More than 150 Haitian migrants land in the Florida Keys, officials say

David Goodhue
·2 min read
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Hundreds of migrants from Haiti arrived in a wooden boat off shore of an exclusive gated community in north Key Largo Sunday afternoon, according to authorities.

Initial reports estimate between 150 and 200 people were on board the vessel when it stopped in the shallow water off Ocean Reef Club after 1 p.m., said Adam Linhardt, spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

READ MORE: Over 1,000 migrants have made the risky trip to Florida in 2022. Will they keep coming?

Dozens of Haitian migrants gather on shore at Ocean Reef Club, a gated community in north Key Largo, Sunday, March 6, 2022. The people are part of a large migrant group that arrived on a wooden boat that day.
Dozens of Haitian migrants gather on shore at Ocean Reef Club, a gated community in north Key Largo, Sunday, March 6, 2022. The people are part of a large migrant group that arrived on a wooden boat that day.

More than a hundred people on the boat swam to shore moments after the vessel grounded, with some needing medical assistance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Chief Agent Walter N. Slosar said Sunday night via Twitter.

Haitian migrants are gathered on a wooden vessel that grounded off Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo Sunday, March 6, 2022.
Haitian migrants are gathered on a wooden vessel that grounded off Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo Sunday, March 6, 2022.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection initially said in a statement released on Twitter that the landing was a “human smuggling event.” Officials, however, now say it looks like a mass migration incident that does not involve smugglers, given the type of vessel used.

“We’re not seeing any signs of smuggling,” said Nestor Yglesias, spokesman for Homeland Security Investigations, the agency that investigates human smuggling crimes.

Human smuggling usually involves the use of a speedboat or cabin cruiser to deliver people. On Sunday, the migrants loaded on to an aging wooden boat that from the looks of it had questionable seaworthiness.

Law enforcement sources say it doesn’t appear any of the people who arrived are in need of serious medical attention.

This is the third large group of migrants stopped between Haiti and the United States in a week, with an estimated total of more than 500 people whom U.S. immigration officials have taken into custody. Two interdictions last week — on Sunday and Friday morning — resulted in 179 and 123 people taken into custody respectively.

Those incidents happened off two separate islands of the Bahamas.

Haitian migrants are gathered on a wooden vessel that grounded off Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo Sunday, March 6, 2022.
Haitian migrants are gathered on a wooden vessel that grounded off Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo Sunday, March 6, 2022.

The Ocean Reef area is also becoming a common spot for large groups of Haitian migrants to arrive in South Florida.

In January, 176 people were stopped near Ocean Reef.

On Christmas Eve, Border Patrol agents took 52 people from Haiti into custody after they arrived by sailboat off a remote two-lane highway that leads to Ocean Reef called Card Sound Road. That landing came after 63 Haitian migrants landed in almost the same location on Card Sound Road, again in an overloaded sailboat.

This is a developing story and will be updated when more information is available.

Reporter Omar Rodríguez Ortiz contributed to this report.