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The White House was preparing on Wednesday to dispatch numerous of government officers to the San Francisco Bay Area for a significant border security initiative, triggering condemnation from California leaders.

Specifics of the Operation

Specifics of the operation were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 federal agents, according to reports. The agents are scheduled to begin occupying the military installation in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether military personnel would participate.

Political Response

The mission comes after months of statements by the administration to target the Democratic-run city. The state's leader Gavin Newsom condemned the action, calling it “right out of the dictator’s handbook”.

“He sends out masked men, he deploys customs officers, he sends out federal agents, he creates concern and apprehension in the population so that he can take credit for handling that by deploying the state troops,” the governor stated. “This mirrors the firestarter fighting the blaze.”

Municipal Planning

San Francisco is the most recent major city singled out by Donald Trump’s campaign of large-scale detentions. The mission is anticipated to provoke a showdown between the White House and local leaders who have vowed to block militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for months for Trump to make good on ongoing warnings to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s mayor emphasized that the city was equipped.

“Over recent weeks, we have been anticipating the possibility of a potential federal deployment in our city,” stated the official, explaining that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s protection of our newcomer populations, and make certain our offices are organized before any national intervention.”

Constitutional Framework

Regardless of legal challenges to operations in a number of cities, including Chicago, Oregon and Los Angeles, Trump has asserted “complete control” to send the national guard in cities, citing the presidential authority which allows presidents specific authority to send forces on US soil.

Public Response

The governor, who once held office as San Francisco’s city leader – had pledged to step in “immediately” to a operation in the city. “The notion that the national administration can deploy troops into our cities with no justification supported by evidence, no supervision, no responsibility, no consideration of regional control – it represents an infringement on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including civil rights groups formed in the first Trump administration, have prepped to rapidly assemble a large protest in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at public spaces.

Local Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a largely Hispanic population, elected official told reporters last week she and her voters had been bracing for this situation. “The moment that workers cease employment, when anyone Black or brown 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 grocery store or medical provider,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is fundamentally a shutdown the likes of which we haven’t seen since the health crisis.”

National Guard Situation

About three hundred out of several thousand regional state soldiers remain federalized under an command from Trump. Approximately two hundred of them had been sent to the neighboring state, where they were waiting in limbo amid a judicial dispute over their assignment.

This time, Newsom said he had requested the local soldiers under his control to manage charity kitchens during the government shutdown.