Waves of Cuban, Haitian migrants encountered in Florida Keys since Dec. 30 – National & International News – THU 5Jan2023

Waves of Cuban, Haitian migrants encountered in Florida Keys since Dec. 30. Ukraine finds Iranian attack drone containing parts from 13 US companies.

NATIONAL NEWS

Waves of Cuban, Haitian migrants encountered in Florida Keys since Dec. 30

Yesterday, the Homeland Security Task Force-Southeast tweeted that it had either interdicted (turned back) or encountered 1,300 Cuban and Haitian migrants between Friday, Dec. 30, and Monday, Jan. 2. Some had landed and were transferred to Customs and Border Protection for processing, while others were turned back at sea. Reporting isn’t clear as to how many migrants HSTF-SE transferred to CBP and how many they blocked from arriving.

One of the boats used to make the dangerous 100-mile crossing.

Over the weekend, about 500 mostly Cuban migrants arrived in the Florida Keys. Over 300 came ashore at the Dry Tortugas National Park, forcing the closure of the park. However, the recent wave of sea arrivals did not stop on Monday. On Tuesday, 140 Haitian migrants landed on Key Largo. The same day, an additional 20 Cuban migrants arrived in Key West and 27 Cubans in Islamorada. Two cruise ships rescued an additional 50 migrants and surrendered to authorities on Tuesday. These are just the reports I could find, there are likely many more.

Arrivals continued on Wednesday when Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) for a news conference to discuss the issue. Monroe County contains all the Florida Keys and parts of two national parks on the southern tip of Florida. Sheriff Ramsay has called the wave of sea arrivals a “crisis” for his department and has criticized the federal response. On Wednesday, Ramsay said his county had seen an average of 10 boats arriving every day.

A chaotic and dangerous situation

Another tweet from HSTF-SE confirmed that since August 2022, Task Force interdicted 7,784 refugees at sea and encountered 4,401 that had landed. HSTF-SE also confirmed 65 migrants drowned in fiscal year 2022. The Chief of the Miami Border Patrol sector also said that since Oct. 1, 2022, the sector has experienced a 400% increase in migrant encounters.

Another boat migrants used to cross from Cuba.

Many of these migrants attempt the dangerous 100-mile crossing from Cuba in overloaded and unseaworthy vessels, sometimes cobbled together from improvised materials. Once they arrive, there’s no guarantee as to whether they will be able to stay or whether they’ll be sent back. Many migrants say that if they’re sent back, they’ll simply attempt the crossing again. It’s no wonder given the horrendous situations in both Cuba and Haiti.

Immigrant and human rights advocates have described our asylum system as arbitrary and cruel, and it often is. Our immigration laws haven’t had a serious overhaul in over 40 years. Enforcement is often left up to the whims of successive administrations and is never applied equitably. Even migrants who do manage claim asylum have to wait months or years for hearings in our overburdened immigration courts.

Mixed signals

Today, Biden announced a program to allow 30,000 migrants a month to arrive in the US from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela. This program will be open to people who apply from outside the US and can prove they have a US sponsor.

However, Biden also announced that his administration will extend Title 42, the Trump-era order that prevents migrants from seeking asylum, to arrivals from Cuba and Haiti. Currently, Title 42 only applies to migrants from Mexico, Venezuela and some Central American countries. This announcement comes even as Biden’s Department of Justice is preparing to defend the administration’s decision to end Title 42 before the Supreme Court. To say the administration is sending mixed signals on immigration would be an understatement.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Iranian attack drone used in Ukraine contained parts from 13 US companies

In recent months, Russian forces have been deploying loud, slow-moving Iranian-made attack drones to target buildings in Ukraine. Iran has denied supplying these drones to Russia, but US intelligence has confirmed that they are, in fact, Iranian. A Ukrainian team recently dissected a drone that was shot down and found that it contained parts made by 13 different US companies. The drone also contained parts from Canada, Switzerland, Taiwan, China and Japan. 

The report does not name the US companies or specifically say whether they are weapons manufacturers or other tech companies. The parts somehow found their way to Iran despite strict export controls the US has imposed on its companies to prevent such materials from falling into the wrong hands. The US is now looking at ways to beef up enforcement of those sanctions, but there aren’t many options. Apart from pushing companies to better monitor their supply chains, US intelligence must identify third-party sellers.

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