Coast Guard, Border Patrol make apprehensions off Florida’s coast
As U.S. Coast Guard crews continue to make a record number of apprehensions off Florida’s coast, so are U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector agents. On Saturday, 20 Cubans, including 16 men and four women, were apprehended and taken into Border Patrol custody after making landfall on a rustic vessel in the Marquesas Keys. The islands are uninhabited and located west of Key West. On January 24, Customs and Border Patrol Air and Marine Operations crew agents rescued 18 people on an overloaded rustic vessel south of the Florida Keys. Miami Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Walter Slosar posted a compilation of videos on social media about the types of vessels people are arriving on, warning how dangerous the journey is. Illegal maritime voyages onboard overloaded or homemade vessels are extremely dangerous and potentially fatal. We urge individuals to use safe and legal pathways available to travel to the U.S. and to not take to the sea.#DontTakeToTheSea #alert #VIDEOS #reelsinstagram #Florida pic.twitter.com/EblxoNwkjD— Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar (@USBPChiefMIP) January 24, 2023 “Illegal maritime voyages onboard overloaded or homemade vessels are extremely dangerous and potentially fatal,” he said. “We urge individuals to use safe and legal pathways available to travel to the U.S. and to not take to the sea.” The Miami Border Patrol Sector has reported a significant increase in apprehensions over the past few months after reporting a 500% increase in apprehensions in fiscal 2022. From September 1, 2021, to October 31, 2022, Miami Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 2,350 foreign nationals attempting to illegally enter Florida by sea. The majority were Cubans. They also interdicted 131 maritime smuggling events, a 330% increase from fiscal 2021, Slosar said last month. In December, Miami Sector agents apprehended a record 1,664 illegal foreign nationals and reported that 107 evaded capture by law enforcement, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square from a Border Patrol agent. In January so far, these numbers include 1,399 apprehensions and 40 gotaways, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square. This is in addition to U.S. Coast Guard crew in the first three months of fiscal 2023 apprehending 1,766 Haitians and 5,183 Cubans. In fiscal 2022, they apprehended a record 7,175 Haitians and 6,182 Cubans. By comparison, they apprehended 49 Cubans in fiscal 2020. Responsible for patrolling 1,200 miles of coastal border in Florida, Miami Sector Border Patrol agents regularly work with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction over the Florida Keys. Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency after roughly 500 people were apprehended in one weekend attempting to enter Florida illegally, placing a burden on local and state resources. Roughly two weeks later, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a statement saying, “Cubans and Haitians who take to the sea and land on U.S. soil will be ineligible for the parole process and will be placed in removal proceedings.” In addition to apprehending people, Border Patrol agents also continue to seize drugs. Last weekend, “Good Samaritans discovered suspicious packages that washed up in the Florida Keys,” Slosar said. The packages contained 146 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2.3 million. Since October, Miami Sector Border Patrol agents have seized more than 70 pounds of cocaine and 20 pounds of marijuana that washed up on Florida shores in St. Lucie County alone. These drugs had an estimated street value of roughly $940,000, Slosar said. Also, in the first three months of fiscal 2023, CBP Air and Marine agents confiscated nearly 20 tons of narcotics. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
White House faces bipartisan backlash on Haitian migrants
The White House is facing sharp condemnation from Democrats for its handling of the influx of Haitian migrants at the U.S. southern border after images of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback using aggressive tactics went viral this week. Striking video of agents maneuvering their horses to forcibly block and move migrants attempting to cross the border has sparked resounding criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill, who are calling on the Biden administration to end its use of a pandemic-era authority to deport migrants without giving them an opportunity to seek asylum in the United States. At the same time, the administration continues to face attacks from Republicans, who say Joe Biden isn’t doing enough to deal with what they call a “crisis” at the border. Reflecting the urgency of the political problem for the administration, Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday the images “horrified” him, a seeming shift in tone from a day earlier when he and others were more sanguine about the situation at the border. It’s a highly uncomfortable position for the administration, led by a president who has set himself up as a tonic for the harshness of his predecessor. But immigration is a complex issue, one no administration has been able to fix in decades. And Biden is trapped between conflicting interests of broadcasting compassion while dealing with throngs of migrants coming to the country — illegally — seeking a better life. The provision in question, known as Title 42, was put in place by the Trump administration in March 2020 to justify restrictive immigration policies in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But the Biden administration has used Title 42 to justify the deportation of Haitian migrants who in recent days have set up an encampment in and around the small city of Del Rio, Texas. The provision gives federal health officials powers during a pandemic to take extraordinary measures to limit the transmission of an infectious disease. A federal judge late last week ruled the regulation was improper and gave the government two weeks before its use was to be halted, but the Biden administration on Monday appealed the decision. “The Biden administration pushing back on this stay of expulsions is another example of broken promises to treat migrants with respect and humanity when they reach our borders to exercise their fundamental right to asylum,” said Karla Marisol Vargas, senior attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project and co-counsel on the litigation. NAACP President Derrick Johnson demanded a meeting with Biden to discuss the situation and called the treatment of the Haitian migrants “utterly sickening.” “The humanitarian crisis happening under this administration on the southern border disgustingly mirrors some of the darkest moments in America’s history,” he said in a statement. Shortly after the judge’s decision on Friday, Homeland Security officials formed a plan to begin immediately turning the groups of Haitian migrants around, working against the clock. But people kept coming. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, an administration ally, said images of the treatment of the migrants “turn your stomach” and called on the administration to discontinue the “hateful and xenophobic” policies of Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. “The policies that are being enacted now — and the horrible treatment of these innocent people who have come to the border — must stop immediately,” he told the Senate on Tuesday. Trump essentially put a chokehold on immigration. He decreased the number of refugees admitted to a record low, made major changes to policy, and essentially shut down asylum. Biden has undone many of the Trump-era policies, but since his inauguration, the U.S. has seen a dramatic spike in the number of people encountered by border officials. The Haitian migrants are the latest example. More than 6,000 Haitians and other migrants have been removed from the encampment in Del Rio, and Mayorkas predicted a “dramatic change” in the number of migrants there within the next two to four days as the administration continues the removal process. As the controversy swirled around him, Biden spent his Tuesday address at the U.N. General Assembly in New York calling for the global community to come together to defend human rights and combat injustice worldwide, declaring, “the future will belong to those who embrace human dignity, not trample it.” The remarks stood in notable contrast to images of the Border Patrol agents on horseback. Biden himself seemed to acknowledge the challenge his administration faces with immigration, offering a clipped response when asked by a reporter after his U.N. remarks to offer his reaction to the images. “We’ll get it under control,” he insisted. Vice President Kamala Harris also weighed in, telling reporters in Washington that she was “deeply troubled” by the images and planned to talk to Mayorkas about the situation. Harris has been tasked with addressing the root causes of migration to the U.S. and emphasized that the U.S. should “support some very basic needs that the people of Haiti have” that are causing them to flee their homes for the U.S. Videos and photos taken in recent days in and around Del Rio show Border Patrol agents confronting Haitians along the Rio Grande near a border bridge where thousands of migrants have gathered in hopes of entering the country. One Border Patrol agent on horseback was seen twirling his long leather reins in a menacing way at the Haitian migrants but not actually striking anyone. There was no sign in photos and videos viewed by The Associated Press that the mounted agents were carrying whips or using their reins as such when confronting the migrants. The agents, wearing chaps and cowboy hats, maneuvered their horses to forcibly block and move the migrants, almost seeming to herd them. In at least one instance, they were heard taunting the migrants. Asked about the images on Tuesday, Mayorkas told lawmakers that the issue had been “uppermost in my mind” ever since he had seen them. He said the department had alerted its inspector general’s
