Oakland Braces for Possible Federal Action After San Francisco Dodges Trump’s Attention

East Bay officials say they are still prepared for a possible increase in federal immigration enforcement in the absence of clear information about what President Trump’s decision to call off a federal “surge” in San Francisco means for Oakland.

Speaking at a press conference at Oakland City Hall Thursday morning, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said the city was monitoring the situation and would keep residents informed of any developments.

“This is very fluid,” Lee said, flanked by East Bay officials at the local, state and federal levels. “There’s no information we can bring to you today to bring you up to date on what plans they have in place, but we are moving forward with our plans and we are prepared.”

The mayor’s press conference was called Wednesday afternoon after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Trump administration would dispatch more than 100 federal agents, including from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to the U.S. Coast Guard base in Alameda.

What the federal agents would do was called into question Thursday morning after San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced he had spoken to Trump via phone late Wednesday and that the president had said he was calling off plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco. Trump, in a Truth Social post, said he was cancelling a “surge” in the city planned for Saturday.

Protesters gathered at the road leading to Coast Guard Base Alameda Thursday where they told KQED that vans of CPB officials had entered early in the morning.

At the press conference in Oakland, Lee told reporters she had spoken with Lurie about his conversation with the president, and had been in touch with the governor’s office, but had not spoken with anyone in the federal government.

“The federal administration, of course, has escalated its rhetoric and its enforcement posture in the Bay Area,” Lee said. “We know that Border Patrol agents are being stationed on Coast Guard Island. But let me be clear, [in] our city, as I said, we are fully prepared. We’re monitoring developments closely and will keep our residents informed if there are any confirmed changes.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Lee’s office said that she still had not received any communication from the White House or the Department of Homeland Security.

“I will engage with anyone, at any level of government, to protect Oakland residents, as long as it respects our community’s values and constitutional rights,” Lee said.

At the press conference, law enforcement officials from Oakland and Alameda County reassured residents that local police would not assist federal immigration officers should they ramp up enforcement in the area.

They also urged protestors not to give the administration an excuse to escalate any possible response.

“We know that they’re baiting Oakland and that’s why San Francisco all of a sudden is off the table,” said Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson. “I’m not going to be quiet about what we know is coming. We know that their expectation is that Oakland is going to do something to cause them to make us the example. That’s not what we’re doing.”

Jones Dickson said local law enforcement cannot stop federal officials from coming into Alameda County or exercising a legal warrant, but the DA’s office will protect the rights of victims of crime, regardless of their immigration status.

OPD Assistant Chief James Beere reminded residents that local police should be identifiable by their uniforms or their credentials.

“I want to make it clear, if anyone attempts to enter your house and detain you and they are not in uniform, or they do not show official credentials, please call 911 immediately,” Beere said.

Other officials from the region, including State Senators Jesse Arreguin and Aisha Wahab, State Assemblymembers Mia Bonta and Liz Ortega and Alameda County Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Elisa Marquez were also in attendance, along with Oakland Fire Chief Damon Covington, OUSD Superintendent Denise Sadler and members of the Oakland City Council.

Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell, who recently announced he will leave the department in December, was absent.

Immigrant rights advocates disseminated a hotline phone number and urged people to call if they witnessed immigration officers.

“We are anticipating an escalation,” Lourdes Martinez with Centro Legal de la Raza said at the press conference. “What has happened in other cities, such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland, is that if there has been deployment of additional federal law enforcement, it has really strengthened ICE and their ability to execute more detentions. So that is what we are bracing for.”

In his post on Truth Social just minutes before the press conference, Trump wrote that he had decided to call off the San Francisco operation after receiving calls from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

Asked about the post, East Bay Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, said she was more concerned about Trump’s decision-making processes than the influence tech has on his administration.

“What’s really concerning to me,” Simon said, “[is] not just Silicon Valley, but the fact that the president of the United States would move our men and women, our military, based on hunches and then get a phone call, not based on data, and then call it back.”

“That tells you all you need to know about an administration not focused on fact, not focused on public safety, not focused on coordination, not focused on ensuring that the people of this district and beyond are doing well,” she added. “I think that we’re in trouble as a nation.”