Desperate to leave Cuba and start over in the United States, people are making the perilous journey in greater numbers across the Florida Straits. South Florida authorities say the steady stream of arrivals has put stress on local law enforcement and rescuers, who are often dispatched when migrant boaters are stopped.
For the people arriving, the stress involves a dangerous trip that often ends with them being sent back to Cuba on a Coast Guard cutter if they don’t make it to shore — or taken into custody by the U.S. for processing if they manage to make it to land.
Already dealing with the largest escalation of Cuban migration in nearly a decade, Border Patrol and Coast Guard crews patrolling South Florida and the Keys report that the number of people leaving Cuba for a trip across the Straits so far in October is higher than average.
