🔗 Share this article

The Trump administration was preparing on Wednesday to send scores of federal agents to the Bay Area region for a large-scale border security initiative, prompting outrage from local politicians.

Specifics of the Deployment

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will allegedly feature more than 100 law enforcement personnel, according to reports. The agents are reportedly set to begin occupying the US Coast Guard base in across the bay, facing San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether national guard troops would also be involved.

Official Reaction

The operation comes after weeks of warnings by Donald Trump to target the progressive municipality. California’s governor Gavin Newsom denounced the action, calling it “straight from the dictator’s handbook”.

“He deploys unidentified officers, he deploys Border Patrol, he dispatches federal agents, he instills anxiety and fear in the neighborhood so that he can claim credit for addressing that by sending in the military forces,” the governor stated. “This mirrors the incendiary fighting the blaze.”

Local Planning

San Francisco is the newest large urban area targeted by the federal effort of large-scale detentions. The operation is expected to trigger a confrontation between the administration and local leaders who have committed to prevent armed border control in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for an extended period for Trump to make good on repeated threats to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s city leader stated again that the city was equipped.

“For months, we have been expecting the chance of some kind of federal deployment in our city,” declared the leader, adding that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s assistance to our newcomer populations, and guarantee our offices are coordinated ahead of any national intervention.”

Legal Context

In spite of legal challenges to operations in a several municipalities, including Chicago, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California, Trump has claimed “unquestioned power” to send the military forces in cities, referencing the presidential authority which allows presidents certain rights to send forces on US soil.

Local Reaction

Newsom, who was formerly as San Francisco’s mayor – had committed to intervene “immediately” to a operation in the city. “The notion that the federal government can send forces into our cities with no valid reason supported by evidence, no supervision, no responsibility, no consideration of state sovereignty – it represents an infringement on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including advocacy organizations created during the previous presidential term, have prepared to swiftly gather a mass rally in the city, as well as vigils at community centers.

Community Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a largely Hispanic community, elected official informed journalists last week she and her voters had been anticipating this situation. “The time that people stop going to work, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the fear of national personnel discriminating against and detaining them, the moment when families keep children home, grow too frightened to go to the supermarket or physician,” she said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is basically a shutdown the extent of which we have not experienced since the health crisis.”

National Guard Status

About several hundred out of four thousand state state soldiers stay under federal control under an directive from Trump. Approximately several hundred of them had been transferred to Oregon, where they were remaining in uncertainty in the midst of a court case over their deployment.

This period, Newsom said he had summoned the California national guard troops under his control to operate food banks during the federal closure.