Photo from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
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The pitch-black waters of the Atlantic Ocean nearly became a graveyard for scores of Haitian migrants found overflowing on a sinking vessel Thursday morning by United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, according to a CBP official.
In a tweet Thursday morning, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott commended federal agents on the rescue, where he says they saved 240 Haitian migrants trying to illegally cross into the U.S. in South Florida. While Haitian migration has been a hot topic in the U.S. for years, it’s only become more enflamed since President Donald Trump began his second term. The U.S.initially extended Haitian refugee protections in 2010 after a devastating earthquake, renewing what’s known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) periodically since then, thanks to gang violence and crumbling medical infrastructure that’s left more than 1 million people displaced, according to NPR.
In his tweet, Scott shared images and a video depicting dozens of people packed onto a blue vessel. Scott called federal agents’ work “outstanding,” writing, “This week, air interdiction agents located a vessel carrying 240 migrants from Haiti attempting an illegal maritime migration. The overcrowded vessel was taking on water and in danger of sinking. Our personnel helped prevent what could have been a catastrophic loss of life while stopping yet another illegal migration attempt.
“The message remains clear: illegal maritime migration is dangerous, it is not worth the risk, and you will not gain entry into the U.S.”
While Scott chose to split his tweet between admonishing migrants for a dangerous act and praising the federal agents’ rescue operation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took a decidedly different view. In a tweet from its official X account (taking a note from Trump’s all-caps book), officials wrote, “OUR BORDERS ARE CLOSED. Whether by land or sea — if you try to enter our nation illegally, we will hunt you down and find you.”
Turks and Caicos authorities took custody of the vessel and migrants, which included 191 adult men, 44 adult women, and five minors, a CBP spokesman told New Times. The spokesman didn’t answer whether anyone would be charged with crimes in connection with the incident.
