A helicopter crash on Friday afternoon close to the Southwest border city of Rio Grande Metropolis, Texas, took the lives of two Nationwide Guard warrant officers and a Border Patrol agent, underscoring the hazards inherent in immigration enforcement. Whereas the DHS secretary provided condolences for his or her deaths, one of the best ways for the Biden administration to honor the final word sacrifice made by the three can be to safe the border — but it surely doesn’t seem like that can occur anytime quickly.

The Crash and the Useless. The three who perished are Border Patrol Agent Chris Luna, Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2) Casey Frankoski, and CW2 John Grassia. They had been flying above the Southwest border in a D.C. Nationwide Guard UH-72 Lakota helicopter together with a fourth Nationwide Guard soldier (recognized as Jacob Pratt) on Friday afternoon when it crashed, on account of but unidentified causes.

Luna, who was 51, is survived by his spouse, two kids, and his mother and father. On Sunday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, issued a assertion that learn partially:

Each single day, our Border Patrol Brokers place themselves in hurt’s means in order that the remainder of us could be protected and safe. My ideas, and the deepest condolences of our Division, are with Agent Luna’s household, family members, and colleagues, and with these of the Nationwide Guardsmen who misplaced their lives. We hope for the injured servicemember’s swift restoration, and maintain our Nationwide Guard colleagues and their households in our ideas as effectively.

Grassia, 30, was a N.Y. State trooper and had served within the state’s Nationwide Guard since 2013, the place he was a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter upkeep specialist.

A local of Rotterdam, Grassia joined the N.Y. State Police in 2022, the place he was final assigned to the Livingston Station in Hudson, N.Y. Appearing N.Y. State Police Superintendent Steven G. James issued an announcement wherein he promised: “Trooper Grassia’s sacrifice, and his dedication to the service of New Yorkers and all Individuals won’t ever be forgotten”.

Frankoski was 28 and a local of Rensselaer, N.Y. Press reviews have recognized her because the daughter of retired Rensselaer Police Chief James Frankoski. The city’s mayor, Mike Stammel, issued an announcement that learn:

Rensselaer is deeply saddened to listen to of the sudden passing of Casey Frankoski, a exceptional New York Nationwide Guard helicopter pilot who tragically misplaced her life in a helicopter crash on Friday whereas patrolling the US-Mexico border. A proud native of Rensselaer and distinguished graduate of Columbia Excessive College, Casey was not solely a wonderful pupil but in addition excelled in sports activities and neighborhood service earlier than becoming a member of the New York Nationwide Guard.

Pratt additionally graduated from highschool in Rensselaer, compounding that metropolis’s tragedy.

The Mission. Though Texas Nationwide Guard troops have been closely (and prominently) concerned in a state-led effort to bolster overwhelmed Border Patrol brokers often called “Operation Lone Star”, this flight was not part of that mission.

Fairly, in accordance with the New York Instances, the 4 had been collaborating in a “routine mission” as a part of Joint Activity Pressure North (J-FTN), “a U.S. Protection Division initiative that tracks the boundary together with native and federal regulation enforcement”.

J-FTN started underneath the George H.W. Bush administration in 1989 (when it was often called “Joint Activity Pressure 6”) as a counter-drug effort, with its mission expanded in 2004 “to incorporate offering homeland safety and help to the nation’s federal regulation enforcement businesses”.

The Instances reviews that the helicopter was monitoring unlawful migrants on the time of the crash.

“Border Patrol Brokers Place Themselves in Hurt’s Means”. Whereas I applaud Secretary Mayorkas for issuing an announcement in response to this tragedy, and second his sentiment that “our Border Patrol Brokers place themselves in hurt’s means in order that the remainder of us could be protected and safe” each single day, his condolences might ring false amongst a lot of these brokers.

On Saturday, the Border Patrol union tweeted:

The reference is to a March 8 Fox Information article, which reviews:

Cartel members had been seen laughing after a Nationwide Guard helicopter carrying three troopers and a Border Patrol agent crashed close to the southern border in Texas.

In video footage from a U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) agent, obtained by Fox Information, cartel members had been seen watching the Nationwide Guards helicopter plummet to the bottom with their drone.

Following the devastating crash, the cartel members had been heard cackling.

Once more, border safety has been part of JFT-N’s portfolio for almost twenty years, however neither that process drive nor the Border Patrol has ever seen a migrant surge just like the one which has been ongoing for the final three years.

And whatever the administration’s deflections of blame and its contentions about “the most important ranges of displacement and regional migration within the hemisphere’s historical past”, unprecedented numbers of aliens have been pouring illegally throughout the border month-to-month since February 2021, largely in response to the president’s migrant launch insurance policies, as a federal choose concluded final March.

To really honor the sacrifices made by Agent Luna and CW2s Frankoski and Grassia, the administration ought to make the roles of those that stay on the road simpler. That will imply reversing the insurance policies drawing huge numbers of migrants to cross the Southwest border illegally, a move that aids and abets the cartels. Something lower than that, regardless of how heartfelt, is simply empty phrases.