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The Trump administration was preparing on Wednesday to dispatch scores of federal agents to the Bay Area region for a significant immigration enforcement operation, prompting outrage from local politicians.

Information of the Mission

Information of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 law enforcement personnel, as reported. The officers are reportedly set to begin occupying the US Coast Guard base in the East Bay, opposite San Francisco. It remained unclear whether military personnel would join the operation.

Government Response

The operation is the result of an extended period of threats by the president to take action against the progressive municipality. California’s governor Gavin Newsom condemned the decision, describing it as “right out of the authoritarian playbook”.

“He deploys unidentified officers, he deploys customs officers, he dispatches ICE, he creates concern and apprehension in the population so that he can take credit for handling that by deploying the state troops,” Newsom said. “This is exactly like the arsonist putting out the blaze.”

Municipal Planning

San Francisco is the newest major city focused on by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The mission is anticipated to provoke a showdown between the White House and local leaders who have pledged to prevent militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for weeks for Trump to fulfill frequent statements to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s municipal chief emphasized that the city was prepared.

“Over recent weeks, we have been expecting the chance of a potential federal deployment in our city,” declared the leader, noting that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “bolster the city’s protection of our immigrant communities, and guarantee our agencies are coordinated before any federal deployment.”

Legal Framework

In spite of court battles to operations in a number of cities, including Chicago, the Pacific Northwest and LA, Trump has claimed “complete control” to dispatch the national guard in cities, referencing the federal statute which enables presidents limited power to deploy troops on domestic land.

Local Preparation

Newsom – who once held office as San Francisco’s city leader – had vowed to intervene “right away” to a deployment in the city. “The concept that the national administration can send forces into our cities with no valid reason supported by evidence, no monitoring, no answerability, no respect for local authority – it represents an infringement on the rule of law,” he said on Wednesday.

Public associations, including civil rights groups established during the initial federal leadership, have prepped to quickly mobilize a mass rally in the city, as well as vigils at local libraries.

Neighborhood Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a mostly Latin American community, city supervisor told reporters last week she and her voters had been preparing for this situation. “The time that people stop going to work, when minority individuals can’t freely walk outside without the fear of national personnel targeting based on race and apprehending them, the time when parents stop sending kids to school, become too afraid to go to the food market or medical provider,” she said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is fundamentally a closure the scale of which we have not experienced since the health crisis.”

National Guard Condition

Approximately several hundred out of 4,000 state military personnel continue under national command under an order from Trump. About several hundred of them had been sent to Oregon, where they were staying in standby in the midst of a judicial dispute over their assignment.

This time, Newsom said he had requested the California national guard troops under his control to manage food banks throughout the federal closure.