South Florida Sees Bump in Migrant Landings. Is Another Seasonal Surge Coming?
UPDATED JANUARY 05, 2024
A group of people are underway in a Cuban migrant boat the U.S. Coast Guard stopped in December 2023 before it reached the Florida Keys. U.S. COAST GUARD
Groups of desperate people fleeing Cuba have landed at least twice this week in the Florida Keys — the latest seasonal uptick of migrants willing to risk their lives in rickety vessels for a shot at freedom in the United States.
But, for now at least, arrivals in December and the first days of January are down dramatically from the previous holiday season when so many people poured in — often with several landings a day — that it overwhelmed local law enforcement agencies in the Florida Keys and forced both Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Joe Biden to send in emergency reinforcements. Since that crisis, the latest statistics show that the number of migrants taking to the sea to come to South Florida has sharply declined.
U.S. Coast Guard pilots Lt. Spencer Zwenger and Lt. Cmdr. Joshua Mitcheltree prepare their C-144 Ocean Sentry plane for a patrol over the Florida Straits Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. David Goodhue [email protected]
In recent weeks, however, the Coast Guard and Border Protection have seen a bump in landfalls and interdictions at sea. The Coast Guard largely attributes the latest rise in migrants, mainly from Cuba, to what it calls the “false assumption” the U.S. government will be more lenient over the holidays with those seeking a better life — or have fewer forces patrolling the Florida Straits to intercept migrants before they make landfall.
“There is historic precedent for an increase in attempts around U.S. holidays or when there are perceptions of changes in U.S. immigration policy,” Lt. Cmdr. John Beals, spokesman for the Coast Guard’s District 7 and the Homeland Security Task Force-Southeast, told the Miami Herald in an email Wednesday.
A makeshift Cuban migrant boat is beached on an island in the Marquesas, about 20 miles west of Key West, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2023. U.S. Border Patrol
But that’s not the case, he said. Federal agencies don’t scale back on monitoring migration waves during the holidays and anyone caught at sea trying to reach South Florida will be placed on a Coast Guard cutter within days and returned to their country and those caught on land will be “processed for removal.”
“Migrants attempting to circumvent lawful pathways to enter the United States by sea will be rescued and repatriated to their country of origin or departure.,” he said. “Do not take to the sea.”
SURGE OF LANDINGS LAST YEAR
During last year’s Christmas-to-New Year’s weekend period, a massive migrant surge put the Keys in the international spotlight. The federal government was forced to shut down Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles west of Key West, because so many people were landing there every day that the skeleton crew of park rangers stationed at the remote outpost couldn’t keep up. For weeks along the the 110-mile long chain of islands, Keys law enforcement officers sometimes sat for hours with migrants on the roadside waiting for federal Border Patrol agents to come pick them up.
Clothing is hanging from trees, on small brick walls and laid out in the grass of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park. The National Park Service closed the Tortugas Sunday, Jan. 1, 2022, after almost 500 Cuban migrants arrived there over the course of several days. Provided photo
The tide began to turn after both the DeSantis and Biden administrations ordered up more state and federal resources to deal with the spiraling impacts. By February, there was a precipitous drop in migrant voyages — likely due to an increase in Coast Guard and Customs patrols and more Florida National Guard helicopters and planes and aircraft, boats and officers from the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Florida Department of Law Enforcement sent to the area.
A group of people who just arrived on migrant boats from Cuba stand on the side of the road on Duck Key in the Florida Keys Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. David Goodhue [email protected]
Last month along the U.S. border with Mexico, a record monthly migrant surge — an estimated 10,000 people a day — has overwhelmed agencies. South Florida’s seasonal bump has been barely noticeable in comparison, with only sporadic landings.
On Tuesday, 25 men, four women and one child arrived from Cuba in a makeshift vessel came ashore in the Marquesas, a remote group of uninhabited islands located about 20 miles west of Key West, according to the Border Patrol. One person in the group was taken to the hospital and then released to the Border Patrol, said Adam Hoffner, assistant chief patrol agent for the Miami Sector.
A homemade boat used by Cuban migrants to reach the United States sits off shore at Harry Harris Park in Tavernier, in the Florida Keys, on Jan. 14, 2023. Jose A. Iglesias [email protected]
Early Sunday morning, a group of 11 Cuban migrants arrived on shore in Key Largo in the Upper Keys, according to the Border Patrol.
Recent interdictions at sea by Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations crews also have risen. On Tuesday, the Coast Guard Cutter William Flores returned 56 people to Cuba who were stopped during three different voyages as they approached the Keys between December 26 and December 29, the agency said.
That’s a trickle compared to the wave of migration voyages last year. So far this fiscal year, which began October 1, the Coast Guard reported it has stopped 235 people leaving Cuba for U.S. shores. Nearly 4,000 people attempted the journey during the same time frame last year, according to Coast Guard numbers.
The number of migrants making landfall also is down, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Numbers from December aren’t available yet for but so far this fiscal year, the Border reports that fewer than 120 migrants have been apprehended on land in South Florida. In comparison, the months surrounding the last holiday season, from October 2022 to January 2023, saw the largest spike in South Florida arrivals with some 4,673 people, according to the database.
Another probable factor driving last year’s surge: At the time, Cuba had blocked deportation flights from the U.S. and had not accepted any going back to 2020. Practically speaking, Cuban migrants who made it to land through the offshore net of Coast Guard craft were designated to be “processed for removal.”
That can be a complicated and lengthy process. They are given a date to appear before an immigration judge and released to family and friends in the states. It could mean months or years go by before they present their claim of relief and protection in court.
The Biden administration has also said that anyone caught at sea will be banned from a two-year humanitarian parole program that allows people from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua to live and work in the United States for two years if they have a financial sponsor. The program, which has allowed tens of thousands of individuals to legally migrate to the United States, is also credited with a drop in Cubans and Haitians taking to the seas to South Florida.
CUBA DEPORTATION FLIGHTS RESUME
But deportation flights to Cuba appear to have quietly resumed sometime last year, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement press release. Between Dec. 26 and 29, ICE arranged “over thirty repatriation flights transporting thousands of individuals back to their country of origin,” the release states.
The majority of these people were taken to Mexico, but planes were also flown to Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Central America, according to the ICE statement.
The agencies’ data also put numbers to the immigration surge last year. Overall during the last fiscal year from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023, the Border Patrol responded to 5,741 migrant who made it to land in its Miami Sector, which includes the Keys, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s online database. But far more people were intercepted before making landfall last year Through September 2023, the Coast Guard stopped 11,955 migrants at sea, according to Coast Guard figures released to the Herald Wednesday.
Cuba, where the communist government is dealing with its worst crisis in decades with widespread shortages of food and medicines and spiraling inflation, was the major source of illegal immigration. The Coast Guard caught and returned 6,170 people, from Cuba. But Haiti also saw an exodus, with the Coast Guard intercepting 3,717 people from the troubled nation before making landfall. In addition, the Coast Guard reported stopping 1,965 people from the Dominican Republic, 16 from the Bahamas and 87 of “other nationalities.”
A sail freighter used by Haitian migrants to reach the United States sits off the coast of Key Largo in the Florida Keys Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. . Pedro Portal [email protected]
Though the number of voyages seems to have decline of late, Beals stressed that federal agencies will not let down their guard.
“As we enter the new year, the Coast Guard and our Homeland Security Task Force-Southeast partners remain committed to patrolling the Florida Straits, Windward and Mona Passages to prevent and deter unlawful entry into the U.S. by sea,” he said.
This story was originally published January 4, 2024, 1:11 PM by the Miami Herald.