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The federal government was preparing on Wednesday to deploy scores of law enforcement personnel to the Bay Area region for a major immigration enforcement operation, triggering criticism from state officials.

Specifics of the Operation

Specifics of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly include more than 100 federal agents, according to reports. The personnel are reportedly set to begin occupying the Coast Guard facility in across the bay, facing San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether state soldiers would participate.

Political Reaction

The mission comes after months of statements by the administration to target the liberal city. The state's leader Gavin Newsom criticized the decision, labeling it “taken directly from the autocrat's manual”.

“He sends out covered agents, he deploys border agents, he dispatches ICE, he instills anxiety and fear in the population so that he can lay claim for handling that by deploying the military forces,” the governor stated. “This is no different than the firestarter putting out the inferno.”

City Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent large urban area singled out by Donald Trump’s campaign of mass immigration arrests. The deployment is expected to trigger a standoff between the administration and municipal authorities who have pledged to block armed border control in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for weeks for Trump to carry out frequent statements to dispatch personnel to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s municipal chief reiterated that the city was prepared.

“For months, we have been expecting the chance of a potential government operation in our city,” declared the leader, adding that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “bolster the city’s support for our newcomer populations, and guarantee our departments are organized prior to any government operation.”

Legal Background

In spite of court battles to operations in a multiple urban areas, including Illinois, Oregon and Los Angeles, Trump has asserted “absolute authority” to dispatch the military forces in cities, referencing the Insurrection Act which permits presidents limited power to deploy troops on domestic land.

Public Preparation

The governor, who was formerly as San Francisco’s city leader – had vowed to take action “right away” to a deployment in the city. “The notion that the national administration can dispatch personnel into our cities with no justification supported by evidence, no oversight, no responsibility, no consideration of local authority – it represents an infringement on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including social justice nonprofits created during the initial federal leadership, have prepared to quickly mobilize a mass rally in the city, as well as vigils at community centers.

Community Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a mostly Latin American population, city supervisor informed journalists last week she and her constituents had been anticipating this situation. “The time that workers cease employment, when anyone Black or brown can’t freely walk outside without the fear of government officers targeting based on race and detaining them, the point when parents stop sending kids to school, are too scared to go to the grocery store or physician,” she said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is basically a closure the scale of which we haven’t seen since Covid.”

National Guard Condition

Roughly three hundred out of 4,000 California military personnel remain federalized under an directive from Trump. Approximately two hundred of them had been sent to Oregon, where they were waiting in limbo in the midst of a judicial dispute over their deployment.

This period, Newsom said he had summoned the California national guard troops under his authority to operate charity kitchens during the administrative stoppage.