The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Wednesday that it will accommodate an influx of federal agents tasked with immigration enforcement in the city.
An anonymous source with knowledge of the situation told the San Francisco Chronicle that 100 U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other agents will begin arriving at the Alameda Coast Guard base on Thursday. The Coast Guard confirmed in a statement provided to the media, immediately drawing outrage from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie (D) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
“This support of DHS agencies continues the Coast Guard’s operations to control, secure, and defend U.S. borders and maritime approaches,” a Coast Guard spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Through a whole of government approach, we are leveraging our unique authorities and capabilities to detect, deter, and interdict illegal aliens, narco-terrorists, and individuals intent on terrorism or other hostile activity before they reach our border.”
Lurie decried that move as part of an authoritarian crackdown on dissent.
“In cities across the country, masked immigration officials are deployed to use aggressive enforcement tactics that instill 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.”
Newsom said he would immediately sue the Trump administration to stop any deployment of military forces.
“We’re going to be fierce in terms of our response,” Newsom said. “This is the lawsuit that I will file within a nanosecond of any efforts to send the military to one of America’s great cities.”
Immigration attorney Milli Atkinson warned that the Department of Homeland Security was preparing a major immigration raid as soon as Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was “targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ARGUES NO TIME-LIMIT ON POWER TO DEPLOY NATIONAL GUARD
President Donald Trump turned his ire towards San Francisco in a Fox News interview on Sunday, bemoaning that it “was truly one of the great cities of the world” before it went “wrong” and “woke.”
He pledged that his administration would make San Francisco “great again.”
