Operation Southwest Border Support:

By Joe Rice Johnson III

The USCG Auxiliary (via the Department of Homeland Security) provides surge staffing support for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations at the Immigration Processing Center just outside Eagle Pass, Texas. Over the summer months and into the fall of 2022, approximately 250 Auxiliarists from various locations volunteered their time to support the mission.

I was one of them and was the only member from Division 7. After completing an application for security vetting purposes, I was advised, in Sept., of my selection for the period of Nov. 8-23, 2022. This period was the last two weeks of the CBP support mission, as all Auxiliary support to CBP ended on Nov. 23. That is not to say another opportunity in Eagle Pass will not materialize later.

On Saturday, Nov. 8, I departed Tampa International. I arrived at San Antonio International later that day, where I was met by the team leader for the twoand-one-half-hour drive to Laughlin Air Force Base. Remarkably, the route took me through downtown Uvalde and the school shooting memorial is still there in the center of town. Laughlin AFB is the largest pilot training base in the U.S. Air Force, and on weekdays, the airfield sees more takeoffs and landings than any other airport in the country. I was lucky to be there during graduation and met a few families staying in the same base hotel, Laughlin Manor.

The next morning, Nov. 9, I was up at 4 a.m. and met two other Auxiliarists (all of us in Operational Dress Uniform) in the Laughlin Manor lobby at 5 a.m. for the forty-minute drive to the Migrant Processing Facility. I knew I was headed into something big when about 15 miles from our destination, the horizon glow from the lights surrounding the 153,000 squarefoot soft-sided facility was clearly visible, only to become more lucent on closer approach.

The facility has a medical facility, culinary operations, berthing for migrants, massive rooms for individual processing, bio-metric processing, storage areas, and security cameras everywhere. For all practical purposes, this is a small quasi-military outpost.

Upon arrival and after additional security clearance, I entered the facility and went to the workstation. I stopped first to attend muster. Some of you have likely heard the phrase with regard to muster … “If you’re not early, you’re late.” It’s a true statement. CBP officials led the muster and gave shift operation updates, incidents, concerns, etc. Then it was time to go to work on my shift- 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. While I am no stranger to hard work, I will acknowledge this was the most physically demanding work I’d done in a long time.

The work consisted of emptying bins full of bagged and numerically tagged personal belongings of the migrants and placing those items on corresponding shelves for pickup later (usually three days) after the migrants were fully processed. The determination

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(Continued from page 28) was to either stay for their next USA destination or be deported according to Title 42 requirements. The work was constant, and we rarely took a break for more than 15-20 minutes. The effort required to process the personal belongings of 750 - 1,000 non-citizens during an eight-hour shift did not allow much time for sustained respite. Processing operations continued 24/7. the bank of the Rio Grande. Looking across, I saw the huge numbers of non-citizens preparing to cross the river.

A non-citizen’s personal bag may often contain only a rosary and/or a Bible, sometimes only a cellphone. Some contained only a purse or wallet, and others would have a backpack containing all the clothing they owned. Occasionally, a child flotation device would be attached to a backpack, which was evidence of the danger of drowning. Crossing the Rio Grande is treacherous at the best of times.

At the beginning of my tour, it was difficult not to feel compassion for those migrants. Some had small children with them. Others traveled in pairs or alone. All of them were being ushered through a CBP tightly controlled and heavily secured process, which was their welcome to the USA.

After the third day of work, while compassion was still present, the sheer work requirements left little room for any human emotions except those required of my Auxiliary colleagues to focus on the task at hand. At the end of the eight-hour shift, I made the forty-minute drive back to Laughlin AFB (this time in daylight) and took in the scenery along the way.

I had a long discussion with one of the Texas National Guard members deployed at that site. To say the least, his extended and descriptive comments regarding his responsibilities were sobering, and the loaded carbine he was carrying added emphasis to what he conveyed to me.

I also went to Normandy, Texas, about midway from the processing facility and Laughlin AFB. It’s a wide spot off the main highway (population 50 or 60) near a shallow area of the Rio Grande, where clearly more and more non-citizens were choosing to cross. This one saw increased encounters like all the Rio Grande border crossing sector sites. The irony in the name of the town, Normandy, was not lost on me.

“I saw more of these vehicles than you can imagine. On leaving the sector for the return trip to San Antonio International, there is a mandatory vehicle checkpoint operated by the CBP.” —Joe Rice Johnson III

At the end of what was a strenuous ten-hour day, it was indeed a pleasure to arrive back at Laughlin AFB, go through security, visit the commissary, grab something to eat from their well-stocked deli, watch the U.S. Air Force pilot trainers take off and land, take a shower and fall asleep.

Any of you who have been to that part of Texas know what the landscape is like. Scrub brush, cactus, and dried-up creek beds punctuated by CBP vehicles doing their work to apprehend those non-citizens who choose to forego the legal path. The landscape is softened only by the occasional glimpse of grazing Longhorns, a well-kept sheep pasture, and several pecan groves. On another day after my shift, I went into Eagle Pass to the Official Border Crossing location and found my way below the bridge to stand on

Breeze

Customs and Border Protection leadership and staff were appreciative of the Auxiliary and sad to see that support terminated. If I heard it once, I heard it many, many times … “You guys are top-notch with a superior work ethic and take tremendous pride in your work.” I met with the Operational Commander on several occasions, and he also supported the Auxiliary participation.

It was an eye-opening experience. Emotionally humbling, culturally challenging, and physically demanding. I was fortunate to represent my district, division, and flotilla. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Ω