Two migrant incidents in the Keys — a day after Coast Guard suspends search of 10 migrants
Federal law enforcement officers are busy with two migrant encounters in the Florida Keys on Sunday — just days following a tragic incident in which two bodies were recovered and 10 other people are still missing and presumed dead at sea.
Around 2:30 a.m., a group of 18 people from Cuba landed on the shore of the small incorporated Middle Keys city of Key Colony Beach, said Adam Hoffner, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol.
Details of their arrival were not immediately available.
By around 11 a.m., the U.S. Coast Guard stopped a 15-foot blue vessel roughly 9 miles off Islamorada, said Petty Officer Jose Hernandez.
Three men were on board who Hernandez noted were migrants, but their nationalities were not immediately known.
Migration from Cuba is up significantly this year from last year despite the ending of the U.S. “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy in early 2017 — which allowed Cubans who made landfall above the high watermark to stay in the country.
On Thursday, two people from Cuba were found dead in the ocean about 16 miles south of Key West after a boat overturned the night before.
Eight others were rescued by USCG, but they noted that there were a total of 20 people on board their vessel.
After three days of searching more than 8,800 square miles, USCG called off its search for the 10 missing people Saturday night.
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 7:48 PM.
