Trump cancels plans to send federal troops to San Francisco for immigration crackdown | San Francisco

Donald Trump has cancelled plans for a deployment of federal troop to the San Francisco Bay Area that had sparked widespread condemnation from California leaders and sent protesters flooding into the streets.

The region had been on edge after reports emerged on Wednesday that the Trump administration was poised to send 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.

But on Thursday, the president said he would not move forward with a “surge” of federal forces in the area after speaking with the mayor, Daniel Lurie, and Silicon Valley leaders including Marc Benioff, the Salesforce CEO who recently apologized for saying Trump should send national guard troops, and Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia.

Lurie said he spoke with the president on Wednesday night, and that Trump told him he would call off the deployment.

“In that conversation, the president told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning,” Lurie said in a statement.

Trump confirmed the conversation on his Truth Social platform, saying: “I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around.”

The operation had been expected to start as early as Thursday.

The sudden reversal came as protesters had mobilized in anticipation of a surge in troops. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the US Coast Guard base in Alameda on an overcast Thursday morning, holding signs with slogans such as “No ICE or Troops in the Bay!” . Police used flash-bang grenades to clear a handful of demonstrators from the entrance as CBP vehicles drove through.

Later on Thursday morning, protesters were walking in a slow circle at the gates of the Coast Guard base. Many were carrying signs that read: “Protect our neighbors, protegemos nuestros vecinos.” There was at least one person dressed as Batman, and Marvin Gaye was blasting through a loudspeaker.

Josh Aguirre, 39, had come to participate in his first ever protest. “It’s scary what’s going on right now, and we’ve got to just stand solidarity,” said Aguirre, who had come, along with his dog, from East Oakland – a largely Latino and immigrant community.

He found out that federal agents would be deployed to the Bay Area from his four-year-old daughter’s school administrators. “And the first thing I thought was the families that I know who bring their kids to school are going to be affected the most,” he said. “It’s important to show up for your community.”

Raj, an educator who asked to be identified only by his first name, had come with his 10-year-old daughter. “In the Bay we’re involved … and our kids know what’s happening,” he said. “When federal troops come in here, they won’t just see what they think they’re gonna see, which are like violent agitators. They’re going to see entire communities come out with their kids, with their families, with their teens. They’re going to see they’re not wanted here, and they are not needed here.”

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 was unclear if the national guard would have played a role in operations in the region. But state and local leaders on Wednesday had 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.”

Lurie said earlier in the week 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.”

State and local authorities had 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 the 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 has been the latest major US city to face Trump’s threats. 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.

Community groups had readied to support affected residents. Organizers have mobilized to stage a mass rally in the city, as well as 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.”