Migrants Land Homemade Boats on Florida Beaches

Migrants continue the dangerous practice of crossing the Straits of Florida in small homemade boats. The boats are usually overloaded with migrants attempting to make their way from Cuba and Haiti to the United States.

Miami Sector Chief Patrol Agent Walter Slosar tweeted photos of two migrant landings on Florida island beached on April 25. In the first incident, a group of 20 Cuban migrants landed on the beach at the Dry Tortugas National Park. The migrants beached a homemade boat on one of the seven islands.

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U.S. Border Patrol agents & LE partners responded to a migrant landing at the Dry Tortugas National Park & encountered 20 Cuban migrants. The migrants arrived on a homemade vessel. #floridakeys #cuba #keywest #florida pic.twitter.com/K2pBPbMEvo

— Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar (@USBPChiefMIP) April 25, 2023

A few days earlier, another makeshift boat overloaded with 26 Cuban migrants landed on the beach of an uninhabited island located west of Key West, Florida. The migrant group included six juveniles, Slosar reported.

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26 Cuban migrants (20 adults, 6 juveniles) were taken into U.S. Border Patrol custody today after making landfall in the Marquesas Keys, uninhabited islands west of Key West. The group arrived on a homemade vessel. #borderpatrol #florida #Cuba pic.twitter.com/HA3eqbuY3Z

— Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar (@USBPChiefMIP) April 21, 2023

These 46 migrants are in addition to the 5,210 migrants apprehended by Miami Sector Border Patrol agents during the first six months of Fiscal Year 23 (which began on October 1, 2022). This year’s total already exceeded the total of the last two fiscal years combined when agents apprehended 5,040 migrants.

During the past 12 months, Miami Sector agents apprehended 7,771 migrants according to the CBP Nationwide Encounters Report.

These apprehensions do not include the thousands of mostly Cuban and Haitian migrants interdicted at sea by U.S. Coast Guard crews.

On April 24, a Coast Guard aircrew spotted a “rustic vessel” overloaded with migrants approximately 40 miles of the coast of Key West. The Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton’s crew arrived as the boat began taking on water and rescued the migrants from possible drowning.

#Breaking A @USCG aircrew from Air Station #Miami spotted this rustic vessel, Mon., about 40 mi. off Key West. The vessel started taking on water and #USCG Cutter Hamilton’s crew rescued the people. #DontTakeToTheSea pic.twitter.com/ZWPg9gET0z

— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) April 24, 2023

Coast Guard officials report the interdiction at sea of 6,449 Cuban and 4,230 Haitian migrants since October 1, 2022.