Thread: FLA. Authorities searching for illegal aliens near Tequesta

Updated: 1:12 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014 | Posted: 6:33 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014

Authorities searching for undocumented migrants near Tequesta

Lannis Waters

A boat sits on the shore in Tequesta just south of the Martin County line Wednesday morning, August 20, 2014 after suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody before dawn. (Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post)

By Matt Morgan
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

TEQUESTA —
Nine undocumented migrants were detained early Wednesday after landing a small boat on the shore just south of the Martin County line, the latest in a busy week of attempts by people to enter the United States illegally from island nations.

Five men, three women and a child from Haiti were smuggled aboard a 20-foot Bahamian vessel, later reported as stolen, the U.S. Border Patrol said. The migrants tried to come ashore before dawn and were apprehended after authorities for the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection and local police were notified and combed the area, said Matt Barney, a Coast Guard spokesman.

“We believe this is a result of a crime organization,” said Frank Miller, operations officer at the Miami Sector of the Border Patrol. He said the migrants were since processed and turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.

The landing was no fewer than the 15th attempt by people from places such as Haiti, Cuba, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic to come ashore in Palm Beach through Monroe counties during 2014.

Those 15 attempts have involved a total of 272 people, several of them infants, according to media reports.

It also came after the Coast Guard had rescued 64 migrants from Cuba in three separate incidents in the Florida Straits since Aug. 7, and another 100 from Haiti on Monday aboard an overloaded freighter off the Bahamas. The Haitian migrants were rescued with a Coast Guard cutter and helicopter and turned over to the Royal Bahamian Defense Force after receiving food, water and medical treatment.

Wednesday’s landing was at least the fourth to occur in either northern Palm Beach County or southern Martin County this year, records show.

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