The Coast Guard has announced it will be sending “aircraft, boats and deployable specialized forces” to the “Gulf of America” in an effort to curb illegal immigration and the flow of drugs.
The move comes following President Donald Trump’s executive order that changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The executive order gives the Department of the Interior 30 days to take “all appropriate action” needed to codify the new name.
The military service is sending additional resources to at least four other maritime borders as well. Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, who replaced Adm. Linda Fagan on Tuesday, shared that the Coast Guard will have an increased presence on the maritime borders around Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, and waterways approaching Florida.
“The U.S. Coast Guard is the world’s premier maritime law enforcement agency, vital to protecting America’s maritime borders, territorial integrity, and sovereignty,” Lunday said in a statement.
Trump’s dismissal of Fagan was due to “leadership deficiencies, operational failures, and [an] inability to advance the strategic objectives of the U.S. Coast Guard,” a senior homeland security official told the Washington Examiner. They also referenced the “excessive focus” on diversity and inclusion.
Fagan was the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. armed forces.
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The Coast Guard falls under the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense. However, the Defense Department is similarly deploying more resources to areas around the southern border.
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it deployed approximately 1,500 troops to the southern border to aid DHS’s border security measures.
