Large group of people arrive in Florida Keys migrant landing, Coast Guard says
A group of up to 30 people arrived in a migrant boat on a remote island Tuesday afternoon in the Florida Keys, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The people arrived after 3 p.m. in the Marquesas, a chain of uninhabited islands located about 20 miles west of Key West, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicholas Strasburg, a spokesman for the service.
The exact number of people with the group was not immediately known, but Strasburg said crews on scene place the estimate to be around 30.
Their nationalities were not immediately released, but the Marquesas are a frequent landing spot for people fleeing Cuba by sea.
This is the second migrant landing in the Keys this week. The U.S. Border Patrol said a group of 11 people from Cuba arrived by boat early Sunday morning.
The landings come a year after the Keys made international news because so many migrants — mostly from Cuba, but also from Haiti — were arriving onshore daily along the archipelago.
Arrivals became so frequent that the federal government shut down the Dry Tortugas National Park — a group of islands about 36 miles west of the Marquesas — to tourists because so many migrants landed there in the days leading up to the 2023 new year.
The situation prompted a large response from both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Joe Biden’s administration. DeSantis issued an executive order that stands a year later ordering state law enforcement and Florida National Guard troops to the Keys to help federal agencies patrol the waters around the island chain.
Biden ordered more Coast Guard Crews and Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations assets to the area.
The combined effort worked to stem the flow of migrants arriving to the Keys shoreline. Yet landings, both large and small, still persist.
This is a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available.
