Thread: Coast Guard responding to distressed boat packed with migrants off the Florida Keys

Coast Guard responding to distressed boat packed with migrants off the Florida Keys



David Goodhue, Jacqueline Charles, Syra Ortiz-Blanes
Mon, November 21, 2022 at 12:59 PM



The U.S. Coast Guard stopped a disabled boat in perilous seas off the Florida Keys Monday morning that law enforcement sources say was packed with people attempting to migrate from Haiti.

The boat was stopped about 20 nautical miles off Rodriguez Key, a small island off Key Largo, one law enforcement source said. The Coast Guard said in a statement that its crews initially rescued 22 people.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Nicole Groll said rough seas and high winds are making the rescue effort difficult. Images released from the Coast Guard show several young children were on the migrant vessel.





A U.S. Coast Guard boat approaches a sailing vessel packed with migrants law enforcement sources say are from Haiti off the coast of Key Largo Monday, Nov. 21, 2022.

The Coast Guard declined to confirm the nationalities of the people on the boat, but two sources said they are from Haiti. It is the first boat in months to arrive from Haiti where a chronic shortage of fuel, followed by a two-month gang blockade of the main oil terminal, Varreux, in Port-au-Prince, slowed down migrant attempts.

Biden administration officials had worried that once fuel began to flow again, the U.S. could see a mass migration from Haiti — which is a worsening humanitarian, security, economic and political crisis — as well as a new cholera outbreak. In anticipation of a surge, the administration had been looking to expand a migrant center on Guantanamo Bay, NBC News first reported.

The naval base at Guantanamo Bay has historically been used by previous administrations to house Haitians, a decision that some migrant and Haitian advocates have long criticized.

“The U.S. government always does contingency planning out of an abundance of caution and for a wide range of potential scenarios,” a National Security Council spokesperson told the Miami Herald in early November when asked about the White House considering the use of Guantanamo Naval Base to once more process Haitians trying to reach the United States.

The spokesperson at the time added that the U.S. had “not seen an increase in Haitian maritime migration, and no decisions have been made.”

“In fact, the number of Haitians interdicted at sea has significantly decreased in recent months. The United States continues to coordinate with our international partners first and foremost to support the people of Haiti and address the security and humanitarian situation in the country,” said the spokesperson.

The Herald has repeatedly reached out to the Department of Homeland Security since June with questions about whether the federal government is already using Guantanamo to process Haitian migrants found at sea after a U.S. government charter flight arrived in Guantanamo and then flew to Port-au-Prince with just one Haitian passenger on board. The agency, however, refused to answer the questions.

Migrants detained at sea, if found to pass an initial credible fear assessment, could be sent to the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to receive a well-founded fear interview. The purpose of the interview is to determine whether the person should be resettled in a safe, third country.





Where the boat was stopped.

The Upper Keys, particularly the area in north Key Largo near the gated community of the Ocean Reef Club, has been the destination of several large landings of Haitian migrants over the past year:

▪ In early August, a sailboat with more than 300 people from Haiti grounded off Ocean Reef, with more than 100 people jumping off the vessel and swimming to the shore of the exclusive community and resort.





A U.S. Coast Guard crew member feeds a young child who was rescued from a distressed migrant vessel off Key Largo Monday, Nov. 21, 2022.

▪ In March, 356 people from Haiti arrived in an overloaded freighter just offshore of Ocean Reef.
▪ In January, a group of 176 Haitians arrived in almost the same spot.
▪ The trend began last November with a group of 63 people arriving in a rickety sailboat just offshore of Card Sound Road, a remote two-lane highway that leads to Ocean Reef, followed by 52 people arriving in the area on another sailboat Christmas Eve.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/coast-gua...175916123.html

Tow them back and house them there!

We are not the dumping ground for Haiti or any other country on the planet!