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The White House was preparing on Wednesday to dispatch scores of government officers to the San Francisco Bay Area for a large-scale immigration enforcement operation, sparking condemnation from California leaders.

Specifics of the Deployment

Specifics of the deployment were continuing to unfold, but it will reportedly include more than 100 government officers, according to reports. The officers are reportedly set to begin using the military installation in the East Bay, opposite San Francisco. It was not confirmed whether national guard troops would also be involved.

Official Response

The mission comes after months of threats by the administration to target the progressive municipality. The state's leader Gavin Newsom criticized the move, labeling it “right out of the autocrat's manual”.

“He dispatches unidentified officers, he sends out Border Patrol, he dispatches ICE, he creates worry and terror in the community so that he can claim credit for handling that by deploying the state troops,” Newsom said. “This is no different than the arsonist fighting the inferno.”

Municipal Preparation

San Francisco is the most recent metropolitan center targeted by the federal effort of mass immigration arrests. The deployment is likely to cause a standoff between the White House and local leaders who have committed to stop militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been gearing up for months for Trump to carry out ongoing warnings to deploy forces 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 some kind of government operation in our city,” stated the official, adding that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “enhance the city’s protection of our newcomer populations, and guarantee our departments are prepared prior to any government operation.”

Constitutional Framework

Regardless of judicial disputes to deployments in a multiple urban areas, including the Windy City, Oregon and LA, Trump has declared “absolute authority” to deploy the military forces in cities, referencing the federal statute which allows presidents specific authority to dispatch personnel on American territory.

Community Preparation

Newsom, who was formerly as San Francisco’s chief executive – had pledged to intervene “without delay” to a mission in the city. “The concept that the federal government can send forces into our cities with no legitimate cause based on facts, no supervision, no answerability, no consideration of regional control – it’s a direct assault on the rule of law,” he said on Wednesday.

Local organizations, including civil rights groups formed in the initial federal leadership, have prepped to swiftly gather a large protest in the city, as well as peaceful assemblies at local libraries.

Community Effect

In San Francisco’s Mission area, a largely Hispanic neighborhood, local representative informed journalists last week she and her constituents had been bracing for this moment. “The moment that employees avoid workplaces, when minority individuals are afraid to go outdoors without the fear of government officers racially profiling and apprehending them, the moment when families keep children home, become too afraid to go to the grocery store or doctor,” she said. “The readiness efforts in the Mission is essentially a halt the extent of which we have not witnessed since the health crisis.”

State Troops Situation

Approximately several hundred out of four thousand California national guard troops remain federalized under an command from Trump. Roughly two hundred of them had been transferred to the neighboring state, where they were remaining in uncertainty amid a judicial dispute over their deployment.

This week, Newsom said he had called the local soldiers under his authority to staff charity kitchens throughout the administrative stoppage.