OAKLAND, CA ‒ President Donald Trump is pausing his planned deployment of federal agents to San Francisco, citing a call with the city's mayor.

Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, speaking at a news conference on Oct. 23, said Trump "heard from the mayor last night, who told him that he is going to earnestly try to make his city better on his own. The president heard him out, and he said, "OK, I'll give you a chance."

The president has sent troops into a handful of Democratic-led cities across the country since June, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee. He has said the troops are needed both to prevent crime and to support enforcement by immigration agents. The moves are the subject of several lawsuits.

The news of the pause arrived as about 300 people marched in a circle in front of the entrance to Coast Guard Island, an artificial island between Oakland and Alameda that houses several major United States Coast Guard commands. About a dozen Coast Guard officers stood watch over the protesters around 10 a.m. after an altercation earlier in the morning. The Coast Guard, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, said in an Oct. 22 statement that the base would support border patrol agents.

Rev. Deborah Lee, co-director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, which helped organize the demonstration, said she initially couldn't believe the news that federal agents wouldn't be arriving.

She wondered aloud whether the administration was calling off the entire expected push into the Bay Area, or just into San Francisco.

“It would be great if it extended to every Californian and every American as well," she said.

Trump and Mayor Lurie talked about crime

During a noon news conference, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said Trump phoned him on Oct. 22 to say he was “calling off the potential federal surge.” Lurie said Homeland Security Kristi Noem reaffirmed that decision early on Oct. 23.

It remains unclear if the postponement includes the rest of the Bay Area region. Lurie said he and Trump only talked about San Francisco.

While virtually every type of crime is down in San Francisco and violent crime is at a near 70-year low, the city is still battling with a fentanyl crisis, Lurie said.

“We’ve made progress, but we still have a lot of work to do on this front,” he said. “Fentanyl is a scourge in our city, and we will work with anybody that will help us end the fentanyl crisis on our streets.”

Protesters hoped to block federal agents

Shortly after 7 a.m. local time on Oct. 23, a group of protesters surrounded a caravan of marked and unmarked vehicles carrying federal agents, blocking the entrance to the Coast Guard station. Several agents tried to push the protesters away before deploying two flash bangs, witnesses said.

A few hours later, as protesters cheered and chanted “We Shall Overcome,” Rabbi Cat Zavis of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Oakland said she’s skeptical about the president's announcement.

“This shows we have the strength and the numbers to show that we will not put up with ICE,” Zavis said of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “But it also might mean they are not invading in mass numbers. We can’t afford to let our guard down.”

Holding a sign that read "ICE, Proud Boys and the Ku Klux Klan aren’t welcomed in the Bay Area," Melanie Jasper of Oakland said she also remains suspicious about the decision not to send troops into San Francisco.

“We still have to keep protesting. We can’t celebrate too hard,” said Jasper who took a sick day from her job as a project manager at a clean tech company to attend the protest. “We’re still living in Trump’s America.”

Contributed: Reuters

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

USA TODAY National Correspondent Terry Collins is based in Oakland and can be reached at tcollins@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump pauses deployment of federal agents to San Francisco. 'OK, I'll give you a chance.'

Reporting by Terry Collins, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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