Air Force crew members and security forces on deportation flights are not wearing their name tape or unit patches, contributing to a lack of transparency as the service obscures details of its involvement in the border mission from the public.
The Air Force is the only one of the military branches involved in President Donald Trump's mandated border mission to not disclose publicly the number of service members or what units they're coming from, citing safety and security concerns, an Air Force spokesperson told Military.com.
"Aircrew are removing name tapes and unit patches but will keep U.S. Flag, U.S. Air Force tape and rank on their uniform," the Air Force spokesperson told Military.com. "The identity of those supporting deportation flights is being protected to ensure the safety and security of our service members."
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U.S. Northern Command, which is overseeing the border mission, put out a detailed list last month of the more than 1,600 Army soldiers and Marines assisting with the directive, but the only mention to date of Air Force involvement is from an occasional defense press photo of deportation flights with scant details.
Notably, defense press images from the ongoing border mission show Marines and soldiers with name tape and unit patches on.
Air Force public affairs put out a press release last week saying they were supporting Northern Command's mission, but only said C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster III aircraft were being used for military transport and deportation flights, in support of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The number of airmen involved or units participating in the operation were not disclosed.
"The swift response by our airmen to support this important mission demonstrates our service's ability to rapidly deploy and deliver American airpower," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said in the press release. "Rapid global mobility is a cornerstone of our Air Force and the team is once again proving how well we do it. We will continue to ardently support U.S. Northern Command and our interagency partners along the southern border."
The Air Force mentioned in the press release it also deployed "its specialized security unit" called the Phoenix Ravens "to protect both the aircraft and flight crews."
Started by Air Mobility Command in 1997, the Phoenix Ravens security forces members specialize in in-flight security, and there are more than 200 of them assigned to airlift bases across the country, a service fact sheet on the program said.
The deportation flights from the U.S. to South America "involve a crew of about 10 airmen per flight on average," the Air Force spokesperson said.
Dan Grazier, a senior fellow with the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, D.C., told Military.com the Air Force removing name tapes and patches was strange. Grazier, a former Marine Corps officer who served tours during the Global War on Terrorism, said he was never asked to remove those items.
"This is very unusual, because when I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, nobody ever asked me to, or nobody ever ordered me to, strip off my insignia or name tapes," Grazier said. "So it seems really odd that the Air Force is doing this for missions here in the United States."
The White House and Department of Defense have underscored the need for military presence and, specifically, for the Air Force's lack of transparency in the border mission by citing the safety risks associated with the deportation efforts.
"There are safety and security concerns associated with the transportation of illegal/criminal aliens," the Air Force spokesperson said when asked about the lack of disclosure on units, numbers and other mission details.
Last month, one of Trump's first executive orders assigned "United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) the mission to seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities."
Bill Frelick, director of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch's Refugee and Migrant Rights Division, told Military.com in an interview that the terminology of an invasion is specifically noteworthy to justify military involvement at the border and that it can be a "trip wire" to overstep due process.
"There's not an invasion taking place as the word is commonly and even legally defined; there's no attempt by force of one country to mount an incursion on the United States that would require a military response using this kind of language," Frelick said. "When you talk about something like an invasion and you talk about national security, there should be a distinction between what truly is national security."
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