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The White House appeared poised on Wednesday to deploy scores of law enforcement personnel to the San Francisco Bay Area for a large-scale border security initiative, triggering criticism from local politicians.

Information of the Deployment

Details of the operation were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly involve approximately 100+ government officers, as reported. The personnel are reportedly set to begin occupying the military installation in the East Bay, across the bay from San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether state soldiers would also be involved.

Official Reaction

The operation follows weeks of threats by Donald Trump to take action against the liberal city. The state's leader Gavin Newsom criticized the action, labeling it “right out of the authoritarian playbook”.

“He sends out unidentified officers, he deploys border agents, he dispatches immigration officials, he instills worry and terror in the community so that he can lay claim for addressing that by deploying the military forces,” the governor stated. “This mirrors the firestarter fighting the fire.”

Local Planning

San Francisco is the latest major city targeted by Donald Trump’s campaign of mass immigration arrests. The deployment is expected to trigger a standoff between the administration and city officials who have vowed to stop armed border control in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for months for Trump to carry out ongoing warnings to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s city leader emphasized that the city was ready.

“Over recent weeks, we have been anticipating the possibility of a potential government operation in our city,” stated the official, explaining that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s support for our immigrant communities, and guarantee our agencies are coordinated before any government operation.”

Constitutional Background

Regardless of court battles to operations in a number of cities, including Illinois, Portland and Southern California, Trump has declared “absolute authority” to dispatch the military forces in cities, pointing to the presidential authority which permits presidents limited power to dispatch personnel on American territory.

Public Response

Newsom – who previously served as San Francisco’s city leader – had committed to step in “immediately” to a mission in the city. “The idea that the national administration can dispatch personnel into our cities with no valid reason supported by evidence, no oversight, no responsibility, no respect for state sovereignty – it represents an infringement on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including social justice nonprofits established during the first Trump administration, have organized to rapidly assemble a mass rally in the city, as well as peaceful assemblies at community centers.

Community Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, a mostly Latin American population, local representative told reporters last week she and her constituents had been anticipating this situation. “The time that employees avoid workplaces, when anyone Black or brown can’t freely walk outside without the concern of Trump’s federal agents racially profiling and arresting them, the moment when students avoid classrooms, become too afraid to go to the food market or medical provider,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is fundamentally a closure the scale of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

State Troops Situation

About three hundred out of several thousand state national guard troops continue under national command under an order from Trump. About several hundred of them had been transferred to the neighboring state, where they were remaining in uncertainty in the midst of a legal battle over their deployment.

This period, Newsom said he had summoned the California national guard troops under his command to manage charity kitchens throughout the government shutdown.