Houston Coasties saving migrants
Coast Guard from Houston TDY to the southern Rio Grande to reinforce Customs and Border Protection teams have been busy. During the recent upsurge in border crossings, they are seeing a corresponding surge of problems in water crossings.
They watched the baby, facedown in the brown current, run past the boat’s propellers, swept away by the Rio Grande.
It was just before dawn on June 2, somewhere near McAllen, Texas, and US Coast Guard Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Jarrett Guerra shouted to the crew of the 29-foot response boat–small to save the child.
“I’m going in!” yelled Maritime Enforcement Specialist 2nd Class Jake Flores, stripping off 50 pounds of gear and splashing into the deep river.
One woman was clinging to his boat to keep from being swept away. The other had lost her grip on the 1-year-old.
He caught up to the infant and handed him up to the boat crew. Guerra said the baby had looked “pretty much lifeless. There was no breathing, no color.”
While Flores pushed the two women aboard the boat, Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Corey Connolly immediately began CPR on the boy, using two fingers to press on the child’s chest.
In June alone, US Coast Guard personnel from Houston saved seven lives on the Rio Grande and assisted in rescuing 37 others.
Coddington pointed to a June 16 rescue. A dozen migrants were in a raft crossing the river. The second the Coast Guard boat ripped around the bend, their coyote — the smuggler guiding the group into the US — dove into the water and began swimming to the Texas shore.
That panicked the migrants left behind, and the incident quickly became “chaotic,” Coddington said.
Good on yer, lads. Glad the smallest-but-one force is acquitting themselves proudly: I’m no fan of illegal immigration but no one deserves to drown like that.
Good article. Interesting bio on the reporter, too – as a journalist she covered the 75th (that’s Rangers for all you non-Army types – bless your hearts) and wound up enlisting her own self.
Category: Coast Guard, Illegal Immigrants
BZ, Puddle Pirates! Just another day at the office.
Thank You for sharing the story, David.
Hooefully, soon, our Coasties and Border Patrol Agents will no longer have to rescue Illegal Aliens and focus on rescuing/taking care of bonafide American Citizens.
Combat may not be their primary profession, but they definitely have big brass ones in their “regular” duties. Well done Coasties, well done indeed.