A protester in an orange traffic cone costume sits at an intersection during a protest outside Coast Guard Island Alameda against the long-threatened federal immigration crackdown on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Just as the Bay Area was girding for the potential impacts of a federal immigration crackdown, President Trump announced he had called off a planned federal “surge” in San Francisco. His statement marked a sharp turn from previous threats to send in the National Guard to fight crime in San Francisco, something troops cannot legally do — and left many questions about a potential immigration operation unanswered.
• Follow latest updates: Trump calls off planned federal ‘surge’ in S.F.
Here is what we know now and what’s still unclear.
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What is the status of the federal immigration operation?
In recent days, Bay Area leaders had feared two potential federal incursions in the region from the Trump administration: a deployment of the National Guard, as Trump had done in other Democratic-led cities such as Los Angeles, and a major immigration crackdown by federal immigration officers, who’ve already been ramping up arrests in the region, particularly at courthouses, since May.
The Trump administration on Wednesday dispatched more than 100 federal agents, including from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to a U.S. Coast Guard base in the East Bay, marking the beginning of a long-threatened immigration crackdown on the region.
It’s not immediately clear whether a major federal immigration operation, which the Chronicle first reported Wednesday, would proceed, or whether federal agents will be deployed in other cities in the Bay Area.
Mayor Daniel Lurie first announced the news that Trump told him “clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco.” The statement sent by Lurie’s office also said Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem “reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning.”
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With Coast Guard Island in the background, members of the Berkeley High School rowing crew practice in the Oakland estuary on Wednesday. The Trump administration sent federal agents, including members of Customs and Border Protection, to the island for the long-threatened immigration crackdown in the Bay Area.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
It was not immediately clear whether the major federal immigration operation would still proceed, or whether federal agents would deploy in Bay Area cities other than San Francisco.
The announcement came just hours after protesters clashed with federal agents arriving at Coast Guard Island between Oakland and Alameda.
The prospect of enforcement had terrified immigrant families, local leaders said. Community organizers tapped volunteers to protect day laborers at worksites and help guide children to school safely.
The Latino Task Force in San Francisco’s Mission District said it would begin driving students of undocumented parents to schools throughout the city. The San Francisco Unified School District is a sanctuary education system and will turn away any immigration officials until district lawyers allow them to enter a campus.
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Bay Resistance, a social justice nonprofit founded during the first Trump administration, said it will continue sending volunteers to places where day laborers usually congregate to monitor for ICE activity.
San Francisco’s Rapid Response Network, which provides legal assistance to detained immigrants, said it will be ready to verify reports of immigration agent enforcement actions.
Though it is unclear where immigration officials would conduct raids if they were to happen, San Francisco’s Mission District, Visitacion Valley and Oceanview are some of the regions with the highest concentration of immigrants in the city.
La Raza Centro Legal posts flyers in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. Ahead of an expected immigration enforcement in the Bay Area, the organization put up flyers with rapid response hotline information and handed out red ‘know your rights” cards in the East Bay.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
What is happening with ICE in the Bay Area?
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions have surged over the summer in Northern California. At least 80 asylum seekers were arrested in San Francisco courthouses since May, with the most recent arrest on Oct. 3, said Milli Atkinson, an attorney who heads San Francisco’s Rapid Response Network.
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What role ICE would play if an immigration crackdown were to occur remains unclear. CBP officers are typically focused on stopping illegal immigration at ports of entry, while ICE agents are usually tasked with enforcing immigration laws within the nation.
Under recently passed legislation, federal law enforcement officers, including immigration agents, are prohibited from wearing masks except in limited circumstances. That law, however, doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1.
Will the National Guard be deployed?
Trump said that he was calling off plans for a “federal deployment” in San Francisco this Saturday after talking to tech leaders who assured him the “surge” wasn’t needed.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to deploy the federal troops. He has already sent National Guard members to Los Angeles; Memphis; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and Portland, Ore. The Chicago deployment is on hold in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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About 300 California National Guard troops remain federalized under an order from Trump that has been extended through February 2026, meaning the president already has the power to move those troops into San Francisco. About 200 of them have been sitting in limbo in Oregon as a court battle over their deployment plays out. The rest are in Los Angeles, where they were initially sent in June.
Federal law enforcement officers clear protesters from a driveway outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., this month.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Are protests planned?
Tensions flared early Thursday as protesters attempted to block agents from entering the Coast Guard base. Agents deployed apparent flash-bang grenades to break through a barrier of protesters who blocked traffic onto the island shortly after 7 a.m.
The Bay Resistance’s demonstration was set for 5 p.m. in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza.
Oakland’s chapter of the Freedom Road Socialist Org was hosting a march and rally from 4 to 6 p.m. beginning at Fruitvale Plaza and ending at the U.S. Coast Guard Bridge.
How did local leaders respond?
In anticipation of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in the Bay Area, Lurie delivered his harshest condemnation to date of what he called the Trump administration’s “playbook” in Democratic-run cities.
“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 life,” Lurie said at a Wednesday news conference. “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.”
Jenkins had said Wednesday she would swiftly prosecute federal agents who break the law.
“These are not targeted enforcements of particular individuals who they believe are criminals,” Jenkins said. “They’re going to churches, Home Depot parking lots, outside of schools. They’re doing things that evoke and provoke an emotional reaction, and they want people to react. They want to have the confrontation. Because as soon as the confrontation gets out of control, the president now has authority to show another level of force.”
San Francisco supervisors also condemned the enforcement operation.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, accompanied Wednesday by fellow California mayors on the steps of City Hall, discusses the deployment of federal immigration agents to the Bay Area.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
“We have been preparing for this moment,” District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen said. “The goal of the heightened ICE activity is to sow chaos, fear and insecurity for our communities.”
District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder said federal immigration authorities are “absolutely not welcome in District 9.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said the Bay Area has been bracing for Trump to initiate an immigration crackdown in the region.
“We knew it would happen eventually,” he said. “The way that these agents have been acting in other cities with the masks and grabbing people, it’s very, very scary. We have to be on the lookout for each other and have each other’s backs.”
Assembly Member Catherine Stefani, D-San Francisco, ridiculed the enforcement operation, calling it an outrageous abuse of power and a direct threat to the community.
“It is about fear and control,” she said in a statement. “We must remain peaceful, united and vigilant. This administration wants chaos. We will answer with strength, solidarity and resolve.”
How did we get here?
Talk of sending National Guard troops to San Francisco intensified after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said earlier this month that Trump should deploy troops to fight crime in the city, actions that would violate federal law. Soon after, Tesla CEO and X founder Elon Musk parroted Benioff’s request for federal troops in the city.
The city’s progressive establishment swiftly rebuked Benioff, saying the region does not need the Guard’s help. Benioff, who lost key supporters in the wake of his remarks, retracted his statement in a public apology.
Still, the effects of his words spread. In an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News, Trump said, “I think they want us in San Francisco.”
Benioff was criticized for his comments by residents, colleagues and civic leaders. On Thursday, Trump cited the Salesforce CEO — alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — as one of the people who convinced him to spare San Francisco from a federal incursion.
“Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They want to give it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!”
Security personnel operated near the bridge that leads to Coast Guard Island, where the Trump administration has deployed federal agents.
Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle
Previous immigration crackdowns
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass described her city as a “petri dish” when Trump deployed federal troops to quell protests against immigration raids this year. She said at a news conference Wednesday in San Francisco that she had “no advice” for Lurie as San Francisco faced the prospect of federal intervention.
“I don’t think I need to offer Mayor Lurie any advice,” she said. “The fact of the matter is, this is a beautiful city. This is a safe city. There is not chaos happening here. And the distortion that was portrayed about the city of Los Angeles that was completely false is the same thing that I do not want to see happen here.
Bass blamed the chaos that occurred in Los Angeles on Trump and the use of military troops to police U.S. citizens.
“San Francisco does not deserve to have troops intervene and create chaos,” she said. “The chaos that happened in Los Angeles, to the extent that it did happen, was because of the federal government.”