Miami Sector Border Patrol officials report hundreds of mostly Cuban migrant apprehensions as a resurgence of boats hit the Florida coastline.
Early on Wednesday morning, Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement partners responded to multiple boat landings in the Florida Keys. The agents managed to apprehend 44 Cuban migrants, according to a tweet from Miami Sector Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar.
Two days earlier, agents responded to three more migrant landings and apprehended 110 Cuban nationals.
During a night operation, Border Patrol agents saved the lives of two migrants. An agent held a life-saving rope while waiting for rescue boats to arrive.
During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Miami agents apprehended more than 180 migrants while responding to eight migrant boat landings.
In one of these incidents agents found a boat landing on Hollywood beach with nine migrants onboard. The migrants reported being a sea for seven days in this homemade vessel.
On Thanksgiving Day, Miami agents responded to at least three migrant landings. The encounters led to the apprehension of at least 51 migrants’
On November 22, Chief Slosar reported the apprehension of 19 Cuban migrants following a landing in Key Colony Beach.
Not all of the migrants are fortunate enough to make their way to the shoreline. On November 21, Coast Guard officials reported the rescue of more than 100 migrants after their boat hit a sand bar in rough seas off the coast of Whale Harbor. Border Patrol agents rescued 18 Haitian migrants who were trapped by dangerous ocean currents as they attempted to swim to shore.
The resurgence of Cubans and Haitian migrants making the dangerous trip by makeshift boats to the Florida coast adds to the tens of thousands being apprehended along the Texas-Mexico border.