Combat Aircraft – August 2019

The US military has been assisting the Customs and Border Patrol

as part of a beefed-up effort to keep illegal immigrants at bay, in

one of the most controversial concerns in American politics right

now. Combat Aircraft learns about how rotary-wing support has

made a huge difference on many levels.

REPORT AND PHOTOS Joe Copalman

F

EW ISSUES IN American politics

are as contentious as illegal

immigration, speci cally

along the United States’

southern border with Mexico.

Though the overall number of

immigrants illegally annually entering

the US from the south had dropped

considerably since peaking in 2006,

recent surges of economic migrants and

asylum-seekers from Central America

have caused that number to tick up

again for the  rst time in a decade.

President Donald Trump, who

campaigned as an anti-immigration

hardliner, has made border security a

central issue of his administration. Since

taking o ce in January 2017, several of

Trump’s border initiatives have met sti

resistance in Congress and in Federal

courts — symptomatic of just how divisive

the issue is. Despite these setbacks to his

border agenda, the president can point

to at least one successful program he

initiated to respond to the issue.

Operation ‘Guardian Support’

In April 2018, Trump authorized the

activation of US National Guard units to

deploy to America’s southern border to

assist the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

Dubbed Operation ‘Guardian Support’

(OGS), the deployment of guardsmen to

the border o cially began on April 9, 2018

and continues today, with soldiers and

airmen from the US Army and Air National

Guard in numerous states being sent

58 August 2019 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

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