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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 major border security initiative, sparking outrage from local politicians.

Information of the Mission

Details of the mission were gradually becoming clear, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 law enforcement personnel, according to reports. The agents are scheduled to begin utilizing the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. It was still uncertain whether national guard troops would also be involved.

Political Reaction

The mission follows weeks of threats by Donald Trump to focus on the progressive municipality. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the move, calling it “taken directly from the authoritarian playbook”.

“He deploys covered agents, he deploys customs officers, he sends out immigration officials, he creates anxiety and fear in the community so that he can take credit for solving that by deploying the state troops,” the governor stated. “This is no different than the firestarter putting out the fire.”

Municipal Preparation

San Francisco is the newest major city targeted by the federal effort of large-scale detentions. The operation is expected to trigger a showdown between the federal government and city officials who have committed to stop militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for weeks for Trump to make good on repeated threats to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s municipal chief stated again that the city was prepared.

“During this period, we have been preparing for the chance of a potential federal deployment in our city,” said the mayor, explaining that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “bolster the city’s assistance to our immigrant communities, and make certain our agencies are organized before any national intervention.”

Judicial Context

Regardless of judicial disputes to operations in a several municipalities, including Chicago, Oregon and Southern California, Trump has claimed “complete control” to send the state troops in cities, citing the Insurrection Act which allows presidents specific authority to deploy troops on American territory.

Community Reaction

Newsom – who was formerly as San Francisco’s chief executive – had committed to intervene “without delay” to a mission in the city. “The notion that the national administration can send forces into our cities with no valid reason based on facts, no oversight, no accountability, disregard for local authority – it represents an infringement on the rule of law,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including advocacy organizations created during the initial federal leadership, have organized to swiftly gather a large protest in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at local libraries.

Community Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a predominantly Latino population, local representative stated to media last week she and her residents had been preparing for this time. “The point that people stop going to work, when people of color are afraid to go outdoors without the concern of government officers discriminating against and arresting them, the time when parents stop sending kids to school, grow too frightened to go to the supermarket or physician,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is fundamentally a closure the extent of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

National Guard Condition

Approximately three hundred out of four thousand state military personnel stay under federal control under an directive from Trump. Roughly 200 of them had been transferred to the neighboring state, where they were waiting in limbo during a court case over their assignment.

This week, Newsom said he had requested the local soldiers under his command to staff food banks during the government shutdown.