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() — U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents detained more than a hundred Cuban immigrants after several boats made landfall in South Florida over Labor Day weekend, while Cuba it is grappling with its worst food and medicine shortages in decades and rampant inflation.
On Monday, USBP agents apprehended 15 migrants — 13 men and 2 women — after they landed on Miami-Dade’s Haulover Beach, Miami Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Walter Slosa said. in a tweet.
On Saturday, two groups of migrants, numbering 42 Cubans, made landfall in the Dry Tortugas and Islamorada, Slosar said. On Friday, “45 Cuban immigrants were taken into Border Patrol custody after making landfall in the Marquesas Keys on a fishing boat,” said another tweet.
In the past year, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted 5,154 Cubans, the data shows. In 2016, the agency reported 5,396 interceptions, its highest number of interceptions of Cuban immigrants since the 1990s.
“This year alone, we know of at least 61 migrants who have lost their lives at sea, and that’s too many. It’s more than we’ve seen in decades,” said US Coast Guard Rear Adm. , Brendan McPherson, to affiliate WPLG. “We are very concerned about that,” he said.
There has also been an increase in the number of Cuban immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
Since October 2021, US Customs and Border Protection has encountered 175,674 Cubans on the southwest border, according to data from CBP Encounters. That’s a huge increase from the 38,674 Cubans last year and just 13,410 in 2020, the data shows.
McPherson said he doesn’t currently view the surge as a “crisis,” but said the agency is increasing its patrols by land, sea and air as a result.
