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The White House was preparing on Wednesday to send numerous of federal agents to the San Francisco Bay Area for a large-scale border security initiative, triggering outrage from state officials.

Information of the Mission

Information of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will allegedly feature over a hundred law enforcement personnel, as reported. The officers are expected to begin occupying the Coast Guard facility in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether national guard troops would participate.

Political Response

The deployment follows months of statements by Donald Trump to take action against the liberal city. Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the decision, labeling it “taken directly from the autocrat's manual”.

“He deploys masked men, he sends out border agents, he sends out immigration officials, he instills concern and apprehension in the community so that he can claim credit for handling that by dispatching the national guard,” the governor stated. “This mirrors the arsonist extinguishing the fire.”

Municipal Readiness

San Francisco is the most recent metropolitan center targeted by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The operation is expected to trigger a standoff between the administration and local leaders who have pledged to prevent armed border control in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for an extended period for Trump to make good on ongoing warnings to dispatch personnel to the city. At a Wednesday public announcement, San Francisco’s municipal chief stated again that the city was ready.

“For months, we have been preparing for the possibility of an impending national intervention in our city,” said the mayor, noting that he had enacted new policies on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s assistance to our immigrant communities, and guarantee our offices are prepared prior to any federal deployment.”

Legal Framework

In spite of legal challenges to missions in a several municipalities, including Illinois, Portland and Southern California, Trump has claimed “absolute authority” to deploy the military forces in cities, referencing the federal statute which allows presidents certain rights to send forces on domestic land.

Public Response

Newsom – who previously served as San Francisco’s city leader – had pledged to take action “right away” to a mission in the city. “The idea that the White House can deploy troops into our cities with no legitimate cause grounded in reality, no monitoring, no accountability, no consideration of state sovereignty – it’s a direct assault on the rule of law,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including social justice nonprofits created during the first Trump administration, have prepped to rapidly assemble a mass rally in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at public spaces.

Community Impact

In San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, a largely Hispanic neighborhood, elected official informed journalists last week she and her voters had been anticipating this moment. “The point that people stop going to work, when people of color cannot move about freely without the apprehension of national personnel discriminating against and detaining them, the time when families keep children home, become too afraid to go to the food market or doctor,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is essentially a halt the extent of which we have not witnessed since the health crisis.”

National Guard Condition

Roughly several hundred out of 4,000 state national guard troops remain federalized under an directive from Trump. Approximately two hundred of them had been sent to the neighboring state, where they were staying in standby in the midst of a judicial dispute over their assignment.

This time, Newsom said he had requested the state military personnel under his command to operate charity kitchens amid the administrative stoppage.