Sev­en­ty-sev­en mi­grants at­tempt­ing to en­ter the Unit­ed States il­le­gal­ly have been repa­tri­at­ed to Cu­ba and the Ba­hamas over the last week, ac­cord­ing to the Unit­ed States Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard al­so in­ter­dict­ed three ves­sels car­ry­ing a to­tal of 96 mi­grants from the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic in the Mona Straits – an area be­tween the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Puer­to Ri­co which con­nects the Caribbean Sea with the At­lantic Ocean.

The US Coast Guard said with as­sis­tance from Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Task Force it would main­tain “a con­tin­u­al pres­ence with air, land, and sea as­sets in the Flori­da Straits, the Wind­ward Pas­sage, the Mona Pas­sage and the Caribbean Sea, col­lab­o­rat­ing to pro­tect the safe­ty of life at sea.

“Don’t take to the sea, as it’s a dan­ger­ous voy­age and you could lose your life,” warned Lieu­tenant Matt Miller, Dis­trict Sev­en re­sponse law en­force­ment of­fi­cer.

“Our mar­itime bor­ders are closed for un­law­ful en­try to the US,” he added. “If you at­tempt it, it will re­sult in your dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the Cu­ba and Haiti pa­role process.”

“We urge any­one seek­ing to cross the Mona Pas­sage by any un­law­ful means to not take to the sea,” warned Lieu­tenant Com­man­der Ed­ward Ku­nigo­nis, Sec­tor San Juan chief of en­force­ment.

“These voy­ages are high­ly dan­ger­ous and, most of­ten, take place aboard gross­ly over­loaded and un­sea­wor­thy ves­sels that have no life­sav­ing equip­ment,” he added. “If you are caught, you could al­so face pos­si­ble pros­e­cu­tion, be re­turned to your coun­try of ori­gin, or be dis­qual­i­fied from en­ter­ing the Unit­ed States legal­ly in the fu­ture.”

Dur­ing the first in­ter­dic­tion event, the US Coast Guard said the cut­ter Don­ald Hors­ley in­ter­dict­ed a 35-foot makeshift ves­sel af­ter an air­crew de­tect­ed the sus­pect ves­sel west of Cabo Ro­jo, Puer­to Ri­co.

The crew of the cut­ter Don­ald Hors­ley em­barked all 64 adult mi­grants of which 62 claimed to be Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic na­tion­als, and two oth­ers claimed to be Haitians, the US Coast Guard said.

In the sec­ond in­ter­dic­tion, it said the cut­ter Don­ald Hors­ley in­ter­dict­ed a 23-foot makeshift af­ter watch­standers re­ceived a dis­tress call on VHF Chan­nel 16 of a ves­sel tak­ing on wa­ter south­west of Cabo Ro­jo, Puer­to Ri­co.

The crew of the Cut­ter Don­ald Hors­ley ar­rived on the scene and em­barked two adult mi­grants, in­clud­ing one Hait­ian and a Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic na­tion­al, the US Coast Guard said.

Dur­ing the third in­ter­dic­tion, the US Coast Guard said the Don­ald Hors­ley in­ter­dict­ed a 25-foot makeshift ves­sel af­ter the air­crew of a Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sen­try air­craft de­tect­ed the sus­pect ves­sel north­west of Aguadil­la, Puer­to Ri­co.

The crew of the Don­ald Hors­ley em­barked 30 adult mi­grants of which 26 claimed to be Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic na­tion­als and the re­main­ing four claimed to be Haitians, the US Coast Guard said.

It said the Don­ald Hors­ley crew trans­ferred all 96 mi­grants to a Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic Navy ves­sel just off the coast of Pun­ta Cana, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

Since Oc­to­ber 1, 2022, the US Coast Guard said its crews in­ter­dict­ed or en­coun­tered 6,701 Cubans and 4,512 Hait­ian mi­grants.

MI­A­MI, May 28, 2023, CMC

CMC/nk/nhb/2023