Trump backs off planned surge of federal agents into San Francisco after talking to the mayor

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s backing off a planned surge of federal agents into San Francisco after speaking to the mayor, as protesters gathered outside a U.S. Coast Guard base where they were located.

Trump had been threatening to send the National Guard to the city to to quell crime and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents began arriving in the region early in the day for a possible ramp up of immigration enforcement.

The president posted on social media that Mayor Daniel Lurie told him Wednesday night that the city was making progress in reducing crime. Trump said he agreed to let San Francisco keep trying on its own.

Several hundred people, many singing hymns and carrying signs saying, “Protect our neighbors” and “No ICE or troops in the Bay,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, assembled just after dawn at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California.

Police used at least one flash-bang grenade to clear a handful of demonstrators from the entrance as CBP vehicles drove onto the base. Organizers urged protesters to remain peaceful, as a line of Coast Guard officers in helmets watched from just outside the entrance.

Lurie said he received a phone call from Trump Wednesday night in which the president told him he was “calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco.” Lurie said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “reaffirmed that direction” in a conversation Thursday morning.

At an afternoon news conference, Lurie said he welcomes the city’s “continued partnership” with the Drug Enforcement Agency and other federal authorities to get illegal narcotics off the streets and contribute to San Francisco’s falling crime rates.

“But having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery,” the mayor said. Trump’s assertions of out-of-control crime in the city of roughly 830,000 have baffled local and state leaders, who point to statistics showing that many crimes are at record lows.

It was not clear if the president was canceling a National Guard deployment or calling off immigration enforcement by CBP agents. At his news conference, Lurie said he could not clarify and could only repeat what the president had told him.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said on X: “Trump has finally, for once, listened to reason — and heard what we have been saying from the beginning. The Bay Area is a shining example of what makes California so special, and any attempt to erode our progress would damage the work we’ve done.”

Protester Gala King participated in an interfaith vigil against the federal crackdown and in support of immigrants.

“he Bay Area is a beautiful place full of diversity, and we are here to protect that,” King said. “Our faith traditions, our interfaith traditions, call on us to stand on the side of justice, to stand on the side of those that are most marginalized, that are most targeted right now.”

The San Francisco Chronicle, citing an anonymous source with knowledge of the operation, reported Wednesday that more than 100 CBP and other federal agents would arrive this week. Lurie and Newsom, both Democrats, condemned the move, saying it was meant to provoke violent protests.

Trump has deployed the Guard to Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee, to help fight what he says is rampant crime. Los Angeles was the first city where Trump deployed the Guard, arguing it was necessary to protect federal buildings and agents as protesters fought back against mass immigration arrests.

He has also said they are needed in Chicago and Portland, Oregon. Lawsuits from Democratic officials in both cities have so far blocked troops from going out on city streets.

Coast Guard Island is an artificial island formed in 1913, and the Coast Guard first established a base there in 1926. The island is owned by the federal government and is not open to the general public, so escorts or specific government ID cards are required for visitors. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which also houses ICE and CBP.

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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, and Janie Har in San Francisco contributed.