Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona used a military Black Hawk helicopter to track down and arrest immigrants who were decked out in camouflage clothing as they illegally crossed from Mexico into the United States.
Over the weekend, a UH-60 Black Hawk and UH-72 Lakota helicopter previously deployed to the U.S-Mexico border with National Guard troops were used in a remote area west of Tucson, Ariz., in order to give the agents on board a bird’s-eye view of where people might be trespassing, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Military pilots flew the helicopters while Border Patrol agents looked for illegal crossers.
The two crews apprehended 10 groups for a total 75 people in the desert.
#USBP agents in AZ arrested 75 illegal aliens with assistance from National Guard helicopter crews working under #OperationGuardianSupport. The individuals were found in remote terrain, wearing camouflage clothing to avoid apprehension. https://t.co/H6tvdmZu0l pic.twitter.com/WvCWbkthVi
— CBP (@CBP) February 27, 2019
Agents on board would guide other agents on the ground to where the groups were so that they could make contact. In some cases, the agents in the helicopters were “deployed to the ground to make the arrests themselves,” CBP said.
CBP said the people they arrested were not large groups of families or children but illegal immigrants who were avoiding detection because they were wearing camouflage clothing to blend in to the desert terrain. Agents said they chose to enter where there was no wall or agents around.
The National Guard was first deployed to the southern border last April and again in the fall. Their mission was extended through fiscal 2019. As military and not law enforcement, their duties focus on infrastructure maintenance, vehicle repairs, camera surveillance, and aerial support, among other tasks.
[Also read: Illegal immigrants who murder, rape, and kidnap: Trump says Democrats want them all in America]
