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The federal government seemed ready on Wednesday to deploy numerous of law enforcement personnel to the Bay Area region for a significant crackdown on immigration, prompting outrage from state officials.

Details of the Mission

Information of the deployment were gradually becoming clear, but it will reportedly involve approximately 100+ law enforcement personnel, as reported. The officers are expected to begin using the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, opposite San Francisco. It was still uncertain whether state soldiers would join the operation.

Official Backlash

The deployment follows months of statements by Donald Trump to focus on the progressive municipality. California’s governor Gavin Newsom condemned the decision, calling it “straight from the autocrat's manual”.

“He dispatches unidentified officers, he deploys customs officers, he sends out immigration officials, he instills worry and terror in the population so that he can claim credit for handling that by sending in the state troops,” Newsom said. “This is exactly like the incendiary extinguishing the blaze.”

Municipal Preparation

San Francisco is the latest metropolitan center singled out by the federal effort of large-scale detentions. The deployment is expected to trigger a standoff between the White House and local leaders who have pledged to block militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for months for Trump to carry out frequent statements to dispatch personnel 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 expecting the chance of an impending government operation in our city,” said the mayor, adding that he had implemented additional measures on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s protection of our foreign-born residents, and guarantee our offices are organized before any federal deployment.”

Judicial Context

In spite of legal challenges to deployments in a several municipalities, including Illinois, Portland and Los Angeles, Trump has claimed “absolute authority” to send the military forces in cities, referencing the federal statute which permits presidents limited power to send forces on US soil.

Public Reaction

Newsom – who previously served as San Francisco’s mayor – had committed to take action “immediately” to a mission in the city. “The concept that the national administration can deploy troops into our cities with no valid reason based on facts, no monitoring, no responsibility, disregard for regional control – it constitutes an attack on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including social justice nonprofits formed in the initial federal leadership, have organized to quickly mobilize a public demonstration in the city, as well as peaceful assemblies at community centers.

Local Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, a mostly Latin American neighborhood, city supervisor stated to media last week she and her constituents had been bracing for this time. “The moment that people stop going to work, when people of color are afraid to go outdoors without the concern of national personnel racially profiling and arresting them, the moment when families keep children home, are too scared to go to the food market or doctor,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the scale of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

Military Status

Roughly three hundred out of several thousand regional military personnel stay under federal control under an order from Trump. About several hundred of them had been sent to Oregon, where they were staying in standby amid a legal battle over their assignment.

This time, Newsom said he had called the California national guard troops under his command to manage food banks during the federal closure.