Immigration

Coast Guard returns 29 attempted migrants to Cuba in one week

By Alex Harris

aharris@miamiherald.com

December 30, 2016 06:38 PM

A U.S. Coast Guard HC-144A Ocean Sentry aircraft flies over the Florida Keys looking for Cuban migrants on the high seas.
A U.S. Coast Guard HC-144A Ocean Sentry aircraft flies over the Florida Keys looking for Cuban migrants on the high seas. Wilfredo Lee AP File 2015
A U.S. Coast Guard HC-144A Ocean Sentry aircraft flies over the Florida Keys looking for Cuban migrants on the high seas. Wilfredo Lee AP File 2015

The Coast Guard found 29 migrants at sea this week and repatriated them to Cuba.

The group includes migrants found in three separate instances in the Florida Straits. Five Cubans were sent back on Monday and 24 were returned on Friday.

In a statement, Coast Guard Cmdr. Willie Carmichael called the journeys “illegal, ill-advised and unsafe.”

"We continue to strongly discourage attempts to illegally enter the country by taking to the sea,” he said. “These trips are extremely dangerous.”

This group was part of the at least 669 Cubans the Coast Guard caught before they made it to shore. Last December, the Coast Guard caught 619 Cuban migrants at sea.

Alex Harris: 305-376-5005, @harrisalexc

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