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The Trump administration appeared poised on Wednesday to dispatch numerous of law enforcement personnel to the San Francisco Bay Area for a large-scale immigration enforcement operation, sparking outrage from local politicians.

Information of the Operation

Specifics of the mission were still emerging, but it will reportedly include more than 100 government officers, based on information. The officers are scheduled to begin using the military installation in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether state soldiers would also be involved.

Political Reaction

The deployment is the result of weeks of warnings by Donald Trump to target the liberal city. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the action, calling it “right out of the autocrat's manual”.

“He deploys unidentified officers, 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 national guard,” Newsom said. “This is exactly like the firestarter extinguishing the blaze.”

City Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent metropolitan center targeted by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The deployment is likely to cause a confrontation between the White House and local leaders who have pledged to stop militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for an extended period for Trump to make good on frequent statements to dispatch personnel to the city. At a Wednesday public announcement, San Francisco’s mayor emphasized that the city was equipped.

“For months, we have been anticipating the chance of an impending government operation in our city,” declared the leader, noting that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s assistance to our immigrant communities, and guarantee our departments are coordinated prior to any government operation.”

Constitutional Framework

Despite legal challenges to deployments in a number of cities, including Illinois, the Pacific Northwest and LA, Trump has asserted “unquestioned power” to send the state troops in cities, referencing the Insurrection Act which enables presidents limited power to send forces on domestic land.

Public Reaction

The governor, who previously served as San Francisco’s city leader – had vowed to step in “immediately” to a mission in the city. “The notion that the White House can dispatch personnel into our cities with no valid reason based on facts, no supervision, no answerability, no consideration of state sovereignty – it’s a direct assault on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including social justice nonprofits formed in the first Trump administration, have prepped to swiftly gather a large protest in the city, as well as vigils at public spaces.

Local Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a mostly Latin American community, elected official stated to media last week she and her constituents had been bracing for this time. “The time that employees avoid workplaces, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the concern of Trump’s federal agents discriminating against and detaining them, the point when parents stop sending kids to school, grow too frightened to go to the grocery store or doctor,” she said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the likes of which we have not experienced since the pandemic.”

Military Situation

Roughly several hundred out of several thousand California national guard troops stay under federal control under an order from Trump. Roughly 200 of them had been transferred to the neighboring state, where they were waiting in limbo during a judicial dispute over their deployment.

This time, Newsom said he had called the California national guard troops under his control to manage charity kitchens amid the government shutdown.