The coast guard in Puerto Rico has repatriated 22 of the 25 Dominican immigrants who were arrested on Saturday when they tried to enter Puerto Rico illegally, in what is a new episode of illegal immigration in the area.
The Dominican citizens were delivered yesterday to a Dominican Navy vessel from Coast Guard vessel Joseph Napier.
In a statement, said security body said the boat in which the immigrants were traveling was stopped Saturday, about 20 nautical miles (about 37 kilometers) northwest of Mona Island (Puerto Rico).
Three of the intercepted migrants face possible federal prosecution by the US Attorney’s Office. UU for the District of Puerto Rico, for illegally attempting to re-enter the United States.
Since October 2018, the Coast Guard, together with the agencies associated with the federal public order and the Government of Puerto Rico, have intercepted more than 400 migrants and stopped several attempts to introduce contraband drugs by sea.
“The migrants were traveling in an unsafe boat due to the overload of passengers, who lacked all the required safety equipment and operated without navigation lights,” said Lieutenant John Schulz, Joseph Napier’s commanding officer.
“Many lives are lost every year because of these types of ventures that are a direct threat to the people trying to travel, each person saved is a testament to the criticality of the Coast Guard and the efforts of our partner agencies to ensure that there is an unnecessary loss of life in the waters surrounding Puerto Rico, “he added.
During a routine patrol on Friday at Canal de la Mona, the crew of a Coast Guard aircraft HC-144 from Miami Air Station detected a 35-foot yola, with an undetermined number of passengers on board, heading towards the port. Rich.
Joseph Napier intercepted the yola on Saturday morning and his crew boarded the 25 Dominican migrants: 24 men and one woman who were traveling on board.
Once aboard a Coast Guard boat, the migrants received food, shelter and basic medical care, as the protocol indicates.
After a maritime interdiction, some of the arrested migrants are repatriated to their country of origin.
In some cases, those migrants who have a criminal record with a possible connection to smuggling operations are handed over to the federal law enforcement authorities for criminal prosecution by the US Department of Justice.
Joseph Napier is a 154-foot fast response boat based in the capital of Puerto Rico.
The efforts of the Coast Guard under the Unified Resolution Operation contribute to the inter-institutional results that are achieved daily at the local level as part of Operation Caribbean Guard, which coordinates the efforts between the Coast Guard and the territorial public order associated agencies that work diligently to detect and interrupt illicit maritime traffic to Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands.
The Inter-Agency Caribbean Border Group was formally created to unify the efforts of the US Customs and Border Protection Service, the US Coast Guard, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico and the United Rapid Action Forces (FURA) of the Puerto Rico Police in their common objective of protecting the coasts of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. of the illegal traffic of migrants and drugs. (EFEUSA) .-
