The Trump administration has made preparations to expand its nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration in the San Francisco area with a team of Border Patrol agents, two U.S. officials familiar with the internal plans told CBS News on Wednesday.
The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said Border Patrol’s operations in the Northern California area could start as early as later this week, but that the timing could shift.
One of the U.S. officials said the Border Patrol agents would stage at the U.S. Coast Guard base in Alameda, roughly 15 miles from San Francisco. That plan was reported earlier Wednesday by The San Francisco Chronicle. The Department of Homeland Security oversees Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The U.S. officials said Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, one of the most visible faces of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, is expected to be involved in the operation. Bovino is currently leading Border Patrol arrests in Chicago, where a judge on Monday ordered him to answer questions about agents’ use of force during those operations. He also oversaw the agency’s controversial immigration raids in the Los Angeles area this summer.
In a response to CBS News’ request for comment, a spokesperson for DHS said, “DHS 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.”
In a video posted on social media Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, denounced the Trump administration’s plans, accusing the president of seeking to create “conditions for anxiety” in American cities.
“He sends out masked men, he sends out Border Patrol. He sends out ICE, creates anxiety and fear in the community, so that he can lay claim to solving for that by sending in the Guard in the first place,” Newsom said.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker whose district includes most of San Francisco, issued a statement saying reports of what she called a “planned mass immigration raid in the Bay Area” are “an appalling abuse of law enforcement power. Broad sweeps that target families and terrorize law-abiding residents betray our nation’s values and waste resources that should focus on real threats to public safety.”
President Trump has recently floated the idea of dispatching federal agents to San Francisco.
“We’re going to go to San Francisco. The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco,” Mr. Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired over the weekend.
On Wednesday, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said local residents would protest peacefully if the Trump administration uses “un-American tactics to target immigrant communities” in the area.
“This federal administration wants to divide us, but we know San Francisco is strongest when we come together to stand up for each other and our values,” Lurie added.
As part of an aggressive expansion in deportation efforts across the country, the Trump administration has deployed teams of Border Patrol agents to large, Democratic-led American cities far away from a U.S. border.
As federal immigration officers, Border Patrol agents have the legal authority to arrest individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally anywhere in the country. However, they have expanded search powers in areas close to a coastal or land border.
In recent weeks, Border Patrol has been carrying out immigration arrests throughout the Chicago area, sometimes as part of operations at worksites and public places that have garnered local backlash. Earlier in the year, Border Patrol launched a similar campaign in the Los Angeles area, arresting suspected unauthorized immigrants in Home Depot parking lots, car washes and other locations.
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