Bay Area leaders reacted with dismay and defiance Wednesday to the specter of an intensified immigration crackdown involving scores of federal agents that could begin as early as this week, following through on President Donald Trump’s recent threats to target San Francisco.
More than 100 federal agents — including some from U.S. Customs and Border Protection — were expected to arrive Thursday at Coast Guard Island, in the estuary between Alameda and Oakland, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing an anonymous source.
Messages sent by this news organization to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection were not returned Thursday afternoon.
A statement from the Department of Homeland Security did not confirm the reported influx of federal agents, saying only that the agency “is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists — in cities such as Portland, Chicago, Memphis and San Francisco. As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation.”
The reported influx would come amid plans voiced by Trump and Kristi Noem, homeland security chief, to send National Guard troops to the Bay Area — much as they’ve done in a handful of U.S. cities over the last several months, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Ore. As recently as Sunday, Trump reiterated those vows on Fox News by proclaiming: “We’re going to go to San Francisco.”
“The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco,” Trump said. “San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world, and then 15 years ago, it went wrong. It went woke.”
In San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday threatened to sue the Trump administration if it sent National Guard troops to the city, and he announced an executive directive ordering city agencies to coordinate in support of immigrant families. At a news conference, he said the influx of federal agents would only undermine efforts to combat crime and the city’s drug crisis.
“Having the military posted in front of our schools, restaurants and office buildings will hinder our progress and let chaos get in the way of our recovery,” Lurie said in a virtual news conference.
There were no indications that National Guard troops would be among those staging this week on Coast Guard Island, The New York Times reported.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday hit back on social media, describing Trump’s move as one “right out of the dictator’s handbook.” He said the buildup was a repeat of similar tactics employed elsewhere in the nation, usually by flooding a city with masked immigration agents to foment “anxiety and fear,” then following with National Guard troops to stamp out “fictitious” crime.
“This is no different than the arsonist putting out the fire,” Newsom said. “We need to call that out and we cannot play his game.”
U.S. Senator Adam Schiff said in a statement that “Donald Trump’s deployment of federal agents to San Francisco will not make the city safer or improve the quality of life for residents. It will only serve to inflame tensions, which is tragically what the president seeks.”
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee added in her own statement that she was “actively monitoring the situation.” While Oakland “remains a proud sanctuary city committed to standing with our immigrant families,” she added that “real public safety comes from Oakland-based solutions, not federal military occupation.”
Just this week, San Jose and Santa Clara County leaders announced plans to institute “ICE-free zones” on county or city-owned property mirrored after a similar initiative in Chicago. Already, the county — where more than 40% of residents are foreign-born and one in five immigrants is undocumented — has invested more than $8 million in community organizations that provide legal services to immigrants. It sued the Trump administration over the legality of his policies around “sanctuary” jurisdictions and birthright citizenship.
The county has also become the largest funder of the South Bay’s Rapid Response Network, one of many organizations in the Bay Area and statewide that operate hotlines for residents to report ICE sightings and to obtain legal help.
Deputy County Executive David Campos said the Trump administration wants to instill fear in the community.
“What we’re seeing is not only is there no compliance with those rules, but they’re targeting people including American citizens who have been unlawfully detained,” he said. “We have a federal agency that is not following the law.”
Until this week, Trump’s immigration crackdown in the Bay Area paled in comparison to his campaigns in other cities, where agents have snatched people from worksites, Home Depot parking lots and their neighborhood — at times regardless of their citizenship status.
Locally, agents have detained people during otherwise-routine check-ins at ICE’s Bay Area offices, or during asylum hearings at immigration courthouses in Concord and San Francisco. In August, agents raided a home in East Oakland and removed seven people, including a teenager with Down syndrome. That same month in East Palo Alto, a 47-year-old woman from Mexico was hospitalized after passing out while agents tried to handcuff her.
The looming swell of federal agents could signal a new phase in that campaign.
Advocates and nonprofits providing free attorneys to undocumented immigrants scrambled Wednesday to warn their clients of the potential immigration sweeps and to urge them to avoid normal gathering spaces. Rapid response networks “are prepared to respond from a place of power, not panic,” said Milli Atkinson, director of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program.
“We want to do what we can to protect people — if people can stay inside, I think that’s the best thing they can do,” said Ellen Dumesnil, executive director of the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area. “This administration’s goal is to terrorize, and I think they’re doing a good job of it.”
Hours after word emerged of the federal buildup, several Oaklanders pulled up to the bridge off Embarcadero and Dennison Street leading to Coast Guard Island, craning their necks to see the buildup for themselves. Earlier that morning, security officials at the island erected barriers to slow traffic on the bridge to and from the installation.
Among those looking on was Jesus Coba, who arrived with several fellow members of the nonprofit Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice. He assailed Trump for “terrorizing our communities” by “kidnapping and disappearing” people across the country.
“People shouldn’t feel afraid to drop their kids off at school, our people shouldn’t feel afraid to go to work,” Coba said. “This is an ugly time in our history, here in the Bay Area.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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