The United States Coast Guard repatriated 23 Cubans who were en route to the United States by boat in recent days, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
On Friday morning, watchstanders at Sector Key West received a notification of an illegal alien venture 12 miles south of The Marquesas Keys. Crews from Coast Guard Station Key West arrived at the scene where there were 15 illegal aliens. All of them were transferred to USCGC Paul Clark.
On Sunday afternoon, Sector Key West watchstanders received a report from a good Samaritan about an illegal alien voyage 26 miles south of Marathon, Florida. There, crews found eight illegal aliens and transferred them to cutter Paul Clark.
“Under Title 8, migrants who arrive without authorization will be repatriated and deemed ineligible for legal immigration pathways,” Lt. j.g. Nicholas Fujimoto of the Coast Guard Seventh District Enforcement Branch, said in a statement.
“Do not risk your life only to be sent back. Don't take to the sea,” he added.
Coast Guard catches 23 Cuban migrants headed to Florida and sends them back home https://t.co/FgItSZTZa3 pic.twitter.com/60ktRhS8X7
— New York Post (@nypost) May 14, 2024
Last month, the Coast Guard intercepted “a ramshackle home-made boat off the Key West shoreline” with 16 illegal aliens from Cuba, according to the New York Post. Two weeks later, a Carnival Cruise ship left Tampa and spotted 27 Cubans in high-seas distress 20 miles off the coast of their country. Crew on the ship pulled them to safety.
The Post noted that the Coast Guard has 348 migrants trying to reach America via the sea since the start of the 2024 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
In one case, the Coast Guard intercepted 101 migrants in the waters off Puerto Rico in three separate operations. The illegal aliens were from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Venezuela. However, it is primarily Cubans trying to escape their country who are intercepted.