Young Migrant Children Threatened by Smugglers as Coast Guard Approaches Boat

Coast Guard crews interdict a sailing vessel overloaded with 145 Haitian migrants. (U.S. C
U.S. Coast Guard -- 7th District
Bob Price

A group of migrants on an overloaded sailing vessel threatened to harm young children as a Coast Guard cutter approached to interdict the smuggling attempt. The crew backed off to allow for de-escalation but later took the group into custody.

On Sunday morning at about 10:30, crew members of the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa encountered an overloaded sailing vessel as it entered Bahamian waters. As the crew approached, some migrants onboard threatened to harm a few young children if the Coast Guard came closer, according to a statement from Coast Guard District 7 officials.

The cutter crew backed away and waited for several hours while attempting to de-escalate the situation. Following negotiations, the cutter’s crew finally gained compliance from the migrants onboard the sailing vessel.

Coast Guard officials took 145 migrants into custody. It appears none of the migrants wore any water safety devices. They identified the migrants as Haitian nationals.

The Coast Guard turned the migrants over to Royal Bahamian Defense Forces who transported them for immigration processing, officials stated.

Coast Guard crews interdicted another group of 311 Haitian migrants in an overloaded boat on February 15.  The crews worked quickly to recover the migrants from the boat as it began listing to starboard while taking on water.

By mid-February, Coast Guard officials reported that since the beginning of FY23 (October 1, 2022) Coast Guard crews successfully interdicted 3,117 Haitian migrants at sea. The Coast Guard reported prior year apprehensions to include:

  • 7,175 Haitian Migrants in Fiscal Year 2022
  • 1,527 Haitian Migrants in Fiscal Year 2021
  • 418 Haitian Migrants in Fiscal Year 2020
  • 932 Haitian Migrants in Fiscal Year 2019
  • 609 Haitian Migrants in Fiscal Year 2018
  • 419 Haitian Migrants in Fiscal Year 2017

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook

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