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The Trump administration was preparing on Wednesday to deploy numerous of federal agents to the San Francisco Bay Area for a major immigration enforcement operation, prompting condemnation from local politicians.

Details of the Operation

Information of the operation were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 federal agents, as reported. The officers are reportedly set to begin using the military installation in the East Bay, across the bay from San Francisco. It was still uncertain whether military personnel would also be involved.

Government Backlash

The mission comes after an extended period of warnings by Donald Trump to focus on the Democratic-run city. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the action, labeling it “taken directly from the dictator’s handbook”.

“He deploys masked men, he sends out border agents, he deploys immigration officials, he creates worry and terror in the neighborhood so that he can claim credit for addressing that by deploying the military forces,” he declared. “This is no different than the incendiary fighting the inferno.”

City Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent metropolitan center singled out by Donald Trump’s campaign of mass immigration arrests. The operation is likely to cause a standoff between the White House and city officials who have committed to prevent militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for weeks for Trump to carry out frequent statements to dispatch personnel to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s city leader stated again that the city was ready.

“For months, we have been preparing for the likelihood of an impending federal deployment in our city,” declared the leader, noting that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “bolster the city’s support for our foreign-born residents, and ensure our departments are organized before any federal deployment.”

Legal Background

In spite of court battles to operations in a number of cities, including the Windy City, Oregon and Los Angeles, Trump has asserted “complete control” to send the national guard in cities, pointing to the federal statute which permits presidents certain rights to deploy troops on domestic land.

Local Response

The governor, who was formerly as San Francisco’s chief executive – had committed to intervene “immediately” to a operation in the city. “The concept that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities with no legitimate cause supported by evidence, no oversight, no accountability, no consideration of state sovereignty – it constitutes an attack on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Public associations, including social justice nonprofits established during the previous presidential term, have prepared to rapidly assemble a large protest in the city, as well as peaceful assemblies at public spaces.

Local Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, local representative stated to media last week she and her residents had been bracing for this time. “The point that employees avoid workplaces, when people of color are afraid to go outdoors without the apprehension of Trump’s federal agents discriminating against and detaining them, the moment when students avoid classrooms, become too afraid to go to the food market or medical provider,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is basically a halt the extent of which we haven’t seen since Covid.”

State Troops Status

Roughly several hundred out of several thousand state military personnel continue under national command under an command from Trump. Approximately two hundred of them had been sent to Oregon, where they were staying in standby in the midst of a court case over their mission.

This period, Newsom said he had requested the state military personnel under his command to staff distribution centers throughout the federal closure.