A U.S. Navy destroyer was deployed to the southern border over the weekend.
The USS Gravely will now be stationed at the Gulf of America as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to curb the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs.
USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, departed Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in Virginia for a scheduled deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border to carry out President
Donald Trump’s southern border executive orders, Navy officials said in a statement on Saturday.
“Gravely’s sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States’ territorial integrity, sovereignty, and security,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot of U.S. Northern Command.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Joint Staff director for operations, told reporters Monday that USS Gravely will go to the Gulf of America to carry out missions to intercept drug smugglers at sea.
Navy officials said the deployment highlights the Pentagon’s dedication to “combating maritime related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction, and illegal seaborne immigration.”
USS Gravely, which has previously been deployed to the Red Sea
to intercept missiles that the Iranian-backed Houthis fired at commercial vessels, will enhance “maritime efforts” and “fill critical capabilities gaps” in support of the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, officials said.
“This is an important step in the whole-of-government efforts to seal the southern border and maintain U.S. sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Guillot said.
“It’s not only vital for the United States to have control of our border via land,” the Pentagon’s chief spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters Monday. “It’s equally important to control our territorial waters, and this deployment directly supports U.S. Northern Command’s mission to protect our sovereignty.”
