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The White House seemed ready on Wednesday to dispatch numerous of law enforcement personnel to the San Francisco Bay Area for a major crackdown on immigration, triggering criticism from state officials.

Specifics of the Mission

Information of the mission were still emerging, but it will reportedly include more than 100 government officers, as reported. The personnel are expected to begin using the Coast Guard facility in the East Bay, across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether military personnel would join the operation.

Government Reaction

The operation is the result of an extended period of threats by the president to take action against the liberal city. California’s governor Gavin Newsom criticized the decision, labeling it “right out of the autocrat's manual”.

“He sends out unidentified officers, he deploys Border Patrol, he dispatches ICE, he creates worry and terror in the community so that he can claim credit for addressing that by deploying the military forces,” he declared. “This is exactly like the arsonist extinguishing the blaze.”

Local Readiness

San Francisco is the latest large urban area focused on by the administration's initiative of large-scale detentions. The deployment is expected to trigger a confrontation between the federal government and city officials who have pledged to prevent militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for an extended period for Trump to make good on repeated threats to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday public announcement, San Francisco’s city leader reiterated that the city was equipped.

“Over recent weeks, we have been anticipating the possibility of a potential federal deployment in our city,” declared the leader, adding that he had implemented additional measures on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s support for our immigrant communities, and guarantee our departments are organized before any government operation.”

Constitutional Context

In spite of legal challenges to missions in a several municipalities, including Illinois, the Pacific Northwest and LA, Trump has asserted “absolute authority” to dispatch the national guard in cities, citing the presidential authority which permits presidents certain rights to send forces on US soil.

Local Reaction

Newsom, who previously served as San Francisco’s city leader – had pledged to take action “right away” to a mission in the city. “The notion that the White House can send forces into our cities with no justification based on facts, no supervision, no answerability, no respect for regional control – it represents an infringement on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including advocacy organizations formed in the initial federal leadership, have organized to quickly mobilize a large protest in the city, as well as vigils at local libraries.

Community Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, a largely Hispanic community, city supervisor told reporters last week she and her residents had been bracing for this moment. “The time that workers cease employment, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the apprehension of government officers discriminating against and detaining them, the moment when families keep children home, grow too frightened to go to the food market or doctor,” she said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is basically a shutdown the extent of which we haven’t seen since the health crisis.”

Military Situation

About 300 out of 4,000 state military personnel remain federalized under an order from Trump. Approximately several hundred of them had been sent to the Pacific Northwest, where they were remaining in uncertainty in the midst of a judicial dispute over their assignment.

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