Nearly 100 Cuban migrants arrive in the Keys since Saturday
As the controversy plays out over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flying undocumented immigrants to Martha’s Vinyard, federal officials in the Keys continue to deal with Cuban migrant landings and offshore interceptions in numbers not seen in nearly a decade.
On Tuesday, a group of 12 men and two women from Cuba arrived in what the U.S. Border Patrol describes as a rustic vessel on Lower Matecumbe Key in the Upper Keys Village of Islamorada.
Over the weekend, a total of 78 Cuban migrants made landfall in five separate landings in various places up and down the island chain, according to the Border Patrol.
And, on Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard said its cutter, Paul Clark, returned home to Cuba 99 people who were stopped at sea in eight interdictions off the archipelago since Tuesday.
Since Oct. 1, the Coast Guard stopped 5,689 people from Cuba at sea attempting to reach the United States. That’s an eight-year high, according to the federal maritime rescue and law enforcement agency
Between Oct. 1, 2015, and the end of September 2016, 5,396 people were stopped along the Florida Straits between Cuba and South Florida.
But, that number dropped precipitously in the following years after the Obama administration ended the so-called “wet foot, dry foot” policy allowing Cubans who landed above the high-water mark to stay in the United States and apply for permanent residency after a year.
The policy, which served as an incentive to those seeking to flee the communist nation, mandated that anyone caught at sea was returned to Cuba.
Migration numbers began to increase rampantly since last year because of deteriorating economic and political conditions within the country.
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 5:00 PM.
