Immigration raids have arrived in Alaska and some of the state’s U.S. Coast Guard assets have departed to assist with deportation flights taking place along the southern U.S. border as part of President Donald Trump’s vow to carry out mass roundups and deportations.
Social media posts showing photos of arrests in Anchorage involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were posted Monday by the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration. A Coast Guard spokesperson on Wednesday morning confirmed an HC-130J long-range surveillance aircraft from Air Station Kodiak is part of a widespread redeployment of equipment and personnel for southern border operations.
No immigration detentions have been confirmed in Juneau, with the Juneau Police Department and Juneau School District issuing statements to that effect last week in the wake of social media posts and widespread rumors about Alaska Natives being detained by law enforcement officials. Two U.S. Board Patrol agents were recently stationed full-time in Juneau, but an agency supervisor has stated that was a pre-Trump operational move aimed at drug enforcement rather than immigration.
Among the people expressing concern in Juneau about possible deportations are migrants from countries such as Haiti and Ukraine, since Trump has stated he plans to end protected status for such residents. He issued an order in recent days revoking such protections for 300,000 Venezuelans currently in the U.S.
Also, an agreement to “outsource” U.S. prisoners — including possibly U.S. citizens — to a mega-prison in El Salvador was announced by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Rubio said El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s offer includes “dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”
The Washington Post reported Wednesday the Trump adminmistration may revive policy scraped in 2012 that would allow “state and local law enforcement to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants at traffic stops and other locations.”
A photo posted on social media by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s Seattle office shows a person being arrested as part of immigration enforcement efforts in Anchorage in recent days. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency photo)
Announcements about the operations in Anchorage include a post by DEA’s Seattle office Monday on X that features three photos of a person being arrested with a message stating “The DEA, along with our Department of Justice partners, continues to assist DHS and @EROSeattle with their immigration enforcement efforts.” A post on X on Monday by the Anchorage FBI office shows three photos of two individuals being arrested, one of whom may be the same person in the DEA’s post, with the text “The #FBI Anchorage Field Office, along with our Department of Justice (DOJ) partners, is supporting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with their immigration enforcement efforts in #Alaska.”
ICE’s national X account shared the DEA post with the text “It’s always a pleasure teaming with our @DEAHQ and @TheJusticeDept partners to get criminal aliens out of American neighborhoods!”
The Coast Guard has sent out numerous announcements during the past week about conducting “alien expulsion flight operations” along southern border states, following a Jan. 22 order by Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, to “surge” assets for immigration enforcement.
Lunday’s order redeploys “cutters, aircraft, boats and deployable specialized forces” to key areas including:
• “The southeast U.S. border approaching Florida to deter and prevent a maritime mass migration from Haiti and/or Cuba.”
• “The maritime border around Alaska, Hawai’i, the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
• “The maritime border between the Bahamas and south Florida.”
• “The southwest maritime border between the U.S. and Mexico in the Pacific.”
• “The maritime border between Texas and Mexico in the Gulf of America.”
• “Support to Customs and Border Protection on maritime portions of the southwest U.S. border.”
Among the assets from multiple states sent for southern operations is the HC-130J from Kodiak, typically used by the Coast Guard for search and rescue operations. An email from the Coast Guard’s media relations headquarters in Washington, D.C., in response to questions from the Empire, stated no further redeployments from the station are expected “at this time.”
“This is a temporary assignment,” the email notes, adding “Air Station Kodiak remains capable of responding to the operational demand in Alaska.”
Lunday’s order occurred the day after Adm. Linda Fagan was officially fired as commandant by Trump, following an announcement of that firing on his first day back in office Jan. 20. On Tuesday officials in the Trump administration evicted Fagan from her home on three hours’ notice, not giving her time to gather personal belongings, ignoring a Coast Guard agreement giving her a 60-day waiver for her official residence because “the president wants her out of quarters,” NBC News reported.
Accusations migrants are being mistreated during deportation flights are being expressed by officials in countries where the flights are landing. Among those raising concerns are leaders in India who on Thursday expressed outrage about a flight with more than 100 undocumented immigrants that arrived Wednesday, with objections including the use of military aircraft rather than the commercial planes used for such flights in the past and the treatment of the deportees, according to The New York Times.
“In India, much of the outrage on Thursday was in response to reports in local media, citing accounts of deportees, that they were shackled for over 40 hours and that their access to toilets was restricted,” the newspaper reported. “A video put out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed the deportees boarding the plane in shackles. A spokesman for the United States Embassy in New Delhi declined to comment on reports that women and children were shackled.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
