San Juan.- The US Coast Guard reported this Wednesday that repatriated 17 migrants to the Dominican Republic who were detained during an operation carried out last week near Mona Island, a nature reserve located west of Puerto Rico.
“I am incredibly proud of our team along with Air Station Borinquen of the Coast Guard and our partners from the Caribbean Interagency Border Group,” Alexander Rodgers, commanding officer of the coast guard vessel Heriberto Hernández, stressed in a statement.
According to authorities, the arrest of the migrants occurred on the night of November 5, after the crew of an HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft from the Miami Air Station of the Coast Guard sighted an improvised boat in the southwest of the Mona Island.?
The coast guard of the San Juan sector diverted the vessel Heriberto Hernández to carry out the operation.
Once on site, the crew of the Heriberto Hernández deployed the ship Over the Horizon, which stopped the suspicious boat with the migrants on board, who claimed to be from the Dominican Republic.?
The immigrants were repatriated and transferred to the authorities of the Dominican Republic Navy.
One of the intercepted migrants remains in custody United States to be prosecuted by the District Court of Puerto Rico for attempting to illegally re-enter the United States under 8 USC 1326.
The individual is pending prosecution and was transferred to the custody of the US Border Patrol in Mayagüez.
“We urge all people who are thinking about participating in one of these trips to not put their lives in danger by doing what they did in March and instead look for safe, orderly and legal migration routes,” Rodger concluded.
The migrants face several charges including attempted re-entry into USA under 8 USC 1326, unlawful entry into the United States under 8 USC 1325, and failure to land under 18 USC 2237.
The Mona Passage or Canal, which separates Puerto Rico of the Dominican Republic, It is a migratory route widely used by Dominicans and Haitians who try to reach Puerto Rico, a Free Associated State of the United States.
