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The White House appeared poised on Wednesday to deploy scores of government officers to the San Francisco Bay Area for a large-scale immigration enforcement operation, sparking criticism from state officials.

Details of the Mission

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly include over a hundred federal agents, as reported. The personnel are expected to begin using the Coast Guard facility in Alameda, opposite San Francisco. It remained unclear whether military personnel would join the operation.

Government Reaction

The operation comes after an extended period of statements by the president to focus on the Democratic-run city. Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the action, describing it as “right out of the authoritarian playbook”.

“He sends out covered agents, he sends out border agents, he sends out federal agents, he generates worry and terror in the neighborhood so that he can lay claim for addressing that by dispatching the national guard,” he declared. “This is no different than the firestarter extinguishing the inferno.”

City Readiness

San Francisco is the latest metropolitan center focused on by the administration's initiative of mass immigration arrests. The operation is anticipated to provoke a showdown between the administration and city officials who have committed to block militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for weeks for Trump to carry out frequent statements to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday public announcement, San Francisco’s city leader emphasized that the city was prepared.

“Over recent weeks, we have been expecting the chance of some kind of government operation in our city,” declared the leader, adding that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s support for our immigrant communities, and make certain our offices are organized prior to any government operation.”

Judicial Context

Despite court battles to deployments in a several municipalities, including Illinois, Oregon and Los Angeles, Trump has claimed “complete control” to deploy the military forces in cities, citing the Insurrection Act which enables presidents limited power to send forces on domestic land.

Community Response

The governor, who previously served as San Francisco’s mayor – had vowed to intervene “immediately” to a deployment in the city. “The idea that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no oversight, no answerability, disregard for regional control – it’s a direct assault on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including advocacy organizations formed in the initial federal leadership, have prepped to quickly mobilize a public demonstration in the city, as well as peaceful assemblies at local libraries.

Local Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a predominantly Latino community, city supervisor told reporters last week she and her residents had been anticipating this time. “The point that workers cease employment, when people of color cannot move about freely without the apprehension of Trump’s federal agents racially profiling and arresting them, the point when families keep children home, grow too frightened to go to the supermarket or doctor,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is essentially a shutdown the likes of which we have not experienced since the health crisis.”

Military Status

Approximately several hundred out of 4,000 state state soldiers continue under national command under an directive from Trump. Roughly 200 of them had been dispatched to Oregon, where they were staying in standby during a court case over their assignment.

This week, Newsom said he had summoned the state military personnel under his authority to staff distribution centers amid the administrative stoppage.