San Francisco mayor announces executive order to coordinate city response to CBP deployment
By Carlos E. Castañeda
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Wednesday he has directed city officials and departments to coordinate the city’s response to any federal law enforcement action in the city.
The executive directive is designed to coordinate public safety and communication procedures, and support the city’s immigrant communities, while maintaining trust between residents and city government, Lurie said. He announced the directive following word on Wednesday that more than 100 U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were being deployed to Coast Guard Base Alameda in an apparent escalation of federal immigration enforcement in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lurie’s directive includes the activation of an Incident Coordination Call by the city’s Department of Emergency Management to coordinate response and information sharing among city departments. In addition, the order directs the City Attorney’s Office to monitor developments and pursue legal action against the Trump administration when necessary, and to include the San Francisco Unified School District in interdepartmental coordination to support immigrant students and families.
“We have longstanding sanctuary policies in our city that prohibit local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement,” said Lurie. “Those policies help build trust between police and communities, and they help keep people comfortable reporting crimes … We can’t prevent federal officials from enforcing immigration laws, but we’re going to keep our local law enforcement focused on ensuring your safety.”
There was no immediate word on what type of operations the CBP agents would be carrying out. CBS News Bay Area has reached out to CBP for more information on the mission. Two U.S. officials told CBS News that Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino is expected to be involved in the operation. He’s currently leading Border Patrol arrests in Chicago, and oversaw the agency’s controversial raids in Southern California this summer.
CBP is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the Department of Homeland Security and is the country’s primary border control organization.
The Alameda Police Department released a statement on Wednesday saying it was not a part of the operation, and that the department does not enforce federal immigration laws or related civil warrants. Alameda police also urged people to avoid interaction with federal law enforcement and referred residents to the city’s website for resources and information on immigrants’ rights.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee issued a statement Wednesday, saying the city was actively monitoring the situation.
“Oakland remains a proud sanctuary city committed to standing with our immigrant families, ” said Lee. “We will notify our community with as much information as possible about any federal deployment. Real public safety comes from Oakland-based solutions, not federal military occupation.”
The developments come on the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would deploy the state National Guard to help staff food banks amid the ongoing government shutdown. Newsom said the National Guard would not be acting as law enforcement during the mission, mirroring his deployment of the Guard in the early days of the COVID pandemic, also in support of food banks.
On Sunday, President Trump reiterated his pledge to send National Guard troops to San Francisco, on the heels of his deployments of Guard troops to Portland, Chicago and Los Angeles. Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta have vowed to immediately file suit against the Trump administration should Mr. Trump send federalized National Guard troops into the city.
Trump has argued that troop deployments to U.S. cities are necessary because of what he characterizes as high levels of crime and unrest, as well as shielding federal agents from attacks during immigration enforcement operations. California, Illinois and Oregon have sued the Trump administration over the deployments, arguing they are politically motivated and violate state sovereignty, that there is no insurrection to justify them, and they violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using the U.S. military to enforce domestic laws except where expressly authorized by Congress.
