Smuggled Chinese Migrants Apprehended After Boat Landing on Florida Beach

Border Patrol agents in the Miami Sector apprehended a group of Chinese migrants who were smuggled via boat to a beach landing. Border Patrol officials report increases in the smuggling of Chinese migrants in multiple border sectors.

Miami Sector Chief Patrol Agent Walter Slosar tweeted that agents and other law enforcement partners responded to a “suspected maritime smuggling event” on Monday morning. The agents initially apprehended four migrants who were identified as Chinese nationals.

Later that day, the chief updated the report, tweeting that agents apprehended a total of ten Chinese migrants from the incident. The agents turned the migrants over to ICE Homeland Security Investigations for additional investigation and processing.

WPLG CBS 10 in Miami reported the incident took place on Sunny Isles Beach in Florida. The news outlet provided video of the migrant landing and agents searching for the Chinese nationals attempting to avoid apprehension.

“While we were in the hotel we saw like cops and sirens and we were a little bit confused and then when we came outside we saw a bunch of like Asian people that were being stopped,” a local witness Diego Quevedo told the CBS affiliate. “Apparently, they were saying they came in a boat and there were like 10-15 of them and they caught like four or five over there.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports an exponential increase in the number of Chinese migrants apprehensions taking place along U.S. borders. During the first six months of Fiscal Year 23, which began on October 1, 2022, agents apprehended 6,558 Chinese migrants who entered the United States outside of a legal port of entry.

The apprehension of nearly 6,600 Chinese migrants in six months nearly equals the combined totals of the entire six previous years (6,772 Chinese migrants), according to official Border Patrol reports.