Report: Noem’s shift of Coast Guard resources to ‘alien expulsion operations’ sinking other duties, morale

Ship that stopped in Juneau last week had a crew member that went overboard a year ago; Noem ordered plane to abandon search in lieu of immigrant transport flight, NBC reports

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Waesche during a visit to Juneau on Feb. 13, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter that stopped in Juneau last week is at the center of a controversy about the use of the agency by the Trump administration, including orders to redirect resources from a search for a missing crew member of the ship to immigration enforcement operations instead.

Bryan K. Lee, 23, a seaman aboard the 417-foot-long Waesche, was never found after going overboard while the ship was operating in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in early February of 2025. NBC News reported Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a verbal directive "to divert Coast Guard resources from (the) search-and-rescue mission to the deportation of immigrants."

"The dynamic with more senior officials has only worsened in recent months as Noem oversaw a tenfold increase in the use of the Coast Guard's aircraft for immigrant deportations, which has strained its limited resources," the NBC report states.

The story states the shift appears likely to increase during the coming months because transporting immigrants, counternarcotics efforts and training are being prioritized above the search-and-rescue operations that long have been the Coast Guard’s core mission, according to new guidance issued to Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento this year.

An unnamed Coast Guard spokesperson told NBC "the entire premise of your story is incorrect."

"These attacks are nothing more than a politicized deep state effort to undermine President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda and distract from the historic successes that the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard have achieved since he returned to office,” the spokesperson told the network.

Homeland Security officials have made false statements about a wide range of situations over many months, including two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minnesota last month where comments were revised when videos showed the original remarks to be untrue.

A prepared statement issued Tuesday by Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, stated a news report about last year’s search for — without naming NBC specifically — report "contained numerous inaccuracies about the Service."

"Among those, the allegation that the Secretary of Homeland Security directed the Acting Commandant to divert a C-130 long range aircraft from a search for a missing U.S. Coast Guard crewmember who went overboard from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter at sea is categorically false," Lunday’s statement asserts. "That never happened. The U.S. Coast Guard conducted an exhaustive search over several days using all available assets, including a C-130 aircraft, in an all-out effort to locate our missing crewmember."

A Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed to the Juneau Empire on Feb. 5, 2025, an HC-130J long-range surveillance aircraft from Air Station Kodiak was part of a redeployment of equipment and personnel for southern border operations. The statement came shortly after immigration raids in Alaska by federal officials resulted in arrests and deportations, although it is not known if the plane from the Kodiak station is the one Noem sought to divert from the rescue.

A Coast Guard press release from Feb. 10, 2025, states the search for Lee began after he was discovered missing at about 6:45 a.m. Feb. 4 while the Waesche was conducting a routine drug patrol about 300 nautical miles south of Mexico. The search was officially suspended on Feb. 8, with the release stating it lasted nearly 190 hours and covered 19,000 square nautical miles.

The release notes the Waesche and its helicopter, two C-130 planes, two Dash-8 planes from Customs and Border Protection, and other aircraft and vessels were involved in the search.

During the initial hours of the search Noem verbally ordered Lunday to divert a C-130 to a previously scheduled expulsion flight, according to NBC.

"In an effort to keep the C-130 searching for the missing service member, the regional Coast Guard command in San Diego scrambled to find two available C-27s that could fly the detained people to Texas, which freed up the C-130 to continue searching for the missing guardsman after about an hour," the story notes. It adds, "it’s not clear that Noem’s directive to pull the C-130 had any impact on the search."

However, the directive set the tone for the worsening relations during the past year, according to NBC and reports by other media outlets.

More than 750 Coast Guard flights have been redirected from missions such as maritime patrols and search-and-rescue efforts to immigration operations, according to ICE Flight Monitor, a data compilation project by the nonprofit organization Human Rights First. There were 149 Coast Guard flights carrying immigrants last November, compared to 14 last June, according to the organization.

“The primary mission was search-and-rescue,” an unnamed former Coast Guard official told NBC. “And now the No. 1 stated mission of the Coast Guard is border security, that is a cultural change that the culture hasn’t quite caught up to.”

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, during a press conference Wednesday in Juneau, said his understanding is diversions of Coast Guard resources to border security missions are decreasing.

"My understanding is that it was going on a couple months ago, but that that has dissipated," he said.

Questions sent to Sullivan’s office Wednesday morning by the Juneau Independent asking if he supports Noem’s prioritization of immigration operations by the Coast Guard did not receive a response as of late Wednesday afternoon.

The Waesche, which arrived in Juneau last Thursday for a logistics stop, is being deployed to a patrol in the Bering Sea, according to a U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District statement posted on its Facebook page Friday.

"During their patrol, the crew of Waesche will conduct fisheries enforcement and maritime security operations, which are critical to safeguarding the lives of our fishermen and securing Alaska’s $6 billion fishing industry that drives $16 billion in U.S. economic activity," the statement notes.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.