Crewmembers from U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba distribute personal flotation devices to people from Haiti on board a 30-foot sailing vessel, in the Atlantic Ocean, Feb. 5, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard/TNS)
MIAMI (Tribune News Service) — The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted an overloaded migrant boat carrying more than 130 people from Haiti, including small children, near the Florida Keys last week.
The sailboat was traveling between Cuba and Cay Sal Bank in the Bahamas, about 50 miles southeast of the Middle Keys city of Marathon, when it was spotted Feb. 4 by a Coast Guard airplane crew and a Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations crew, according to a Coast Guard statement.
Photos released by the Coast Guard showed crew members caring for small children and infants. There were a total of 132 people on the sailboat, the Coast Guard said.
“The Coast Guard will continue to prioritize strengthening our domestic integrity and disrupting attempts to enter the United States illegally by sea,” Lt. Zane Carter, a Coast Guard District 7 enforcement officer, said in a statement. “We are steadfast in our mission to safeguard America by securing our maritime borders.”
A crewmember from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba checking on multiple people from Haiti after an interdiction in the Atlantic Ocean, Feb. 6, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard/TNS)
The interdiction comes about two weeks after the Coast Guard announced it was surging personnel and assets to South Florida to comply with the Trump administration’s orders to use the military to secure the U.S. border. On Monday, the people were returned to Haiti on board the Coast Guard cutter Escanaba.
The Coast Guard said it has returned 313 people to Haiti who were stopped at sea since Oct. 1. In all of fiscal year 2024, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, the total number of Haitians intercepted at sea was 857, according to the Coast Guard.
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