Third group of migrants in a week lands in the Keys near Islamorada
For the third time in a week, migrants arrived on the shores of the Florida Keys, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
The landing happened shortly before 1 p.m. Friday on Long Key in the Upper Keys, just south of the Village of Islamorada, said Agent Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations.
The seven men and three women arrived just offshore of Long Key State Park in a 12-foot homemade boat propelled by a 2.5-horsepower outboard engine, Hoffner said. The boat also had on board a 4-cylinder Perkins diesel engine that the migrants told agents stopped working halfway through their journey, Hoffner said.
“These homemade vessels will often suffer engine or other mechanic failures while at sea,” he said in an email. “These are dangerous voyages, and we continue to urge migrants to not to take to the sea.”
The group waded to shore after their boat ran aground, according to the Border Patrol.
The migrants will be processed for removal and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, Hoffner said.
South Florida is experiencing a surge in maritime migration from both Cuba and Haiti that seems to be picking up pace.
READ MORE: New trafficking routes of Haitian migrants leads to Florida Keys
On Thursday, 16 Cubans, including two accompanied children, arrived in a small commercial fishing boat off Summerland Key, about 17 miles north of Key West in the Lower Keys.
That landing came two days after the Coast Guard returned 21 Cubans whom the agency stopped at sea about 46 miles south of Key West last Friday.
On Monday, more than 100 Haitian migrants arrived off an oceanfront neighborhood, also in Summerland Key. Earlier this month, 356 Haitian migrants arrived in a large wooden boat about 200 yards off the gated community of Ocean Reef Club in north Key Largo — the largest migrant landing in South Florida in recent memory.
Some are smuggled
Cubans and Haitians have been leaving their countries as either groups of migrants or as parts of smuggling operations.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office stopped what appears to be the outset of a smuggling operation Thursday afternoon. Deputies pulled over a Tequesta man in a GMC pickup truck towing a twin 250-horsepower “go-fast” or speedboat at the Aviation Boulevard boat ramp in the Middle Keys city of Marathon.
Adam Linhardt, sheriff’s office spokesman, said the boat was carrying about 200 gallons of gasoline in six 33-gallon drums. Deputies arrested the driver, Jose Manuel Ramirez de Leon, 32, on a charge of unlawful conveyance of fuel.
“An electric fuel pump commonly used in human smuggling operations was found in the center console as well as a satellite phone and a box of Dramamine,” Linhardt said.
Coordinates on the boat’s GPS were set for a location in Cuba, according to the sheriff’s office, and Ramirez De Leon eventually told deputies he was going to Cuba to pick up migrants, Linhardt said.
Deputies booked Ramirez De Leon into county jail around 9:30 p.m., and he left lockup at 12:36 a.m., according to sheriff’s office records. It’s immediately unclear if he was released or taken into custody by federal authorities.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 3:38 PM.
