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The federal government was preparing on Wednesday to dispatch numerous of federal agents to the northern California for a large-scale crackdown on immigration, triggering outrage from California leaders.

Specifics of the Mission

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will allegedly feature approximately 100+ government officers, based on information. The officers are reportedly set to begin utilizing the military installation in the East Bay, across the bay from San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether national guard troops would join the operation.

Political Reaction

The mission comes after weeks of threats by the president to target the liberal city. California’s governor Gavin Newsom criticized the action, calling it “taken directly from the autocrat's manual”.

“He dispatches unidentified officers, he dispatches customs officers, he deploys federal agents, he creates worry and terror in the community so that he can take credit for solving that by deploying the national guard,” he declared. “This mirrors the firestarter putting out the blaze.”

Municipal Planning

San Francisco is the latest large urban area focused on by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The mission is likely to cause a confrontation between the White House and city officials who have committed to block armed border control in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for months for Trump to make good on repeated threats to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s city leader reiterated that the city was ready.

“Over recent weeks, we have been preparing for the possibility of some kind of government operation in our city,” declared the leader, noting that he had implemented additional measures on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s assistance to our newcomer populations, and make certain our agencies are coordinated prior to any federal deployment.”

Constitutional Context

Regardless of legal challenges to operations in a number of cities, including the Windy City, Portland and Los Angeles, Trump has claimed “complete control” to dispatch the national guard in cities, pointing to the federal statute which enables presidents certain rights to deploy troops on domestic land.

Community Preparation

The governor, who previously served as San Francisco’s mayor – had committed to step in “right away” to a mission in the city. “The concept that the federal government can dispatch personnel into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no supervision, no answerability, disregard for regional control – it constitutes an attack on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including civil rights groups formed in the first Trump administration, have organized to quickly mobilize a mass rally in the city, as well as vigils at community centers.

Local Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a predominantly Latino community, elected official told reporters last week she and her voters had been preparing for this situation. “The moment that employees avoid workplaces, when people of color can’t freely walk outside without the fear of government officers racially profiling and apprehending them, the time when students avoid classrooms, are too scared to go to the grocery store or doctor,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is basically a closure the scale of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

National Guard Situation

About three hundred out of several thousand California national guard troops continue under national command under an directive from Trump. Roughly 200 of them had been transferred to the neighboring state, where they were remaining in uncertainty during a legal battle over their deployment.

This time, Newsom said he had called the local soldiers under his authority to staff charity kitchens throughout the administrative stoppage.