More than a dozen migrants rushed the beach near the Jupiter Inlet in Palm County, Florida, on Friday morning after being intercepted by authorities, as seen in a video obtained by Breitbart News. The incident led to at least 14 arrests, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) confirmed Friday.
Video shot by Joey Fago, and obtained by Breitbart News, shows the migrants frantically jumping out of the vessel onto the shore as a helicopter hovered above the waters. Another video reviewed by Breitbart News shows authorities appearing to arrest at least one migrant.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office publicly addressed the incident, revealing that the captain of the boat carrying the migrants rammed the sheriff’s office unit vessel, damaging two engines. The pursuit continued, and authorities arrested at least 14 individuals at the time of the afternoon update, including the boat’s captain, identified as Bazaeluis Francois. He was arrested for two counts of Aggravated Battery on a police officer, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Shortly after 9:00 a.m. this morning, our Marine Unit deputy intercepted a vessel near the Jupiter Inlet. When making contact, the boat’s captain rammed our unit, damaging two engines. Our PBSO Helicopter and additional marine unit vessels pursued the suspect vessel,” PBSO said in an update posted to social media.
“The boat captain beached the vessel just north of the Juno pier when he was immediately apprehended by responding road patrol deputies and Jupiter police officers,” it continued, noting that those arrested will be turned over to border patrol.
“Currently, 14 immigrants have been detained and will be turned over to Border Patrol. The boat captain, Bazaeluis Francois, has been arrested for two counts of Aggravated Battery on a Police Officer. This investigation is still active. More information will be released when it becomes available,” PBSO added.
Shortly after 9:00 a.m. this morning, our Marine Unit deputy intercepted a vessel near the Jupiter Inlet. When making contact, the boat's captain rammed our unit, damaging two engines. Our PBSO Helicopter and additional marine unit vessels pursued the suspect vessel. The boat… pic.twitter.com/df6dRaJnaV
— PBSO (@PBCountySheriff) August 25, 2023
A source familiar with the incident told Breitbart News that the migrants are Haitians.
The incident comes as illegal immigration remains on the forefront of many Americans’ minds, despite the fact that it was not an urgent discussion in the first Republican primary debate, which took place on Wednesday. In fact, Fox News moderators did not ask a single question on immigration in the first hour of the debate. Instead, they focused on topics such as climate change and abortion rights before or over immigration, crime, and the looming China threat.
Former President Donald Trump, however, addressed immigration during his interview with Tucker Carlson, which served as counterprogramming to the debate, the latter of which he did not participate in. During that interview, Trump identified immigration as his “number one” issue.
“If you’re elected president again, what’s your top, your number one priority?” Carlson asked. “When you ran last time, you said, ‘I will build a wall.’ This time, your bottom line, top promise.'”
“So you can do numerous things at the same time, of course, but let’s say number one is a border and taking hundreds of thousands of criminals that have been allowed into our country and getting them out and bringing them back to their country,” Trump responded, noting that these migrants are coming from dozens of countries.
“Last month, we had 149 countries represented,” Trump said. “Think of it. We had 149 countries represented, Tucker, from places that many people never even heard of coming into our country.”
“And they’re coming in from mental institutions, and they’re coming in from prisons, they’re emptying out their prisons all over South America,” Trump explained:
They’re emptying out their mental institutions. Terrorists are pouring into our country. We have no idea. I had the strongest border in the history of our country, and I built almost 500 miles of wall. You know, they’d like to say, “Oh, was it less?” No. I built 500 miles. In fact, if your check with the authorities on the border, we built almost 500 miles of wall. And I had another 200 that I was going to build, you know — it’s like water, it seeps. And we’re going to build another 200. We built it. It was all set to go. All they had to do was install it, it would have taken three weeks. And that’s when I found out, I said, “I think these people actually want open borders.”
“The first thing I would do would be, I would seal up the border good and tight, except for people that want to come in legally,” Trump added.
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