(The Center Square) – The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing to assist with removals of illegal border crossers. In addition to repatriating those apprehended at sea from Haiti, Cuba and other countries, Coast Guard crew are involved in “alien expulsion flights” in California and Texas.
Under orders from President Donald Trump, the U.S. military is coordinating with federal partners to remove illegal foreign nationals and the U.S. Coast Guard expanded operations nationwide, The Center Square reported.
Trump deployed 1,500 troops to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sectors of San Diego and El Paso, including 1,000 Army soldiers and 500 Marines. Among them are those providing airlift support to facilitate the deportation of more than 5,000 people who were detained after already being processed for removal, The Center Square reported.
To support this effort, the Coast Guard surged assets and personnel from Air Stations Elizabeth City, Kodiak, Sacramento, San Diego, and Hawaii to California and Texas.
The Coast Guard’s current role is “to assist with the national transport of aliens to designated locations in Texas and California, where the Department of Defense will transport the aliens internationally,” it says.
Led by the Eleventh Coast Guard District in California, crews are coordinating multiple flight units to support deportation efforts. This includes transporting those already processed for removal to designated locations in Texas and California to picked up by military flights and transported to their country of origin.
Coast Guard crew in the 11th District based out of San Diego also continue to interdict foreign nationals attempting to illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico via the Pacific Ocean.
On Jan. 29, Coast Guard crew interdicted a panga with 14 Mexican nationals 20 miles off the coast of Point Loma. The day before, they interdicted 21 foreign nationals from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador in roughly the same area.
A few days before that, they interdicted 26 foreign nationals from multiple countries, including Mexico, China and Vietnam, roughly one mile off shore from Oceanside Harbor.
A few days before that, they interdicted 15 foreign nationals on a 25-foot panga-style vessel roughly 25 miles off Point Loma. The vessel collided with a Coast Guard cutter after drifting erratically. Those on board who were apprehended were from China, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Ecuador, Vietnam and El Salvador.
Everyone interdicted at sea was turned over to Border Patrol to be processed for removal.
Flights out of California and Texas are part of the Coast Guard’s continued “actions to enforce the immigration laws of our country, in accordance with the president’s executive orders. Through these ongoing operations, the Coast Guard is detecting, deterring and interdicting aliens, drug smugglers and individuals intent on terrorism or other hostile activity before they reach the U.S. border,” it said in a statement.
The DOD is also providing intelligence analyst support at the border, as well as additional airborne intelligence, surveillance and support assets to increase situational awareness, The Center Square reported. Military personnel sent to California and Texas joined 2,500 active-duty personnel already in the region, representing a 60% increase in active-duty forces at the southwest border since Trump was sworn into office.
Coast Guard crews are also interdicting in the Florida straits “to deter and prevent a maritime mass migration from Haiti and/or Cuba,” as well as in the maritime border between the Bahamas and Florida, The Center Square reported.
The Coast Guard also surged resources in the maritime border around Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands as well as off the coast of Texas and Louisiana in the Gulf of America.
