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The Trump administration seemed ready on Wednesday to deploy dozens of government officers to the Bay Area region for a significant immigration enforcement operation, prompting condemnation from local politicians.

Specifics of the Operation

Details of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly involve approximately 100+ federal agents, as reported. The personnel are reportedly set to begin occupying the military installation in Alameda, opposite San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether military personnel would also be involved.

Political Reaction

The deployment comes after months of statements by the administration to target the progressive municipality. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the action, calling it “right out of the authoritarian playbook”.

“He sends out masked men, he dispatches border agents, he dispatches ICE, he instills worry and terror in the population so that he can claim credit for solving that by dispatching the military forces,” the governor stated. “This mirrors the arsonist fighting the inferno.”

Municipal Preparation

San Francisco is the newest metropolitan center targeted by Donald Trump’s campaign of widespread apprehensions. The mission is expected to trigger a confrontation between the administration and city officials who have vowed to block paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for months for Trump to carry out ongoing warnings to dispatch personnel to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s mayor reiterated that the city was equipped.

“For months, we have been expecting the chance of an impending government operation in our city,” said the mayor, noting that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s protection of our immigrant communities, and make certain our agencies are prepared prior to any national intervention.”

Constitutional Background

Despite court battles to deployments in a multiple urban areas, including Illinois, the Pacific Northwest and LA, Trump has asserted “complete control” to dispatch the military forces in cities, citing the Insurrection Act which enables presidents certain rights to dispatch personnel on US soil.

Public Reaction

The governor, who once held office as San Francisco’s chief executive – had vowed to step in “right away” to a operation in the city. “The notion that the federal government can send forces into our cities with no justification based on facts, no supervision, no responsibility, no consideration of local authority – it’s a direct assault on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including advocacy organizations established during the first Trump administration, have prepared to quickly mobilize a public demonstration in the city, as well as vigils at local libraries.

Community Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, a mostly Latin American neighborhood, elected official informed journalists last week she and her residents had been anticipating this moment. “The point that employees avoid workplaces, when people of color cannot move about freely without the apprehension of national personnel racially profiling and detaining them, the time when students avoid classrooms, are too scared to go to the food market or doctor,” she said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is basically a shutdown the extent of which we have not experienced since the pandemic.”

State Troops Situation

Approximately 300 out of several thousand California state soldiers remain federalized under an order from Trump. About 200 of them had been dispatched to the Pacific Northwest, where they were waiting in limbo in the midst of a legal battle over their assignment.

This time, Newsom said he had summoned the local soldiers under his authority to manage food banks during the administrative stoppage.