San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie condemned the reported deployment of federal immigration officers to his city, saying the operation is meant to incite “chaos and violence,” rather than reduce crime.
“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 in a 9-minute video statement.
“These tactics are designed to incite backlash, chaos and violence, which are then used as an excuse to deploy military personnel,” he added.
The statement came immediately after the deployment was first reported.
Lurie spoke from San Francisco City Hall, flanked by other elected officials, and cautioned against giving federal officials an excuse to crack down on the city. He noted that the officials were working from a “playbook.”
President Trump has mused about sending troops to San Francisco in an effort to quell crime, but the administration has not specified when he would do so.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that more than 100 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were expected to arrive Thursday at the U.S. Coast Guard base in Alameda, Calif., which is between Oakland and San Francisco. The Chronicle cited an anonymous source with knowledge of the operation.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill” on Wednesday, said a “stepped-up presence” could soon be expected in San Francisco “and in any of these sanctuary cities.”
“We do have [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers on the ground in San Francisco,” she said. “That’s not a change in posture.”
Asked about ICE operations in the Bay Area city, she said she “can’t get too ahead of ICE operations or [Trump].”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pledged to push back forcefully on any federal troop deployment. The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, also vowed to “be in court within hours, if not minutes,” if troops arrive in the sanctuary city.
McLaughlin told NewsNation that Newsom “electorally has to be very careful.”
“In Los Angeles and San Francisco, a lot of those citizens aren’t happy with his governance, whether it be over those wildfires or the crime we’re seeing out of San Francisco,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed.
