18 migrants arrive on two boats that made landfall in Broward, U.S. Border Patrol says
Eighteen people are in federal custody after two boats with migrants onboard made landfall in Broward County on Sunday morning, authorities said.
The first boat made landfall in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and nine migrants were taken into custody, Chief Patrol Agent Thomas Martin of U.S. Border Patrol said on Twitter. He did not elaborate on how many people were onboard.
The incident happened at around 7 a.m., according to Miami Herald news partner CBS 4.
Nearly three hours later and a few miles south of the first landing, a boat landed with approximately 15 migrants at 2100 North Atlantic Boulevard, Detective Ali Adamson, spokesperson for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, said in an email Sunday afternoon.
The FLPD received the emergency call at approximately 9:42 a.m., she added.
Nine additional migrants of mixed nationalities were taken into federal custody as a result, Martin wrote via Twitter.
The U.S. Coast Guard and federal immigration agencies stopped three human smuggling attempts and detained 100 people off Florida’s coast from Dec. 12 to Dec. 14, the military branch said Wednesday.
On Dec. 9, authorities stopped 30 people in three separate incidents south of Key West. All of them were returned to Cuba, the Coast Guard said.
Two days later, 15 men arrived in a small homemade wooden boat shortly before 3 a.m. on Summerland Key, according to the Border Patrol. The following day, the Coast Guard rescued three Cubans from a sinking boat off the Florida Keys.
This story is developing.
This story was originally published December 19, 2021 at 6:29 PM.
