It's on.
Thursday, federal agents began arriving at the Coast Guard base in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Alameda to assist in the federal illegal immigration crackdown in that city, and as we might well have predicted, they were greeted by a few hundred shouting protestors.
Protesters gathered Thursday outside a U.S. Coast Guard base in the San Francisco Bay Area, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents began arriving to support federal efforts to track down immigrants in the country illegally.
A few hundred people, many singing hymns and carrying signs saying “No ICE or troops in the Bay,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gathered shortly after dawn outside Coast Guard Island in Alameda. Police used at least one flash-bang grenade to clear a handful of demonstrators from the entrance as CBP vehicles drove through.
The San Francisco Chronicle, citing an anonymous source with knowledge of the operation, reported Wednesday that more than 100 CBP and other federal agents would arrive this week. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and California Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately condemned the move. The two Democrats said the surge is meant to provoke violent protests.
Read that last sentence again. Mayor Lurie and Governor Newsom, in that statement, made one of the dumbest assertions I've ever seen a liberal Democrat politician make, and as you know, that's up against some pretty stiff competition. This move on the part of the federal government is, obviously, not intended to "provoke violent protests." The far-left nuts in Antifa and the aging Boomers who are trying to recapture their hippie glory years are perfectly capable of initiating violent protests all on their own, although the elderly hippies will have to withdraw from the protests when their MiraLAX kicks in. This statement is pure rabble-rousing on the part of the mayor and the governor, nothing more.
The Coast Guard did release a statement describing precisely what the intent of this operation is:
CBP did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment from The Associated Press. A statement provided to media by the Coast Guard said that “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.”
In other words, they are there to enforce the law.
Read More: Questions for Gavin Newsom After Illegal Alien Truck Driver Arrested in Deadly SoCal Freeway Crash
One may agree with our current immigration laws or not, but they are the law. Enforcing the law isn't a pick-or-choose, conditional thing. It's the law. The Trump administration is enforcing those laws, and they have a big hill to climb in doing so after four years of non-enforcement by the Biden administration. But President Trump ran on this issue, perhaps above all else, and he is obviously determined to get this done.
Federal agents and National Guard troops have also been deployed to Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and are planning to increase the federal presence in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago - all jurisdictions where crime and the harboring of illegal aliens are (or were) out of control.
There's a bit of confusion as to whether federal agents will actually cross the San Francisco Bay and deploy in San Francisco proper, as SF Mayor Daniel Lurie is claiming that President Trump told him late Wednesday night that he was calling off the deployment. Writing on X, Lurie said:
Yesterday, I spoke to San Franciscans about a potential federal deployment in our city. I said then what I have said since taking office, that keeping San Franciscans safe is my top priority.
Late last night, I received a phone call from the President of the United States. I told him the same thing I told our residents: San Francisco is on the rise. Visitors are coming back, buildings are getting leased and purchased, and workers are coming back to the office.
We have work to do, and we would welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Attorney to get drugs and drug dealers off our streets, but having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery. We appreciate that the president understands that we are the global hub for technology, and when San Francisco is strong, our country is strong.
In that conversation, the president told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning.
My team will continue to monitor the situation closely, and our city remains prepared for any scenario.
I am profoundly grateful to all the San Franciscans who came together over the last several days. Our city leaders have been united behind the goal of public safety. And our values have been on full display—this is the best of our city.
You can see live coverage of the deployment (while it lasts) here.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece was edited post-publication to include Mayor Lurie's statement and to clarify that federal agents have arrived in Alameda, not San Francisco.)
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