The arrival of at least 300 Cuban migrants in the last two days at Dry Tortugas National Park, in the Florida Keys, forced its temporary closure this Sunday while the authorities attend to and rescue stranded newcomers from the islets.
The Coast Guard reported that it is aware of the disembarkation of multiple boats involving Cuban migrants this weekend in the park, located more than 70 miles west of Key West, where they will be transferred.
The reserve, a chain of islets in the Gulf of Mexico, will be closed to visitors starting Monday, January 2, and for several days, the National Park Service said Sunday.
He noted that there has been a recent increase in people arriving by boat from Cuba to the park and other sites in the Florida Keys.
On Sunday, January 1, Border Patrol agents also confirmed that they had separately detained more than 160 Cuban citizens who had begun to arrive early that day.
By afternoon, agents had counted at least 10 different immigrant landings that had stretched from Key Largo to the Florida Keys.
Concession-operated ferry and seaplane services have also been temporarily suspended, it said.
The closure is necessary for the safety of visitors and for authorities to have the space and facilities to care for migrants, federal authorities said.
Law enforcement agencies in the United States are dealing with the largest increase in maritime migration. of Cuba and Haiti in almost a decade, as both countries experience worsening crisis and economic turmoil.
In the case of the Cubans, the migrants have been arriving in smaller, homemade boats.
Haitian citizens, meanwhile, travel in large, crowded boats.
The Coast Guard and other federal, state and local agencies are coordinating efforts to rescue people currently stranded on the remote and uninhabited islands, said Rear Admiral Brendan C. McPherson, commander of the Coast Guard’s Seventh District.
He noted that they will be provided with food, water and basic first aid before being transferred to federal immigration agents in the Florida Keys.
They will then be processed by Border Patrol to determine their legal status, whether they remain in the United States or they will be processed for removal and repatriation, explained the also director of the Southeast Homeland Security Task Force.
He warned that “irregular and illegal maritime migration is always dangerous and very often deadly. Don’t go to sea.”
So far this fiscal year 2023, that is, since last October 1, the Coast Guard has intercepted 3,839 Cubans at sea, a significant escalation of arrests compared to the 838 intercepted in the entire fiscal year of 2021 and the 6,182 in 2022.
According to figures provided by the US authorities, in fiscal year 2020 there were only 49 Cuban immigrants intercepted, and in 2018 the number reached 259, while in 2017 and 2016 1,468 and 5,396 Cubans were intercepted at sea, respectively.
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This story was originally published on January 1, 2023 8:12 p.m.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
