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The federal government seemed ready on Wednesday to deploy numerous of government officers to the San Francisco Bay Area for a significant crackdown on immigration, triggering condemnation from California leaders.

Specifics of the Deployment

Information of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly involve over a hundred federal agents, according to reports. The agents are expected to begin occupying the US Coast Guard base in across the bay, facing San Francisco. It was still uncertain whether state soldiers would also be involved.

Political Response

The deployment follows months of statements by Donald Trump to focus on the liberal city. The state's leader Gavin Newsom condemned the action, calling it “straight from the dictator’s handbook”.

“He dispatches unidentified officers, he sends out Border Patrol, he sends out immigration officials, he creates worry and terror in the neighborhood so that he can claim credit for handling that by deploying the military forces,” Newsom said. “This mirrors the arsonist extinguishing the fire.”

City Readiness

San Francisco is the most recent large urban area singled out by Donald Trump’s campaign of mass immigration arrests. The mission is expected to trigger a showdown between the federal government and municipal authorities who have vowed to prevent paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for months for Trump to fulfill repeated threats to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s city leader reiterated that the city was prepared.

“For months, we have been anticipating the chance of a potential government operation in our city,” said the mayor, adding that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s support for our foreign-born residents, and ensure our agencies are prepared ahead of any government operation.”

Judicial Context

Despite court battles to missions in a number of cities, including Illinois, Portland and Southern California, Trump has claimed “unquestioned power” to dispatch the national guard in cities, pointing to the federal statute which permits presidents limited power to dispatch personnel on US soil.

Local Reaction

Newsom, who once held office as San Francisco’s chief executive – had vowed to intervene “without delay” to a deployment in the city. “The idea that the national administration can dispatch personnel into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no oversight, no answerability, disregard for local authority – it represents an infringement on the rule of law,” he said on Wednesday.

Public associations, including social justice nonprofits created during the initial federal leadership, have prepared to rapidly assemble a large protest in the city, as well as vigils at local libraries.

Neighborhood Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a largely Hispanic community, elected official informed journalists last week she and her residents had been anticipating this moment. “The point that employees avoid workplaces, when minority individuals cannot move about freely without the apprehension of Trump’s federal agents discriminating against and arresting them, the moment when families keep children home, are too scared to go to the food market or physician,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the extent of which we haven’t seen since Covid.”

Military Status

Approximately 300 out of 4,000 state state soldiers continue under national command under an order from Trump. Roughly 200 of them had been transferred to Oregon, where they were waiting in limbo amid a court case over their mission.

This week, Newsom said he had requested the state military personnel under his authority to staff food banks during the administrative stoppage.