Inside Coast Guard’s search for migrants at sea near Florida
- Unrest in Caribbean fuels a potential surge in migrants entering US by sea
- Over 11K migrants stopped by Coast Guard at sea in FY 2023: Data
- Pilot: Migrants not concerned about getting caught, but weather for journey
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MIAMI (NewsNation) — Unrest in the Caribbean is fueling anticipation of an uptick in migrants looking to illegally enter the U.S. by sea.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis activated additional resources for the potential influx of migrant landings, including the U.S. Coast Guard, which performs daily surveillance missions by air, land and sea.
“We’ve all been following the news. We get frequent updates from our guys deployed down there. so we do anticipate some sort of an uptick,” said Coast Guard pilot Brian Trerice.
NewsNation’s Xavier Walton took an exclusive ride-along with the Coast Guard in Florida to see what protecting the nation’s borders looks like from a bird’s-eye view.
Flying over migrant landing hot spots
Hovering around 4,000 feet in the air, crews search hot spots that migrants typically visit before reaching American soil.
“You’re just cruising along and there’s two dudes standing on the rocks,” Trerice said, described the sighting of migrants during one flight. “We were able to drop them the can we have in the back with some water, some food and a radio.”
After migrants are spotted, the crew radios for a Coast Guard cutter — a type of boat — to intercept.
Surge in maritime smuggling
Hundreds of migrants have been caught at sea and repatriated to their home countries this fiscal year. The Coast Guard said it’s mostly Cuban and Haitian migrants.
During the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, Border Patrol agents responded to more than 5,700 migrants who landed in the Miami Sector, including the Florida Keys, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
However, more than 11,900 migrants were stopped by the Coast Guard at sea before making landfall, according to Coast Guard figures obtained by the Miami Herald.
The Coast Guard believes posturing by Border Patrol and other federal agencies is discouraging migrants from making the dangerous journey to America. Additionally, the agency noted that migrants aren’t worried about getting caught or hiding per se, but are more concerned about the weather as the journey to the U.S. can be extremely treacherous.
“They’re definitely checking the weather,” Trerice said. “They’re definitely checking forecasts, and they’re going to try and time their departure for the calmer seas.”