https://wcfcourier.com/opinion/columnists/guest_columnists/the-people-factor-in-nation-s-immigration-crisis/article_285edcb4-8925-5034-bddb-eaddade1ae94.html
I am a former Coast Guard officer with direct experience in AMIO (Alien Migration Interdiction Operations). I would argue the use of that acronym endeavors to remove the human element from the mission, of both the migrants and those Coast Guard personnel tasked with enforcing the laws. Political pundits compare the current situation on the border as an immigrant invasion while others reference the Nuremburg Trials for those in law enforcement. Which is right? Both, neither, in between? Everyone has the responsibility to decide on their own; this is my story.
December 1991, most people will not remember a mass migration of Haitians attempting to enter the United States. I was a 22-year-old ensign on my first tour of duty with aspirations of my own future command. I was a deck watch officer on a Word War II era buoy tender out of Mayport, FL. The ship was returning to homeport when the Coast Guard diverted us to Guantanamo Bay to assist with this looming humanitarian disaster.
Thousands of Haitians were struggling to make their way to Florida on anything that would float. Overloaded vessels of all types were interdicted at sea every day and quickly overwhelmed the Coast Guard resources on scene. The ship I was assigned to had the dubious mission of relieving a larger ship of the migrants on their deck so they could resume AMIO.
What do you know of Haiti? Of Haitians? I thought I knew it all. They were clearly lazy since they couldn’t fix their own country. They were illiterate and dirty…just look at any picture of Port-au-Prince. This was a ridiculous mission – they should just be stopped at sea and turned around. So were the musings of a know-it-all 22-year-old ensign.
I saw 183 people come aboard our ship, all from the same town, all on one sailboat; fleeing that country’s economic plight. Children and parents, the elderly, and one woman who was 9 months pregnant. These people boarded a leaky sailboat, risked their lives, to try to come to the United States. Ask yourself why.
Once aboard they requested paper and pens and they created their own system to guarantee everyone received a meal. They set aside time twice a day to clean up the deck. They held reading classes for the children using books they had with them. They appointed a spokesperson to ensure strong lines of communication between their community and the crew. When several of the teenaged kids became rowdy, loud, and angry, they disciplined the boys and girls long before the crew could react.
They were people. Not migrants, not Haitians, just people trying to make a better life for themselves in the United States. The mirror I had to place in front of me was a difficult image to reconcile. Not only was I wrong, but I was bigoted in ways I never suspected, a hard lesson at 22. The migrants at the border, they are people with families trying to better their lot in life.
Prior to the migrants coming aboard, the crew created showers on the deck; loaded hundreds of pounds of supplies, toys, games, food, clothes; scrubbed the deck on hands and knees with bleach; and procured yards of canvas to create canopies to keep the deck shaded. After returning to port, crew members scattered across the Navy Base in a M.A.S.H.-like fashion to procure additional supplies including diapers, baby food, and Enfamil.
The crew wanted to do their job thoroughly and humanely. The mission became the people in our care; our responsibility was their safety and security in a demanding situation. The conditions were not ideal but the crew worked hard, like they did on all missions, like the agents at the border.
This is the time to put aside partisan politics and sound-bite governance. It is time to work on policy. This is a complicated subject that will take people focused on this issue, not cable news talking heads telling you how to think.
