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The federal government was preparing on Wednesday to send scores of government officers to the Bay Area region for a large-scale crackdown on immigration, triggering condemnation from state officials.

Details of the Mission

Details of the operation were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly include over a hundred law enforcement personnel, based on information. The personnel are reportedly set to begin occupying the US Coast Guard base in the East Bay, opposite San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether state soldiers would participate.

Official Backlash

The mission comes after an extended period of warnings by Donald Trump to target the liberal city. Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the action, describing it as “right out of the dictator’s handbook”.

“He dispatches covered agents, he sends out Border Patrol, he sends out immigration officials, he generates worry and terror in the community so that he can claim credit for addressing that by sending in the state troops,” the governor stated. “This mirrors the firestarter extinguishing the blaze.”

Municipal Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent major city focused on by the administration's initiative of mass immigration arrests. The operation is likely to cause a confrontation between the White House and municipal authorities who have pledged to stop paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been preparing for weeks for Trump to make good on ongoing warnings to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s city leader emphasized that the city was equipped.

“During this period, we have been expecting the likelihood of an impending national intervention in our city,” said the mayor, explaining that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s protection of our immigrant communities, and make certain our agencies are coordinated prior to any national intervention.”

Legal Context

Despite legal challenges to operations in a number of cities, including the Windy City, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California, Trump has claimed “absolute authority” to deploy the state troops in cities, referencing the Insurrection Act which permits presidents limited power to deploy troops on American territory.

Community Preparation

Newsom, who once held office as San Francisco’s city leader – had pledged to intervene “without delay” to a operation in the city. “The idea that the federal government can send forces into our cities with no legitimate cause grounded in reality, no oversight, no responsibility, disregard for state sovereignty – it represents an infringement on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including civil rights groups created during the previous presidential term, have organized to quickly mobilize a public demonstration in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at community centers.

Neighborhood Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, a predominantly Latino population, elected official stated to media last week she and her constituents had been preparing for this time. “The point that workers cease employment, when minority individuals cannot move about freely without the concern of Trump’s federal agents discriminating against and detaining them, the time when families keep children home, are too scared to go to the supermarket or doctor,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is essentially a shutdown the scale of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

National Guard Condition

Approximately several hundred out of four thousand state state soldiers remain federalized under an command from Trump. Roughly two hundred of them had been sent to the Pacific Northwest, where they were staying in standby in the midst of a judicial dispute over their mission.

This week, Newsom said he had called the California national guard troops under his authority to staff charity kitchens during the administrative stoppage.