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The Trump administration was preparing on Wednesday to send numerous of law enforcement personnel to the northern California for a major immigration enforcement operation, triggering criticism from local politicians.

Details of the Mission

Information of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will allegedly feature over a hundred law enforcement personnel, according to reports. The officers are reportedly set to begin using the Coast Guard facility in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether national guard troops would also be involved.

Official Backlash

The deployment is the result of weeks of warnings by Donald Trump to take action against the progressive municipality. The state's leader Gavin Newsom condemned the decision, labeling it “straight from the dictator’s handbook”.

“He sends out unidentified officers, he sends out border agents, he deploys ICE, he generates worry and terror in the population so that he can take credit for handling that by sending in the military forces,” he declared. “This is no different than the incendiary fighting the blaze.”

City Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent large urban area singled out by the federal effort of large-scale detentions. The deployment is expected to trigger a showdown between the administration and local leaders who have pledged to stop paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for weeks for Trump to fulfill repeated threats to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday public announcement, San Francisco’s municipal chief emphasized that the city was ready.

“During this period, we have been expecting the likelihood of a potential national intervention in our city,” stated the official, adding that he had implemented additional measures on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s protection of our foreign-born residents, and guarantee our offices are organized ahead of any national intervention.”

Judicial Background

Regardless of legal challenges to operations in a number of cities, including the Windy City, the Pacific Northwest and LA, Trump has claimed “absolute authority” to deploy the military forces in cities, citing the federal statute which enables presidents specific authority to dispatch personnel on domestic land.

Community Response

Newsom, who was formerly as San Francisco’s city leader – had committed to take action “immediately” to a mission in the city. “The notion that the national administration can deploy troops into our cities with no legitimate cause based on facts, no monitoring, no responsibility, no consideration of local authority – it represents an infringement on the judicial framework,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including advocacy organizations created during the initial federal leadership, have organized to swiftly gather a mass rally in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at community centers.

Neighborhood Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a predominantly Latino population, elected official informed journalists last week she and her voters had been preparing for this moment. “The point that people stop going to work, when minority individuals can’t freely walk outside without the apprehension of national personnel racially profiling and apprehending them, the point when students avoid classrooms, become too afraid to go to the supermarket or doctor,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the likes of which we have not witnessed since Covid.”

Military Status

Roughly 300 out of 4,000 California national guard troops remain federalized under an command from Trump. Approximately 200 of them had been transferred to the Pacific Northwest, where they were remaining in uncertainty in the midst of a court case over their assignment.

This time, Newsom said he had summoned the state military personnel under his control to manage charity kitchens amid the federal closure.