Coast Guard Intercepts Two Overloaded Boats Carrying Migrants From Dominican Republic



One vessel carried 42 Dominican migrants, while the other carried 17 migrants, according to the Coast Guard

Published |Updated

Fatma Khaled






A Coast Guard crew stopped two vessels carrying 59 Dominican migrants The U.S. Coast Guard© The U.S. Coast Guard



The U.S. Coast Guard encountered two overloaded boats that were carrying 59 migrants from the Dominican Republic and trying to cross into the United States.

The Coast Guard said in a press release on Friday that its Cutter Heriberto Hernandez crew repatriated the migrants on Thursday after encountering the vessels in Mona Passage waters off the west coast of Puerto Rico.

The crew stopped one of the overloaded vessels on Tuesday after it was spotted by an aircrew 15 nautical miles south southwest of Mona Island, Puerto Rico. The boat carried 42 adult Dominican migrants.

The other vessel, which carried 17 Dominican migrants, was spotted by an aircrew from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) northwest of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

“Irregular migration voyages in the Mona Passage are highly dangerous and an unlawful means to enter the United States,” said Cmdr. Gerard Wenk, Sector San Juan chief of response.

Wenk continued: “Anyone thinking of taking part in one of these voyages must understand that their life will be at risk, and when they are interdicted at sea or apprehended ashore, they will not be allowed to stay in Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

The migrants were transported back to the Dominican Republic on a Dominican navy vessel off Puna Cana.

The Coast Guard conducted 64 migration interdictions in the Mona Passage and waters near Puerto Rico between October 1, 2022, and August 28, 2023. Those encounters included 1,965 migrants from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Albania, and Colombia

This week’s migrant encounter with the Coast Guard comes after a federal appeals court recently ruled to temporarily keep the Biden administration’s asylum policies that limit the number of asylum-seekers at the southern border in an effort to address the influx of dangerous migrant crossings.

The policy denies migrants asylum if they didn’t first try to seek refuge in a country they transited to, such as Mexico, before applying for asylum at the U.S. border. However, those entering the U.S. legally by booking an appointment through the CBP One App, are exempted from this rule.

CBP reported 185,503 undocumented migrant crossings into the Southwest land border in the U.S. between January and July in 2023, down from 213,593 encounters during the same period in 2022.


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