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The federal government was preparing on Wednesday to deploy scores of law enforcement personnel to the Bay Area region for a significant immigration enforcement operation, triggering condemnation from California leaders.

Specifics of the Mission

Information of the mission were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly involve over a hundred law enforcement personnel, based on information. The personnel are expected to begin using the Coast Guard facility in Alameda, facing San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether state soldiers would participate.

Government Response

The operation follows months of threats by the administration to focus on the progressive municipality. The state's leader Gavin Newsom condemned the move, describing it as “straight from the autocrat's manual”.

“He deploys unidentified officers, he deploys Border Patrol, he deploys immigration officials, he generates concern and apprehension in the community so that he can claim credit for solving that by dispatching the state troops,” the governor stated. “This is no different than the incendiary extinguishing the inferno.”

Municipal Readiness

San Francisco is the most recent major city targeted by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The operation is expected to trigger a showdown between the White House and city officials who have committed to block paramilitary operations in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for months for Trump to fulfill repeated threats to deploy forces to the city. At a Wednesday public announcement, San Francisco’s mayor stated again that the city was prepared.

“Over recent weeks, we have been preparing for the chance of an impending government operation in our city,” declared the leader, noting that he had implemented additional measures on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s support for our immigrant communities, and ensure our offices are prepared ahead of any federal deployment.”

Legal Background

Regardless of court battles to missions in a number of cities, including Illinois, Portland and LA, Trump has asserted “complete control” to dispatch the national guard in cities, pointing to the Insurrection Act which permits presidents certain rights to send forces on domestic land.

Community Reaction

Newsom – who previously served as San Francisco’s mayor – had committed to intervene “right away” to a mission in the city. “The concept that the federal government can send forces into our cities with no legitimate cause grounded in reality, no oversight, no accountability, no consideration of state sovereignty – it represents an infringement on the legal system,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including advocacy organizations created during the initial federal leadership, have organized to rapidly assemble a large protest in the city, as well as vigils at community centers.

Neighborhood Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a mostly Latin American neighborhood, city supervisor stated to media last week she and her constituents had been preparing for this time. “The time that employees avoid workplaces, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the apprehension of Trump’s federal agents racially profiling and detaining them, the point when students avoid classrooms, become too afraid to go to the food market or physician,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is essentially a halt the scale of which we have not witnessed since the health crisis.”

National Guard Situation

About several hundred out of 4,000 state military personnel continue under national command under an directive from Trump. About several hundred of them had been sent to the Pacific Northwest, where they were remaining in uncertainty in the midst of a legal battle over their assignment.

This week, Newsom said he had called the state military personnel under his control to operate charity kitchens throughout the federal closure.