Posted on 04/07/2007 6:11:15 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Some 400 illegal migrants have been intercepted entering the U.S. Virgin Islands over the past six months, officials say.
From Oct. 1 through Tuesday, 277 Cubans, 45 Haitians, 42 Chinese, 14 Dominicans, 14 Poles and one Chilean were intercepted coming in to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ricardo Castrodad, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in San Juan, said this week.
The Coast Guard said smugglers are increasingly using a route that runs northwest along the Leeward Island chain and through the British Virgin Islands. It is difficult to choke off because the British Virgin Islands are as close as a mile from the U.S. Virgin Islands and the smugglers can blend in with the heavy tourist yacht traffic.
The migrants generally fly to Dominica or nearby islands, then hook up with smugglers who take them on chartered sailboats under the cover of darkness to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Migrants landing on the shores of the U.S. Virgin Islands attempt to sneak into nearby Puerto Rico by boat, while others seek political asylum, said Ivan Ortiz, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Juan.
Others, particularly Haitians, try to remain illegally in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which has a local Haitian community, Ortiz said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Migrants would need false identification to pass immigration checkpoints at U.S. Virgin Islands airports. There are no checkpoints for passengers flying to the U.S. mainland from San Juan, however, officers sometimes do random checks on passengers, Ortiz said.
Once a way-station for pirates, the British Virgin Islands are increasingly attractive to Caribbean smugglers carrying illegal migrants to the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion.
How many weren't intercepted?
>> 42 Chinese
How’d they get over here, and why?
Have you seen any of this in your neck of the woods?
They must really be desperate, huh? Probably stowaway on ships headed our way.
Must be our wonderful freedom they crave, eh? That and a job at a nearby arms research lab.
Like cockroaches … fill one hole and they will find another.
Oh, yeah - build a fence along the border with Mexico, and we won’t have any more illegal immigrants. /s
I wonder if they think we won’t notice them there.
Exactly!
Hey. Yes, it’s pirates of the caribbean all over again. They’re using the old smuggling routes like Drake’s Passage to get to the US Caribbean. The Mona Passage west of Puerto Rico is well covered by law enforcement, so now they have been using this circuitous route through the small islnads east of Puerto Rico. Once you reach one of these islands it’s rather easy to island hop to Puerto Rico.
Dominicans used to be the dominant group of illegal aliens, but now they’re outnumbered by Cubans (who turn legal once they step on land), and chinese and Venezuelans.
This is a BB size hole compared to the gaps in our southern border.
The Chinese are coming through South Texas too, James.
Boots on the ground, even if not marching in step?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.