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The federal government was preparing on Wednesday to deploy dozens of government officers to the Bay Area region for a major immigration enforcement operation, sparking outrage from local politicians.

Details of the Operation

Details of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly include approximately 100+ government officers, according to reports. The officers are expected to begin occupying the military installation in the East Bay, opposite San Francisco. It remained unclear whether military personnel would also be involved.

Official Response

The mission comes after weeks of warnings by the president to take action against the Democratic-run city. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the action, calling it “right out of the autocrat's manual”.

“He sends out unidentified officers, he deploys Border Patrol, he deploys ICE, he instills anxiety and fear in the community so that he can take credit for handling that by dispatching the national guard,” Newsom said. “This is no different than the firestarter putting out the fire.”

City Preparation

San Francisco is the newest large urban area singled out by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The mission is expected to trigger a confrontation between the federal government and local leaders who have committed to prevent paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for an extended period for Trump to make good on repeated threats to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s mayor stated again that the city was equipped.

“During this period, we have been preparing for the likelihood of some kind of government operation in our city,” said the mayor, adding that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “bolster the city’s support for our foreign-born residents, and make certain our offices are coordinated prior to any federal deployment.”

Constitutional Background

Regardless of judicial disputes to operations in a several municipalities, including Illinois, the Pacific Northwest and Los Angeles, Trump has declared “absolute authority” to dispatch the national guard in cities, citing the Insurrection Act which permits presidents certain rights to dispatch personnel on American territory.

Community Preparation

Newsom, who previously served as San Francisco’s mayor – had vowed to take action “immediately” to a mission in the city. “The idea that the national administration can dispatch personnel into our cities with no valid reason based on facts, no monitoring, no responsibility, no consideration of state sovereignty – it constitutes an attack on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Public associations, including social justice nonprofits established during the first Trump administration, have organized to rapidly assemble a public demonstration in the city, as well as vigils at community centers.

Local Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a predominantly Latino population, city supervisor stated to media last week she and her voters had been preparing for this moment. “The moment that people stop going to work, when people of color can’t freely walk outside without the fear of Trump’s federal agents discriminating against and detaining them, the moment when families keep children home, become too afraid to go to the supermarket or doctor,” she said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the scale of which we have not experienced since the pandemic.”

Military Status

Approximately 300 out of 4,000 state national guard troops remain federalized under an order from Trump. Roughly several hundred of them had been sent to Oregon, where they were staying in standby during a court case over their deployment.

This period, Newsom said he had summoned the state military personnel under his authority to manage charity kitchens throughout the administrative stoppage.