down the fiery rhetoric of recent years and work toward a bipartisan immigration-reform solution. The National Republican Congressional Committee, striving to see the freshman lawmaker unseated later this year, issued a hit-piece yesterday assailing McNerney’s past votes: “Here’s a hint for Jerry McNerney about what ‘isn’t working’ in the federal government’s efforts to stem the flow of illegal border crossings: Voting in favor of taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants only provides greater incentive for illegal immigrants looking to cross the border. Instead of scrambling to spin his damaging record of supporting taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants, McNerney should stop pandering to his liberal leaders in Washington, and start spending more time listening to the voters in his district when it comes to an issue as important as border security and immigration reform.”

Eshoo, Honda win Gold Mouse awards: The Web sites of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, and Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, are among 26 House members’ sites singled out by the Congressional Management Foundation — a nonprofit, nonpartisan management consulting and research group — for being the best in Congress. (Honda won the “Gold Mouse” last year, too.) Sites were graded on how well they incorporate five basic building blocks deemed critical for effectiveness: audience, content, usability, interactivity, and innovation. An evaluation framework was developed by CMF and their research partners at Harvard University, Ohio State, and the University of California-Riverside that would be fair and objective while still taking into account qualitative factors that affect a visitor’s experience on a Web site. Said Eshoo: “As a member of Congress, it’s important to provide a website that serves my constituents with timely information and a convenient way to contact me with questions or concerns. I’m proud that the Congressional Management Foundation has judged my website to be one of the best in Congress. My constituents certainly deserve the best.” Read the whole 2007 Gold Mouse report here; it’s part of the CMF’s broader research project “Connecting to Congress,” funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Lofgren endorses Obama: Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, yesterday announced her endorsement of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president, saying he “has the unique ability to unite Americans, and he’s building a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, and independents that will allow us to win the White House in November and to bring the changes we desperately need. Obama understands that change does not begin in Washington, it begins by mobilizing Americans to take on special interests and to address the challenges we face. When it comes to pursuing a clean energy future, innovating to restore American competitiveness, and providing affordable health care for all Americans, Barack Obama is the leader who will bring change we can believe in.” For those keeping count of Bay Area endorsements, that’s Lofgren, Barbara Lee and George Miller for Obama, and Ellen Tauscher and Lynn Woolsey for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.; all the other local House members have stayed mum thus far.

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, announced today he’ll lead a two-day Congressional delegation trip to the California-Mexico border Sunday and Monday, seeking “a firsthand perspective from Border Patrol agents about what is working and what isn’t in stemming the flow of illegal border crossings and drugs entering our country,” the news release says.

McNerney; Joe Sestak, D-Pa.; and Paul Hodes, D-NH, will be briefed on aspects of the border-control operation in the San Diego Sector, covering 66 linear miles of the boundary with Mexico, and will tour part of the border and meet with Border Patrol Agents. Specifically, the three House freshmen will tours of several Ports of Entry, meet with the San Diego Sector Chief, and eyeball some of the specialty teams and equipment used to monitor and patrol the border.

Says McNerney:

Illegal immigration and drug trafficking are significant problems. This trip to the border is important because you can only understand so much from reading the newspaper, watching television, or even reading briefings or hearing testimony from experts. Sometimes, it’s important to actually go and see it for yourself.

In particular, I am looking forward to talking to Border Patrol agents and California National Guard troops who serve on the front lines. I’d like to hear what kind of trends they are sensing and if they have found any particularly effective strategies to combat illegal border crossings and drug running.

The San Diego Sector’s territory traditionally has been some of the most active in both illegal immigration as well as drug trafficking, McNerney said in his release; a 1994 Government Accountability Office report estimated that over half of all the apprehensions of those attempting to cross the border illegally took place over just 18 miles out of the entire 1,600 mile U.S.-Mexico border: 13 miles in San Diego and 5 miles in El Paso, Texas.

Since then, the San Diego Sector has made progress in reducing the amount of illegal border crossings through measures implemented under the controversial Operation Gatekeeper program launched in 1994, McNerney says. Operation Gatekeeper represented a shift from a policy of apprehending and returning illegal immigrants to their country of origin to a policy of actively deterring illegal border crossings. While apprehension of those crossing the border illegally has decreased, drug trafficking remains a major concern at the San Diego-Mexico border.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, will host a pair of town-hall meetings on immigration this Saturday, Oct. 6 in Oakland.

The first one — from 9:30 a.m. to noon at Lincoln Elementary School, 225 11th St. — will focus on the Asian-American community’s concerns, and will include representatives from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the Asian Law Caucus, Catholic Charities of the East Bay, the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Filipinos for Affirmative Action, and the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.

The second one — from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Carmen Flores Community Center, 1637 Fruitvale Ave. — will focus on the Latino community, and will include representatives from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation and other community-based organizations.

Experts will be on hand at both to provide free legal consultation, and immigration-related materials will be provided in Chinese and Spanish.

State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, are leading a 16-member bipartisan delegation to Washington, D.C., next Monday through Thursday to meet with California House members on issues including flood control and water supply; greenhouse gases; homeland and port security; the No Child Left Behind education law; the Real ID Act; the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization; and State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) reauthorization.

The only Bay Area state Senator other than Perata who’ll be on the trip is Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro. With more than a third of the Senate out of the state, there will be no floor session next week. The Senate Appropriations Committee will meet Monday, but will only take up non-controversial items and move things to the suspense file; the Education Committee will have an informational hearing Wednesday on school and campus safety.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, will hold a hearing tomorrow morning on New York City’s Ellis Island entitled “Past, Present, and Future: A Historic and Personal Reflection on American Immigration,” featuring testimony on the historical trends and personal experiences of American immigration.

Among witnesses scheduled to testify:

California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres issued a statement yesterday calling on Republican National Committee chairman Mel Martinez and California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring to immediately condemn the actions of the College Republicans, who have been staging “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” events around the country.

“The refusal by national Republican leaders to condemn the disgraceful anti-immigrant behavior of the College Republicans is not only reprehensible, but also demonstrates the profound lack of understanding about the contributions of America’s immigrant population,” said Chairman Torres.

“In light of two highly-reputable studies released this week showing that immigrants clearly benefit U.S. residents by boosting wages and are being unfairly scapegoated, Californians and all Americans deserve a thoughtful discussion based on facts, rather than despicable, hateful stunts.

“I urge Senator Martinez and Chairman Nehring in the strongest possible terms to condemn the actions of the College Republicans and bring them to a stop.”

Campus conservatives have planned or staged these events for years; I’ve found mentions from January 2005 at the University of North Texas; April 2006 at Penn State; October 2006 at the University of Michigan; and most recently, a week ago at New York University, but none thus far in California. Then-GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman disavowed the events last September. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh defended them yesterday.