More than half of nation's migrant interdictions at sea happen off Florida coast
Our journey began on water with federal agents from air and marine patrol. The team is a specialized law enforcement division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Their mission is to stop migrants from making it on land in the U.S. illegally. “It’s getting tough because it’s a numbers game,” explained Interdiction Agent John Apollony, who has worked on the high seas in the Florida Keys since 2009. If Florida is a gateway into the country, the Florida Keys is a 180-mile-long central hub where freedom-seeking migrants, mostly from Cuba and Haiti, are often willing to do anything and risk everything to get here.
