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The Trump administration seemed ready on Wednesday to dispatch numerous of law enforcement personnel to the San Francisco Bay Area for a major crackdown on immigration, sparking criticism from state officials.

Specifics of the Mission

Details of the operation were gradually becoming clear, but it will reportedly involve over a hundred federal agents, according to reports. The personnel are reportedly set to begin occupying the Coast Guard facility in Alameda, opposite San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether national guard troops would join the operation.

Political Response

The mission comes after an extended period of statements by Donald Trump to focus on the progressive municipality. Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the action, calling it “taken directly from the authoritarian playbook”.

“He sends out covered agents, he sends out Border Patrol, he deploys federal agents, he generates anxiety and fear in the neighborhood so that he can claim credit for solving that by sending in the national guard,” the governor stated. “This is no different than the incendiary putting out the blaze.”

City Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent metropolitan center targeted by the administration's initiative of mass immigration arrests. The mission is expected to trigger a showdown between the administration and municipal authorities who have committed to stop paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for months for Trump to carry out repeated threats to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s city leader stated again that the city was equipped.

“During this period, we have been expecting the chance of a potential government operation in our city,” stated the official, explaining that he had implemented additional measures on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s assistance to our foreign-born residents, and ensure our departments are coordinated prior to any national intervention.”

Legal Context

Despite court battles to missions in a multiple urban areas, including Illinois, Portland and Los Angeles, Trump has claimed “unquestioned power” to dispatch the state troops in cities, referencing the presidential authority which enables presidents certain rights to send forces on domestic land.

Community Response

The governor, who previously served as San Francisco’s chief executive – had committed to intervene “immediately” to a operation in the city. “The concept that the White House can dispatch personnel into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no supervision, no accountability, disregard for local authority – it’s a direct assault on the rule of law,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including social justice nonprofits formed in the previous presidential term, have prepared to swiftly gather a large protest in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at public spaces.

Local Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a largely Hispanic neighborhood, elected official informed journalists last week she and her voters had been preparing for this situation. “The moment that employees avoid workplaces, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the fear of government officers targeting based on race and arresting them, the time when parents stop sending kids to school, grow too frightened to go to the supermarket or medical provider,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is basically a halt the scale of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

National Guard Situation

About several hundred out of 4,000 California state soldiers remain federalized under an command from Trump. Roughly two hundred of them had been transferred to the neighboring state, where they were waiting in limbo amid a court case over their mission.

This week, Newsom said he had requested the state military personnel under his command to manage charity kitchens during the administrative stoppage.