{"id":44683,"date":"2025-10-23T12:48:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44683"},"modified":"2025-10-23T12:48:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:48:02","slug":"federal-immigration-surge-is-bigger-worry-for-s-f-than-national-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/23\/federal-immigration-surge-is-bigger-worry-for-s-f-than-national-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal immigration surge is bigger worry for S.F. than National Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Experts warn federal immigration agents have more latitude to be aggressive and destructive than troops \u2014 with fewer avenues for the city to push back<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A by\u00a0Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/strong> October 22, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Several
ICE agents make an arrest in downtown San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2025. Photo by Zenobia Lloyd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A bevy of Customs and Border Protection agents is heading to the Bay Area<\/a> as soon as Thursday, a deployment that would be a realization of San Francisco leaders\u2019 most pressing fears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous city officials told Mission Local <\/em>the arrival of immigration agents is more serious and potentially destructive than the threatened incursion of armed National Guard troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBP \u2014 or, for that matter, Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u2014 can deploy more rapidly and via a more streamlined procedure, and municipalities have fewer tools with which to push back. And federal law enforcement can engage in more aggressive and damaging behaviors than National Guardsmen once within cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Daniel Lurie signed an executive directive<\/a> today focusing on preparations for federal incursions into San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImmigration officials are deployed to use aggressive enforcement tactics that instill fear so people don\u2019t feel safe going about their daily lives,\u201d he said this afternoon at a hastily arranged 2 p.m. press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Valencia<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pending influx of more than 100 agents from CPB and other federal agencies imminently arriving at Alameda\u2019s Coast Guard base was first reported today<\/a> by the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the National Guard, CBP agents or ICE do not require complex steps to be deployed in numbers or with great speed. Once on the ground, they have far more leeway to make arrests or detain people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deployment of National Guard troops, meanwhile, is permissible only via circumscribed procedures<\/a> that can be contested in court. San Francisco and California officials have vowed<\/a> to legally fight the ordering of any National Guard troops to the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Litquake<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As such, the preoccupation with the National Guard, experts say, may have been a bit myopic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Law
ICE agents in downtown San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2025. Photo by Zenobia Lloyd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of our discussion has focused on the National Guard. But it has long been my thought that these ICE deployments are in some ways more problematic and consequential \u2014 and much more immediate,\u201d said Chris Mirasola, a law professor at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mirasola was a former Defense Department attorney under both Presidents Trump and Joseph Biden, focusing primarily on military deployments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Back<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo I think it\u2019s incredibly consequential that the National Guard and military is broadly deployed in the United States, and is that corrosive in ways that are distinct from law-enforcement deployments? Yes,\u201d Mirasola continued. \u201cBut at the same time, the actual harm to communities is coming from ICE and federal law deployments.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mirasola\u2019s statements echo those Mission Local <\/em>heard from a number of city officials. Far from the mere shock-and-awe visuals of armed combat troops on the streets of a major American city, federal law-enforcement agents like those with ICE and CBP can make arrests and, per the term \u201claw enforcement,\u201d enforce the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That included an immigration raid earlier this month in which federal immigration agents rappelled<\/a> into a Chicago apartment building out of Black Hawk helicopters, set off flash-bang grenades and rounded up largely Black and Latino tenants, holding many in zip-tie cuffs for hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UC<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While ICE operates throughout the nation, CBP operates within a 100-mile zone of a border.<\/a> Chicago, however, is considered within that zone because the Great Lakes are navigable from Canada by boat.<\/a> San Francisco, a coastal city, sits on the nation\u2019s western border. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of those detained in the Chicago raid were U.S. citizens<\/a>, including children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Mayor Daniel Lurie today emphasized that the city is \u2018prepared\u2019 for an influx of immigration agents to San Francisco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe degree of leeway ICE has under its statutory authority is much broader than the National Guard out of pretty exceptional circumstances,\u201d Mirasola says. \u201cThat reinforces why it is important to be focusing on ICE deployments.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there is less that cities can do about such deployments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBroadly speaking, the supremacy clause permits the federal government to carry out federal law enforcement,\u201d Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, told<\/a> Mission Local <\/em>yesterday. This applies \u201ceven in places where local government does not want them.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mirasola adds that litigation has successfully targeted federal law-enforcement operations regarding whether immigration agents are complying with the Fourth Amendment, which prevents unreasonable searches and seizures. But these suits come after agents have been deployed, aggressively interacted with the community and purportedly violated people\u2019s rights, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BREAKING: Donald Trump is sending federal agents to San Francisco.

We know his playbook. We know what\u2019s next. Watch. pic.twitter.com\/NeyCXNDo8q<\/a><\/p>— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 22, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>