President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is calling off a planned surge of federal agents into San Francisco following a conversation with Mayor Daniel Lurie.
The President posted on social media that he agreed to let the city continue its own efforts to reduce crime after Mayor Lurie informed him that San Francisco was making progress. Lurie had previously stated that President Trump confirmed the cancellation of the deployment during their conversation on Wednesday night.
The planned arrival of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to track down immigrants in the country illegally had already seen some agents begin arriving. Protesters gathered outside a U.S. Coast Guard base in Alameda, singing hymns and carrying signs, with police using at least one flash-bang grenade to clear demonstrators as CBP vehicles drove through.
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Mayor Lurie and California Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, had condemned the planned federal intervention, which they argued was meant to provoke violent protests. Local leaders have pushed back against the President’s assertions of rampant crime, pointing to statistics that show many crimes are at record lows.
The President has previously deployed the National Guard to other cities, including Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Los Angeles, citing the need to combat crime or protect federal personnel.
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