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The federal government seemed ready on Wednesday to dispatch numerous of law enforcement personnel to the Bay Area region for a major crackdown on immigration, prompting condemnation from local politicians.

Information of the Mission

Information of the deployment were still emerging, but it will allegedly feature approximately 100+ federal agents, as reported. The agents are reportedly set to begin using the Coast Guard facility in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether national guard troops would join the operation.

Official Reaction

The mission is the result of months of warnings by Donald Trump to take action against the progressive municipality. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the move, labeling it “taken directly from the authoritarian playbook”.

“He sends out masked men, he sends out Border Patrol, he dispatches ICE, he instills concern and apprehension in the population so that he can take credit for handling that by dispatching the state troops,” the governor stated. “This mirrors the firestarter putting out the inferno.”

Local Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent major city focused on by the federal effort of widespread apprehensions. The operation is likely to cause a standoff between the White House and local leaders who have committed to block paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for an extended period for Trump to make good on ongoing warnings to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s mayor reiterated that the city was ready.

“For months, we have been preparing for the likelihood of some kind of government operation in our city,” said the mayor, explaining that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s support for our newcomer populations, and guarantee our agencies are prepared prior to any federal deployment.”

Judicial Background

Regardless of court battles to missions in a multiple urban areas, including the Windy City, Oregon and Southern California, Trump has declared “unquestioned power” to send the state troops in cities, citing the Insurrection Act which allows presidents limited power to dispatch personnel on American territory.

Local Preparation

Newsom, who previously served as San Francisco’s city leader – had vowed to take action “without delay” to a mission in the city. “The concept that the national administration can deploy troops into our cities with no valid reason grounded in reality, no monitoring, no answerability, no respect for regional control – it’s a direct assault on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including social justice nonprofits established during the previous presidential term, have prepared to quickly mobilize a large protest in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at local libraries.

Local Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a mostly Latin American neighborhood, city supervisor told reporters last week she and her residents had been anticipating this situation. “The time that workers cease employment, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the apprehension of national personnel racially profiling and apprehending them, the point when families keep children home, become too afraid to go to the food market or doctor,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is fundamentally a closure the scale of which we have not experienced since Covid.”

National Guard Situation

Roughly three hundred out of 4,000 California military personnel remain federalized under an command from Trump. Approximately 200 of them had been dispatched to Oregon, where they were staying in standby amid a legal battle over their deployment.

This week, Newsom said he had summoned the California national guard troops under his command to manage distribution centers during the federal closure.