Navy sends second warship to US southern border to 'restore territorial integrity'
U.S. Northern Command deployed the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Gravely to the Gulf of America on March 15 to secure American territorial waters and to help prevent waterborne drug-runners from shipping their poison into the United States.
On Saturday, a second guided missile destroyer embarked on a mission to support U.S. Northern Command southern border operations — this time down the West Coast.
NORTHCOM announced Saturday that the USS Spruance — one of the American ships previously with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group that Houthi terrorists tried to damage in the Red Sea last year — departed Naval Base San Diego.
The warship is accompanied by an embedded U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment, which specializes in maritime interdiction missions, including military combat operations, alien migration interdiction, and counterterrorism.
"USS Spruance's deployment as part of U.S. Northern Command's southern border mission brings additional capability and expands the geography of unique military capabilities working with the Department of Homeland Security," Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, NORTHCOM commander, said in a statement.
"With Spruance off the West Coast and USS Gravely in the Gulf of America, our maritime presence contributes to the all-domain, coordinated DOD response to the presidential executive order and demonstrates our resolve to achieve operational control of the border," added Guillot.
'It is essential that the Armed Forces staunchly continue to participate in the defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty.'
The military noted in its statement that the Spruance's presence brings maritime capabilities "in response to presidential executive orders and a national emergency declaration and clarification of the military's role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States."
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump directed his future Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to assign NORTHCOM the mission of sealing America's borders and maintaining its territorial integrity "by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities."
Trump noted that the American military has long worked to secure "our borders against threats of invasion, against unlawful forays by foreign nationals into the United States, and against other transnational criminal activities that violate our laws and threaten the peace, harmony, and tranquility of the Nation."
"Threats against our Nation's sovereignty continue today, and it is essential that the Armed Forces staunchly continue to participate in the defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty," continued Trump. "A National Emergency currently exists along the southern border of the United States. Unchecked unlawful mass migration and the unimpeded flow of opiates across our borders continue to endanger the safety and security of the American people and encourage further lawlessness."
In recent weeks and months, the Coast Guard has encountered numerous migrant boats off the coast of southern California as well as drug-runners. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche alone interdicted 11 separate suspected drug-smuggling vessels from December through February, offloading 37,256 pounds of cocaine.
Narcos and potential invaders might now think twice about testing the waters off the West Coast with the USS Spruance patrolling the area.
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