President Orders Coast Guard Border Security Surge
Move emphasizes Trump's priorities but won't change the Coast Guard's mission

The US Coast Guard is prioritizing Border Security on orders of President Trump, its Acting Commandant has announced:
“Per the President’s Executive Orders, I have directed my operational commanders to immediately surge assets—cutters, aircraft, boats, and deployable specialized forces—to increase Coast Guard presence and focus starting with the following key areas:
The southeast U.S. border approaching Florida to deter and prevent a maritime mass migration from Haiti and/or Cuba;
The maritime border around Alaska, Hawai’i, the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands;
The maritime border between the Bahamas and South Florida;
The southwest maritime border between the U.S. and Mexico in the Pacific;
The maritime border between Texas and Mexico in the Gulf of America; and
Support to Customs and Border Protection on maritime portions of the southwest U.S. border.
Together, in coordination with our Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense teammates, we will detect, deter, and interdict illegal migration, drug smuggling, and other terrorist or hostile activity before it reaches our border.” -Admiral Kevin Lunday, US Coast Guard Acting Commandant
The Coast Guard has had a presence in these areas for quite a while - and has been enforcing US immigration and other laws to help secure the border there.
Earlier this month, for example, the Coast Guard Cutter William Flores repatriated 20 Cubans and two dogs to Cuba apprehended after attempting to illegally reach the U.S. in support of "Operation Vigilant Sentry" which was established in 2004 under President George W. Bush.
In October, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Resolute offloaded drugs worth an estimated $115 million seized from smugglers interdicted during its patrol of the Central Caribbean.
Let's take a closer look at one long-term Coast Guard operation to get a better idea of what they have been doing - and will be doing -to secure the US Borders:
For many years, the Coast Guard has been involved alongside state authorities in a cat-and-mouse game between Mexican cartel smugglers, illegal fishermen, and the U.S. authorities in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast. The epicenter of this ongoing battle is Padre Island - and a small boat called a "lancha" is the object of these nightly hunts.

Lanchas are 20-30 foot boats powered by outboard motors that can zip through the water at more than thirty miles an hour. With their slender profiles, white hulls, and blue interiors they blend into the gulf waves at night making them hard to see. In the hands of an experienced captain, they can be tough to catch.
The US Treasury Department has linked them to Mexico's Gulf Cartel and singled out five cartel member for sanctions - and outlined their operations in a news release issued late last year.

When the Cartel's lanchas are intercepted, it is often while they are reeling in large amounts of illegally caught fish in Texas waters.

They fish illegally for Red Snapper in Texas waters due to overfishing in Mexican waters - something authorities are trying to prevent from happening here.

A good night of clandestine fishing in Texas waters can earn Mexican fishermen catches worth several thousand dollars per boat. But Gulf Cartel lancha crews - known as "lancheros" also often make their money as smugglers.

Border Patrol Agents and Texas law enforcement officers regularly find bales of drugs washing ashore on Padre Island. They are tossed overboard from lanchas when Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection boats are spotted to avoid being caught with drugs.
Some cartel lancheros- though - have been caught with their loads. In one notable incident, five lancha smugglers were arrested while unloading hundreds of pounds of pot from their boat into a truck waiting for them in the surf near South Padre Island's "hotel zone" in the middle of the night in 2016.
Despite that - the nightly "cat and mouse game" between the cartel lancheros and the Coast Guard has continued.
This week's Executive Order to the Coast Guard by President Trump may increase the number of ships, aircraft, and personnel assigned to these border security operations - but it won't drastically change the Coast Guard's daily mission.
Should more be done to deter illegal activities in U.S. waters?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers