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The White House was preparing on Wednesday to dispatch scores of law enforcement personnel to the Bay Area region for a significant crackdown on immigration, prompting criticism from state officials.

Specifics of the Mission

Information of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly involve approximately 100+ federal agents, according to reports. The personnel are reportedly set to begin using the military installation in Alameda, opposite San Francisco. It was still uncertain whether state soldiers would join the operation.

Official Response

The deployment comes after weeks of statements by the administration to focus on the Democratic-run city. California’s governor Gavin Newsom condemned the move, calling it “right out of the dictator’s handbook”.

“He dispatches covered agents, he dispatches customs officers, he sends out ICE, he instills worry and terror in the neighborhood so that he can claim credit for handling that by dispatching the national guard,” Newsom said. “This mirrors the incendiary putting out the inferno.”

Local Planning

San Francisco is the newest metropolitan center targeted by Donald Trump’s campaign of large-scale detentions. The deployment is expected to trigger a standoff between the White House and local leaders who have pledged to stop paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for months for Trump to carry out repeated threats to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s city leader reiterated that the city was equipped.

“For months, we have been preparing for the likelihood of a potential federal deployment in our city,” said the mayor, adding that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s support for our newcomer populations, and make certain our departments are prepared prior to any national intervention.”

Constitutional Framework

In spite of court battles to operations in a several municipalities, including Chicago, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California, Trump has asserted “absolute authority” to send the military forces in cities, pointing to the federal statute which permits presidents certain rights to dispatch personnel on American territory.

Public Reaction

The governor, who was formerly as San Francisco’s city leader – had committed to take action “without delay” to a mission in the city. “The idea that the federal government can dispatch personnel into our cities with no valid reason based on facts, 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 created during the first Trump administration, have prepped to rapidly assemble a large protest in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at community centers.

Community Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a mostly Latin American population, local representative stated to media last week she and her constituents had been anticipating this moment. “The time that employees avoid workplaces, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the apprehension of national personnel racially profiling and arresting them, the time when parents stop sending kids to school, grow too frightened to go to the grocery store or doctor,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the likes of which we have not experienced since the pandemic.”

National Guard Situation

Roughly several hundred out of several thousand state national guard troops stay under federal control under an command from Trump. Roughly 200 of them had been dispatched to the Pacific Northwest, where they were waiting in limbo during a court case over their deployment.

This period, Newsom said he had requested the California national guard troops under his control to staff distribution centers amid the government shutdown.