Coast Guard takes six people back to Cuba from two separate interceptions

Cuba admin October 14, 2026 0 Comments

Coast Guard takes six people back to Cuba from two separate interceptions

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter returned six people to Cuba Tuesday who were stopped in two separate interceptions over the past few days trying to migrate by sea to South Florida, the agency said.

The people were taken back to Cuba aboard the Cutter Isaac Mayo, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

On Thursday, an HC-144 Ocean Sentry patrol plane crew spotted what the Coast Guard called a rustic vessel southwest of Cay Sal, an uninhabited Bahamian island located between Cuba and South Florida. Three people were on board, and the crew of the Cutter Raymond Evans took them aboard.

One person was taken to shore for a medical evaluation, according to the Coast Guard.

On Sunday, an Air Station Miami crew spotted a disabled Cuban fishing boat with four people on board floating about 46 miles southeast of Key West, the Coast Guard said. They were taken aboard the Isaac Mayo.

The next day, a civilian boat crew called the Coast Guard after spotting a man floating on a mattress-sized foam raft about 16 miles east of Key Biscayne. He was taken aboard the Cutter Melvin Bell and will also likely be returned to Cuba.

The string of maritime interdictions comes as the Cuba-to-South-Florida migration route has largely dried up in recent years, especially due to the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies and its hardening stance toward the Cuban government.

Maritime migration and landings peaked between 2022 and 2023, prompting both the DeSantis and Biden administrations to increase patrols off the Keys and Florida Straits after so many people arrived at the Dry Tortugas National Park over the New Year’s holiday officials closed it to the public.

The efforts worked to decrease arrivals, which nearly came to a stop over the second term of the Trump administration.

Sebastian A. Arcos, director of the Institute for Cuban Studies at Florida International University, told the Miami Herald he sees no indication of a renewed mass effort by migrants to make the Straits a viable route again any time soon.

“Cubans are always looking for ways out of the ever-sinking misery that Cuba has become. They are just not coming this way anymore,” Arcos said.

The Trump administration’s signaling its willingness to initiate regime change in Cuba actually has communist officials “concerned with the potential traffic from Miami to Cuba,” Arcos said.

“Furthermore, and considering the recent dramatic shift in Cuba policy compared with previous administrations, Havana is probably avoiding an uncontrolled wave of refugees like 1980 or 1984, since it might very well provoke a violent reaction from the Trump administration,” Arcos said.