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The federal government seemed ready on Wednesday to send numerous of law enforcement personnel to the San Francisco Bay Area for a large-scale immigration enforcement operation, prompting outrage from state officials.

Specifics of the Mission

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly include approximately 100+ federal agents, as reported. The officers are reportedly set to begin utilizing the Coast Guard facility in the East Bay, across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether military personnel would also be involved.

Official Reaction

The deployment is the result of months of warnings by the president to focus on the Democratic-run city. Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the action, calling it “taken directly from the authoritarian playbook”.

“He dispatches unidentified officers, he deploys Border Patrol, he sends out ICE, he generates concern and apprehension in the population so that he can take credit for handling that by deploying the state troops,” he declared. “This is exactly like the incendiary putting out the fire.”

Local Planning

San Francisco is the most recent large urban area singled out by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The operation is anticipated to provoke a showdown between the federal government and municipal authorities who have pledged to block armed border control in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for an extended period for Trump to fulfill frequent statements to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday public announcement, San Francisco’s municipal chief stated again that the city was ready.

“During this period, we have been anticipating the possibility of a potential federal deployment in our city,” stated the official, noting that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s protection of our foreign-born residents, and guarantee our agencies are organized prior to any government operation.”

Constitutional Framework

Despite legal challenges to missions in a several municipalities, including Chicago, Portland and LA, Trump has claimed “absolute authority” to send the state troops in cities, referencing the Insurrection Act which permits presidents specific authority to deploy troops on US soil.

Public Reaction

Newsom – who once held office as San Francisco’s chief executive – had committed to intervene “without delay” to a operation in the city. “The idea that the federal government can dispatch personnel into our cities with no legitimate cause supported by evidence, no monitoring, no accountability, disregard for local authority – it represents an infringement on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including social justice nonprofits established during the initial federal leadership, have organized to rapidly assemble a large protest in the city, as well as vigils at local libraries.

Local Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a largely Hispanic community, local representative told reporters last week she and her voters had been bracing for this moment. “The point that workers cease employment, when anyone Black or brown can’t freely walk outside without the fear of Trump’s federal agents targeting based on race and apprehending them, the time when parents stop sending kids to school, become too afraid to go to the grocery store or medical provider,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the extent of which we have not experienced since Covid.”

Military Condition

Roughly three hundred out of 4,000 California national guard troops stay under federal control under an directive from Trump. Roughly several hundred of them had been transferred to the neighboring state, where they were waiting in limbo during a court case over their mission.

This week, Newsom said he had summoned the state military personnel under his control to staff food banks during the administrative stoppage.