Another group of Cuban migrants arrives in the Florida Keys on a wooden fishing boat
Twelve Cuban migrants arrived in the Florida Keys Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
It was the second migrant landing this week in the Keys, and the second one in which the people arrived on a wooden fishing vessel as opposed to a makeshift boat or raft.
They arrived off Knights Key in the Middle Keys city of Marathon around 6 a.m. Adam Hoffner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection division chief for Miami operations, said there were six men and six women in the group.
They told agents they left from Matanzas, Cuba. It was not immediately known how long they were at sea.
“There were no injuries reported on scene,” Hoffner said in an email. “The migrants will be processed for removal proceedings.”
On Sunday evening, a similar boat arrived in Key West carrying 13 Cuban migrants — 11 adults and two children, the Border Patrol said.
Both landings are part of the continued surge of people fleeing both Cuba and Haiti by boat, a trend that began more than a year ago due to deteriorating economic and political conditions within both island nations.
The federal government tracks migration by the fiscal year, which begins and ends Oct. 1. About six months into this fiscal year, the Coast Guard said it has already stopped more people at sea en route from Cuba to South Florida than in all of fiscal year 2021 — more than 842 people compared to 838.
The latter number was already a spike from the 49 people the Coast Guard encountered along the Florida Straits in fiscal year 2020.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 12:36 PM.
