The ‘Surge’ of Troops May Not Come to San Francisco, but the City Is Ready Anyway

After months of deployments by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and nan National Guard crossed American cities, national agents person been preparing to descend into San Francisco.

Local guidance groups person been coordinating pinch activists successful different cities crossed nan state that person been besieged by national rule enforcement. Thousands of volunteers, coordinating done Signal group chats, Zoom calls, and social media posts, planned protests and dispersed nan connection that national troops are connected their measurement to San Francisco. Even though they aren’t—yet.

On Thursday morning, SF politician Daniel Lurie posted connected Instagram and X to denote that he had spoken pinch President Donald Trump and convinced him to telephone disconnected nan national agents that had planned to spell to San Francisco this Saturday. Trump confirmed that connected Truth Social soon thereafter, writing, “Great group for illustration Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others person called saying that nan early of San Francisco is great. They want to springiness it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco connected Saturday. Stay tuned!”

Activists and San Francisco residents are not precisely convinced, and truthful nan organizing continues.

Early this week, a contingent of astir 100 national rule enforcement agents converged connected Coast Guard Island, a mini guidelines successful Alameda, conscionable crossed nan Bay from San Francisco that national officials opportunity is being utilized arsenic a staging area for upcoming migration raids. Only 1 roadworthy leads to and from nan island, and erstwhile connection dispersed astir nan deployment, agents were quickly boxed in. Around 200 protesters showed up Thursday greeting to effort to disrupt their movements, resulting successful clashes.

On Wednesday night, a group called Bay Resistance held an acquisition webinar that drew a monolithic turnout; owed to nan limitations of nan group's Zoom subscription, it had to headdress nan telephone astatine 5,000 attendees. Hundreds much viewed a signaling afterward.

“The Bay is not going to beryllium quietly,” Emily Lee, a Bay Resistance organizer, said connected nan mobilization call. “We are decidedly going to beryllium opinionated up together against this administration.”

Throughout nan call, organizers said successful English pinch Spanish translations, sharing plans for upcoming actions crossed nan Bay. They talked astir lessons learned from their nonstop communications pinch organizers successful Los Angeles who mobilized against nan ICE raids and national unit deployments there, and nan value of taking nan tack of Portland’s protesters, who relied connected humor and inflatable animals to antagonistic ICE actions and protestation Trump’s claims of nan metropolis being a “war ravaged” hellhole.