In four separate operations, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted about 20 Cuban migrants attempting to reach U.S. shores in rickety boats and returned them to their home countries, authorities said.
The seagoing migrants were apprehended as part of Operation Vigilance, an enhanced effort in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security to stop asylum seekers from entering the country illegally. the Coast Guard said in a press release. this week.
“Any attempt to enter the United States illegally will result in penalties,” Lt. Commander John Beal of the Coast Guard’s 7th District said in a statement Monday.
“Anyone who attempts to circumvent safe, orderly and legal migration routes may be denied future travel opportunities to the United States, may be deemed ineligible for asylum, may be subject to a five-year entry ban and may face criminal prosecution,” Beal said. “Stay out of the water.”
All of the detained migrants were deported to Cuba on Monday, authorities said.
The first group of three Cuban nationals were rescued by a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, who contacted authorities and turned them over to the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Oak.
A second boat, carrying one migrant, was discovered by a good Samaritan about 12 miles off Boot Key and rescued by the same cutter.
In the third case, a Coast Guard plane spotted six Cubans “waving their hands in distress” about 25 miles offshore from Jensen Beach, Florida, and dispatched the William Sperling patrol boat to intercept them.
The exhausted migrants told authorities they had been at sea for six days and had run out of fuel.
The final incident occurred when a group of 10 migrants were rescued from waters just four miles south of Marathon, Florida, by the Coast Guard Cutter Oak.
The Coast Guard warns that sailing the high seas around the United States poses significant risks.
In addition to Cubans fleeing the heavily restricted island nation, the Coast Guard regularly intercepts migrants trying to reach the United States from other countries, including more than 300 people from Haiti and the Bahamas who were deported to their home countries earlier this month.
In April, three suspected gang members wanted in connection with a deadly 2020 shooting in Puerto Rico were rescued from a boat headed to the United States. – He was handed over to authorities in the Dominican Republic.
