In our series of stories on migrant landings in the Florida Keys, Reporter Sophia Hernandez shares how on the water, fewer migrant boats are appearing and what that means for those patrolling the water.
It’s what U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations agents call the perfect day.
“We have had a tremendous amount of really fair weather,” shared the Supervisor of the Marathon Air and Marine Operations Sector.
On this particular day out on the water, the horizon is crystal clear. But homemade boats filled with migrants are nowhere in sight.
“It’s peculiar,” shared the supervisor. “We should be seeing more than we are seeing. I think it’s going to pick up but right now, it’s pretty slow.”
On the ride offshore, the supervisor, who preferred not to share his name, answered the big question: “What has been happening within the last couple of months since we saw peak craziness at the beginning of the year?”
“We’ve noticed a decline over the last four months or so. Not really sure the root of the slowdown," he answered. “Some of the info that we have been privy to indicates that there have been tightened restrictions on procuring materials to make vessels in Cuba, so that’s probably one of the big reasons.”
He furthered that this decline in migrant landings could also be because of policy changes such as legal parole programs open to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans that include securing a sponsor in the US.
“On a busy week six months ago, we would see potentially one a day, sometimes more than one a day, and that’s 20 to 40 people a day if it’s a single vessel. Multiply that by two or three if it’s a busy day,” he continued. “Versus now, we are getting one every other week.”
Nonetheless, their work continues. The crew of three scours the seas for anything that looks out of place.
“You don’t know if they are out here unless you are out here looking for them. So just because it was slow yesterday doesn’t mean it was slow today," the supervisor said.
Slow was the case when our crew's cameras were rolling—that’s until the supervisor shouted, “Hold on!”
Via the boat’s radio transmission were the coordinates to a fishing boat with no fishing rods and Texas plates being read aloud. The Supervisor showed us the technology that allowed him to find the boat.
“This is going to show us where they are at, so they are 30 miles away from us.”
Our boat makes the bumpy trek south toward the marker.
During the trek, another crew is demonstrating tactical approaches their teams would use at night when approaching an alarming vessel.
Finally, we get to the spot. It’s about 17 miles off the shore of Marathon, where the crew pulls over a boat that looks suspicious.
The crew asks the driver of the vessel questions like "Where are you from?" and "Where are you going?"
With air assistance overhead, the crews continue to run records on the boat and the persona board. Until the all-clear is given, the crew makes sure there are no undocumented migrants or signs of human smuggling.
In this case, the fisherman is let go.
“We are on routine patrol and our air assets identified a target northbound from seemingly Cuba…both of them came back clean, nothing derogatory or outstanding," the supervisor said.
Officials said it’s pretty common.
“It’s a needle in a haystack. There’s a lot of water. Our range is about 100 miles, 50 to the east, 50 to the west, overlapping with Key West and Key Largo, and then out to 12 miles.” he said. “It’s slowed down a lot from six months ago. We are probably 10% of what we were then, just active interdictions on a daily basis."
While our ride had clear skies, Florida’s ever-changing weather could also be a deterrent.
Officials said some of the migrant vessels rely on calm seas, not stormy ones. Customs and Border Protection officials have three boats running daily with air assistance from their agency as well as the Coast Guard.
They are ensuring they are ready for if and when more boats appear.
