Thread: A Cuban migrant boat arrived at Truman Waterfront Park in Key West, and 3 are in cust

A Cuban migrant boat arrived at Truman Waterfront Park in Key West, and 3 are in custody



9




David Goodhue
Mon, July 3, 2023 at 1:37 PM EDT



A Cuban migrant boat with three men on board landed at Truman Waterfront Park in Key West, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

All three men aboard the makeshift vessel were taken into custody Sunday by Border Patrol agents and will be processed for removal, Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami sector.

They did not have any medical issues, Hoffner said.

Such landings occurred several times a day starting late last year and into the early part of this year, but have become far less frequent in recent months.

Maritime migration to South Florida — mostly to the Keys — from Cuba and Haiti became such a problem for U.S. officials that the federal government shut down Dry Tortugas National Park off Key West in January because the number of Cuban migrants arriving there overwhelmed park rangers.

That prompted both a federal and state response.

The Biden administration increased Coast Guard and Customs patrols.

And Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order mobilizing the National Guard and several state police agencies to help patrol the air and water to prevent migrant boats from getting through.

These efforts have been effecting in significantly slowing landings. Weeks go by now without the arrival of migrant boats in the Keys.

Migrants are still fleeing

This doesn’t mean people have stopped trying to flee their countries en route to either the U.S. or neighboring island nations. Far from it.

The Coast Guard and Customs Air and Marine Operations are still stopping several boats a week from Cuba in the Florida Straits.

And, boats from Haiti with large numbers of people on board are being stopped by the Coast Guard and authorities from other nations before they reach the Straits.

On Saturday, the Royal Bahamas Defense Force stopped a 40-foot boat near Turks and Caicos with 189 people from Haiti on board.

The boat, which the Defense Force and Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police say was a smuggling vessel, was carrying 139 men, one boy and 49 women, according to the police department.

Turks and Caicos police Chief Trevor Botting said his nation and the Bahamas are dealing with an unprecedented increase in maritime migration. Since the beginning of 2023, he said 21 boats, mostly from Haiti, have been stopped trying to reach either Turks and Caicos or the Bahamas, and 2,600 migrants have been detained.

“The number of vessels and persons detained exceeds all previous years’ totals, and we are just six months into 2023,” Botting said in a statement.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuban-mig...173731252.html

Tow them all back to Cuba.

NO VACANCY