Six migrants made it to Key West in a wooden boat. Most haven’t been found

Six Cuban migrants made it to shore in the Florida Keys this week. At first, only their wooden rowboat was found by police.

Key West police officers on patrol at about 4 a.m. Monday discovered a “rustic Cuban chug” along Simonton Beach, the department posted on Facebook.

There were no people with the vessel when officers found it. Police learned five men and one woman had come ashore in it.

Only two of the Cuban migrants have been found and taken into custory, U.S. Border Patrol agents said Wednesday.

Later Monday, a police officer on Truman Avenue encountered two men from the boat. The men said that a total of five men and one woman had made it to shore.

The U.S. Coast Guard first alerted U.S. Customs and Border Protection to the situation.

“An alien who unlawfully entered or is inadmissible to the U.S.,” a Border Control spokesman said in a statement. “The alien is processed and is temporarily held in custody before being transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).”

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.