San Francisco Bay Area braces for Trump’s ‘aggressive’ immigration crackdown

The San Francisco Bay Area is bracing for a major federal immigration enforcement operation that could start as early as Thursday.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration has sent more than 100 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other federal agents to the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, across the Bay from San Francisco, as part of a large-scale immigration enforcement plan.

The US Coast Guard confirmed that one of its sites was poised to serve as a base of operations for CBP.

Donald Trump had signaled for weeks that San Francisco could be the next Democratic city to face an administration crackdown. In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, the president claimed “unquestioned power” to deploy the national guard and argued that San Francisco residents want the military in their city.

“We’re gonna go to San Francisco. The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco,” Trump said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo.

It’s unclear if the national guard indeed will play a role in operations in the region. But state and local leaders on Wednesday responded swiftly and strongly to the news of the CBP operations, and vowed to fight any potential deployment of the military.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, called Trump’s moves “right out of the dictator’s handbook”.

“He sends out masked men, he sends out border patrol, he sends out ICE, he creates anxiety and fear in the community so that he can lay claim to solving for that by sending in the [national] guard,” Newsom said in a video statement. “This is no different than the arsonist putting out the fire.”

San Francisco’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, said his city was prepared.

“For months, we have been anticipating the possibility of some kind of federal deployment in our city,” said Lurie.

Oakland’s mayor, Barbara Lee, said “real public safety comes from Oakland-based solutions, not federal military occupation.”

Lurie urged residents to remain peaceful, and not give federal forces an “excuse” to crack down.

“In cities across the country, masked immigration officials are deployed to use aggressive enforcement tactics that instil fear so people don’t feel safe going about their daily lives,” Lurie said. “These tactics are designed to incite backlash, chaos and violence, which are then used as an excuse to deploy military personnel.”

State and local authorities have vowed to challenge any deployment of military troops in court.

Newsom, who previously served as San Francisco’s mayor, vowed to sue the administration “within nanoseconds” if it tried to send the military to the city. “We’re going to be fierce in terms of our response,” the governor said.

Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, vowed to “be in court within hours, if not minutes” if there is a federal deployment, and San Francisco city attorney David Chiu has promised the same.

San Francisco’s district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, said she was ready to prosecute any federal agents who violated California law.

San Francisco is the latest major US city to face Trump’s wrath. The administration has previously sent the military to Los Angeles and Chicago, and has tried to deploy troops in Portland. All deployments have faced legal challenges from local and state authorities.

Trump in recent weeks argued that a federal operation in San Francisco was necessary to combat crime. “Every American deserves to live in a community where they’re not afraid of being mugged, murdered, robbed, raped, assaulted or shot” he said at an appearance on 16 October.

Local leaders, including the city’s mayor and district attorney, have said crime in the city is under control, pointing to falling crime rates and growing police recruitment. The city’s homicide rate this year is expected to be the lowest since 1954, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Amid the threats, city and community leaders said they stand with the region’s immigrant communities. Lurie said on Wednesday that he had taken executive actions to “strengthen the city’s support for our immigrant communities, and ensure our departments are coordinated ahead of any federal deployment”.

Community groups are preparing to support affected residents. Organizers have mobilized to stage a mass rally in the city, as well vigils at local libraries.

City supervisor Jackie Fielder told reporters last week she and her constituents in the Mission District had been bracing for this moment.

“The moment that people stop going to work, when anyone Black or brown can’t freely walk outside without the fear of Trump’s federal agents racially profiling and arresting them, the moment when parents stop sending kids to school, become too afraid to go to the grocery store or doctor,” Fielder said. “What we have been preparing for in the Mission is essentially a shutdown the likes of which we haven’t seen since Covid.”

The Bay Area operation would be the latest where border patrol agents take up a major role in enforcement actions. The agency’s officers have become ubiquitous Trump’s mass deportation plan, becoming a daily presence in several major cities across the US.

Lawyers and human rights advocates previously said the agents, who are trained to block illegal entries, drug smugglers and human traffickers at the country’s borders, may be ill-suited to conduct civil immigration enforcement in urban communities.

“The border patrol is certainly quite cavalier, and has been very aggressive historically as it goes about its enforcement responsibilities,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University. They tend to do their work in rural places and isolated parts of the United States. And they generally are not trained in community interactions and policing.”