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The Trump administration was preparing on Wednesday to deploy dozens of federal agents to the northern California for a major border security initiative, prompting condemnation from California leaders.

Details of the Mission

Specifics of the operation were gradually becoming clear, but it will reportedly involve over a hundred federal agents, based on information. The officers are scheduled to begin using the US Coast Guard base in the East Bay, facing San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether national guard troops would join the operation.

Government Reaction

The deployment follows weeks of warnings by the president to take action against the liberal city. The state's leader Gavin Newsom criticized the decision, calling it “right out of the authoritarian playbook”.

“He dispatches unidentified officers, he sends out customs officers, he deploys ICE, he instills concern and apprehension in the neighborhood so that he can claim credit for addressing that by deploying the military forces,” Newsom said. “This is no different than the incendiary putting out the inferno.”

City Planning

San Francisco is the most recent major city targeted by the administration's initiative of large-scale detentions. The operation is anticipated to provoke a confrontation between the federal government and municipal authorities who have vowed to stop militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for months for Trump to carry out ongoing warnings to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s city leader emphasized that the city was prepared.

“Over recent weeks, we have been preparing for the chance of some kind of government operation in our city,” said the mayor, noting that he had implemented additional measures on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s assistance to our immigrant communities, and make certain our agencies are organized prior to any national intervention.”

Judicial Context

Despite judicial disputes to missions in a multiple urban areas, including the Windy City, the Pacific Northwest and Los Angeles, Trump has claimed “complete control” to dispatch the national guard in cities, pointing to the presidential authority which permits presidents limited power to dispatch personnel on domestic land.

Public Preparation

Newsom – who was formerly as San Francisco’s chief executive – had pledged to intervene “right away” to a operation in the city. “The idea that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities with no legitimate cause supported by evidence, no oversight, no answerability, disregard for local authority – it represents an infringement on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including advocacy organizations established during the initial federal leadership, have organized to quickly mobilize a public demonstration in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at public spaces.

Local Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a largely Hispanic population, city supervisor told reporters last week she and her voters had been anticipating this moment. “The point that employees avoid workplaces, when anyone Black or brown cannot move about freely without the fear of government officers racially profiling and apprehending them, the time when parents stop sending kids to school, become too afraid to go to the food market or doctor,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is essentially a shutdown the scale of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

National Guard Status

Roughly 300 out of 4,000 state national guard troops stay under federal control under an order from Trump. About 200 of them had been dispatched to the Pacific Northwest, where they were staying in standby during a legal battle over their assignment.

This period, Newsom said he had requested the California national guard troops under his command to staff charity kitchens during the government shutdown.