Newsom asks California to ‘remain peaceful’ as feds prep for San Francisco deployment
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- More than 100 federal agents were reportedly deployed to U.S. Coast Guard Base Alameda.
- California officials pledged legal challenges and warned of federal overreach.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom urged Californians to remain peaceful.
The Trump administration is deploying more than 100 federal law-enforcement agents, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, to a U.S. Coast Guard base in the Bay Area in preparation for an enforcement operation.
The San Francisco Chronicle first reported the deployment, noting that federal agents were expected to arrive Thursday at Coast Guard Base Alameda.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed the deployment in a social media post to his personal account: “We know his playbook. We know what’s next.”
He told reporters Wednesday afternoon in Stockton that what was next was “absolutely predictable. It’s a script that been written for centuries.”
“You bring your entire press corps there to highlight your patriotism as you’re out there taking strawberry salesmen off the street, you find a few people that deserve to be taken off the street,” Newsom said, referring to previous, highly publicized raids led by CBP El Centro sector Chief Gregory Bovino. “Unquestionably, you highlight those, but there’s hundreds more that are collateral damage. Communities are torn asunder, it creates anxiety and stress and then manifests into expressions of free speech.”
Earlier on Wednesday in a post to his official account, he urged residents to “remain peaceful” as the Trump administration launched yet another enforcement operation in California. The first such operation took place earlier this year in Los Angeles, when President Donald Trump ordered National Guard troops to protect federal buildings from widespread protest over his immigration policies.
“California has seen enough,” Newsom said Wednesday in an X social media post. “President Trump and Stephen Miller’s authoritarian playbook is coming for another of our cities, and violence and vandalism are exactly what they’re looking for to invoke chaos. Help keep yourself and your communities safe. Remain peaceful.”
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to confirm or deny reports of federal agents deployed to the Bay Area, and directed The Bee’s inquiries to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP officials did not directly respond to questions but forwarded a written statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“As the Secretary said on Monday, 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,” according to the written statement.
CBP and ICE enforcement are part of the federal Department of Homeland Security.
In response to news of federal agents heading to the Bay Area, State Sen. Jesse Arreguín, D-Oakland, reminded residents to protest peacefully, warning that the Trump administration is “seeking to create chaos” to justify additional federal deployments.
“When similar deployments have occurred in other cities what we’ve seen are overly aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that lead to protests and civil unrest,” Arreguín said Wednesday afternoon in a news release. “The president and his goons then point to the unrest they themselves created to justify their tactics and even send in the National Guard,” Arreguín said.
The state senator asked local elected officials to remind the public to protest peacefully and “that violence or property damage will never be tolerated.” Arreguín urged local officials to communicate regularly with the community and immigration advocacy organizations to remind everyone that California is a sanctuary state, so local law enforcement, schools and teachers do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officials.
“Terrorizing our communities doesn’t make us safer, it drives hardworking people into the shadows. We’re not safer when our immigrant community is too afraid to go to work, report crimes or criminals, bring their kids to school or go to the hospital,” Arreguín said. “This president doesn’t care for meaningful immigration reform. He’s resigned to publicity stunts that have virtually no impact other than terrorizing hard working people. That’s not only inhumane, it’s un-American.”
Earlier this week, California leaders warned Trump they would immediately sue to block his administration from sending the military to San Francisco. Their warning came after Trump claimed “unquestioned power” to send in the National Guard after announcing a campaign last month to punish liberal cities with military might.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who until now avoided mentioning Trump, blasted the deployment in a news conference and said he had signed an executive order shoring up government agencies to prepare for federal agents and doubling down on the city’s status as a sanctuary for immigrants.
“We don’t know exactly what the federal government is planning in San Francisco and across the Bay Area. But we do know this federal administration has a playbook. 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,” he said. “These tactics are designed to incite backlash, chaos, and violence, which are then used as an excuse to deploy military personnel. They are intentionally creating a dangerous situation in the name of public safety.”
Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who launched a campaign on Wednesday to unseat Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi by vowing to “stand up” to Trump, doubled down on previous remarks that the president was fomenting unrest, not preserving public safety.
“San Francisco does not need federal agents. Crime is down thanks to great work by our local elected leaders. Trump is trying to create an excuse to deploy the National Guard so he can punish San Francisco,” he said. “Other Trump deployments to cities around the country have shown a cruel disregard for the dignity of American citizens and immigrants. I’m confident that if and when this deployment happens, San Franciscans will make their voices heard peacefully.”
The planned enforcement action in San Francisco did not appear to include National Guard personnel or other military resources. Still, it raised concern for Newsom given the earlier deployment in Los Angeles.
Newsom, who served as San Francisco’s mayor from 2004 to 2011, said he would challenge any federal incursion into the city and pointed to declining statewide crime rates — the homicide rate, for example, is expected to be the lowest in the city since 1954, according to the Chronicle.
Trump has, for weeks, suggested he would send troops to San Francisco, citing his ability to invoke the Insurrection Act.
“We’re going to go to San Francisco,” Trump told Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo in an interview that broadcast Sunday. “The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco. San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world, and then 15 years ago, it went wrong. It went woke.”
The Trump administration has already sent in troops to Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago, Illinois, to suppress anti-deportation protests in those cities.
“President Trump has long abandoned any pretenses for the illegal federalization and deployment of California’s National Guard. He does not care about satisfying the conditions of the law; he cares about himself, and he cares about power,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “Trump has made no secret of his intentions: To use our National Guard as his own Royal Army and our cities as a training ground for the military.”
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Newsom asks California to ‘remain peaceful’ as feds prep for San Francisco deployment."
