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The federal government seemed ready on Wednesday to dispatch numerous of law enforcement personnel to the northern California for a major crackdown on immigration, prompting condemnation from state officials.

Details of the Deployment

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly include over a hundred federal agents, based on information. The agents are scheduled to begin using the US Coast Guard base in the East Bay, across the bay from San Francisco. It was still uncertain whether national guard troops would also be involved.

Political Backlash

The mission is the result of an extended period of statements by the administration to focus on the progressive municipality. Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the decision, labeling it “straight from the dictator’s handbook”.

“He dispatches unidentified officers, he dispatches border agents, he dispatches immigration officials, he generates worry and terror in the neighborhood so that he can take credit for solving that by sending in the state troops,” Newsom said. “This is exactly like the arsonist fighting the fire.”

City Preparation

San Francisco is the latest large urban area targeted by the administration's initiative of large-scale detentions. The mission is expected to trigger a showdown between the White House and local leaders who have vowed to block paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for an extended period for Trump to make good on repeated threats to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday media briefing, San Francisco’s city leader emphasized that the city was prepared.

“Over recent weeks, we have been preparing for the likelihood of a potential federal deployment in our city,” said the mayor, explaining that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s support for our immigrant communities, and ensure our agencies are prepared ahead of any national intervention.”

Constitutional Background

Despite court battles to operations in a number of cities, including the Windy City, Portland and Southern California, Trump has asserted “complete control” to deploy the military forces in cities, pointing to the Insurrection Act which enables presidents specific authority to send forces on American territory.

Local Reaction

Newsom – who was formerly as San Francisco’s mayor – had vowed to step in “right away” to a operation in the city. “The notion that the national administration can dispatch personnel into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no supervision, no accountability, disregard for regional control – it constitutes an attack on the rule of law,” he said on Wednesday.

Community groups, including civil rights groups created during the previous presidential term, have organized to quickly mobilize a large protest in the city, as well as candlelight gatherings at local libraries.

Local Consequences

In San Francisco’s Mission district, a largely Hispanic neighborhood, city supervisor stated to media last week she and her residents had been preparing for this time. “The moment that employees avoid workplaces, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the concern of national personnel targeting based on race and apprehending them, the time when parents stop sending kids to school, are too scared to go to the food market or physician,” she said. “Our ongoing preparations in the Mission is basically a closure the scale of which we have not experienced since the health crisis.”

National Guard Condition

About several hundred out of several thousand California state soldiers stay under federal control under an order from Trump. Roughly 200 of them had been transferred to the Pacific Northwest, where they were staying in standby amid a legal battle over their mission.

This time, Newsom said he had requested the California national guard troops under his authority to manage food banks amid the federal closure.