Officials: More than 2 dozen detained after 2 migrant landings in Keys

Key West migrant landing (@USBPChiefMIP)

KEY WEST, Fla. – Officials detained more than two dozen Cuban migrants in two separate landings in the Florida Keys Wednesday morning.

Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar, who heads the U.S. Border Patrol’s Miami sector, tweeted an image of a waterlogged makeshift rowboat that he said carried 23 men and two women from the island’s Artemisa region.

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A source tells Local 10 News that this group of migrants landed near Smathers Beach in Key West.

Slosar said the migrants weren’t injured and were taken into custody by his agency.

In a separate landing, a “small group” of migrants landed in Tavernier Wednesday morning.

It’s not clear exactly how many migrants were in that group.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, crews have intercepted more than 3,700 Cuban migrants since Oct. 1, 2021, as federal officials deal with a massive increase in migration from the island.

On Tuesday, the Coast Guard sent 58 migrants back to Cuba following multiple interdictions at sea and Sunday morning, officials took 21 Cubans into custody in two separate landings in the Keys.


About the Authors:

Janine Stanwood joined Local 10 News in February 2004 as an assignment editor. She is now a general assignment reporter. Before moving to South Florida from her Washington home, Janine was the senior legislative correspondent for a United States senator on Capitol Hill.

Chris Gothner joined the Local 10 News team in 2022 as a Digital Journalist.