The Border Patrol and other federal and state agencies took into custody a total of 41 Cuban migrants in several incidents across South Florida — from the Florida Keys to Miami Beach — over the weekend.
On Monday afternoon, 11 people from Cuba were found on shore of Lower Matecumbe Key where they arrived in a homemade sailboat. They told Border Patrol agents that they left Ciego De Avila, Cuba, a week ago, said Adam Hoffner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s division chief of the agency’s Miami operations.
On Saturday, 21 Cubans landed in two homemade vessels in the Marquesas Keys, uninhabited islands about 20 miles west of Keys West. They were taken into custody by U.S. Coast Guard crews and officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection press release.
Coast Guard crews medically assessed two people from that group and took them to a local hospital. They were later released to the Border Patrol, the press release said.
The day before, six Cuban migrants made landfall on Miami Beach between 53rd Street and Collins Avenue in a small wooden rowboat. They told Border Patrol agents they spent two weeks at sea, according to the press release.
Also Friday, three Cuban migrants arrived in Islamorada in the Florida Keys on a small boat. They told agents that they encountered rough weather and were briefly stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Cuba before setting off again for South Florida.
The Border Patrol, Coast Guard and other federal agencies that enforce U.S. immigration law are dealing with a surge in maritime migration from both Cuba and Haiti. Many of those migrant journeys end up in the Bahamas or off one of the nation’s hundreds of islands.
Then on Sunday, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force stopped a 40-foot sailing sloop with 78 people on board from Haiti. The migrants were first spotted about 12 nautical miles off New Providence, the Defence Force said in a press release.
“The migrants all appeared to be in good health, and will be turned over to the relevant authorities for further processing,” the service said in a statement.
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