A rickety wooden sailboat that washed up in the Upper Florida Keys ferrying at least 63 Haitian migrants came directly from Haiti, some of the migrants told U.S. immigration authorities.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Division Chief Adam Hoffner said the migrants told authorities they “spent over three weeks out at sea.”
If that’s the case, it would be the first time in more than two years that such a large group of Haitians managed to evade the U.S. Coast Guard, whose patrol of the Florida Straits has led to the interceptions of thousands of would-be Haitian migrants trying to illegally enter the U.S. either directly from Haiti or from the Bahamas.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.
