Twenty-three Cuban nationals arrived in Islamorada on a rustic sailing boat this Thursday in the Florida Keys (South America), and were placed under the control of immigration officials for deportation purposes.
“This morning, United States Border Patrol agents responded to a landing in the Florida Keys and encountered 23 migrants from Cuba,” Walter N. Slossar, chief of the Border Patrol’s Miami region, said on Twitter about security.
Photos published with the message showed that the boat had written the phrases on the hull: “God will provide” and “Even though the path is difficult, I walk, God is with me.”
According to information from the US Coast Guard, more Cubans arriving by sea have been detained in the first six months of the current fiscal year, which began on October 1, than in the entire previous fiscal year (6,182).
The economic and social crisis Cuba is facing has accelerated the exodus of Cubans, both by land and sea, especially to the United States.
So far this year, more than 2,600 Cubans have been repatriated from the US.
In recent days, the United States Embassy in Havana indicated that not all people who jump into the ocean will be eligible for a humanitarian “parole” (visa) program launched by the Joe Biden administration last January.
The measure – the diplomatic headquarters said – applies retroactively to everyone who has tried to reach the United States illegally by sea since April 27.
