Mayor London Breed has also been a vocal supporter of improving the Tenderloin
district. Her office did not return requests for comment. Officer Robert Rueca, a police spokesman, said they welcome collaboration but added the department "does not and will not provide assistance for any" federal immigration operations or "raids."
Chris Nielsen, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco, said an investigation launched in late 2017 uncovered two independent operations stretching from Mexico to Seattle in which mostly Honduran nationals living on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay Area commuted daily to the Tenderloin to sell drugs.
He said the "commuter drug dealers" acted like "independent contractors," selling drugs in exchange for housing.
"Each morning, drugs were dropped off with dealers in the East Bay and then commuted into the city to sell to people from all over the area," he said.
The federal crackdown, however, was criticized by San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness, whose officials say the Trump administration is targeting immigrants and the poor. "We are deeply concerned that low level offenders, drug users and individuals who do not have homes and are therefore more likely to come in contact with law enforcement will be disparately impacted," said Sam Lew, the coalition's policy director.