Troy A. Miller Commissioner | Official website
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently detained 13 undocumented migrants from the Dominican Republic in the Puerto Rican community of Villa Pesquera, Isabela.
According to a news release from the CBP, agents from the Ramey Sector made these arrests after responding to a maritime smuggling event in the early hours of May 16. "Nine individuals who are not US citizens were transported to the Ramey Border Patrol Station to begin removal proceedings," stated the release. Upon arrival at the shore, agents discovered an abandoned homemade vessel that was 30 feet long and equipped with a 40 horsepower Mercury outboard engine, as per the CBP news release dated May 17.
This marks the second incident in the area within a week. On May 15, the CBP announced another discovery of 34 undocumented migrants near Los Bravos Beach, in Isabela. In this instance, a border patrol agent from the Ramey Sector spotted a vessel without navigation lights about three nautical miles north of Jobos Beach. "When the vessel made landfall, agents with US Border Patrol and FURA discovered 34 noncitizens," reported CBP. The group comprised five men and three women from the Dominican Republic, along with twenty men, five women, and one unaccompanied minor from Haiti.
Troy A. Miller, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner
| U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Later that morning, agents found an unidentified deceased woman near the vessel. The police from Puerto Rico are currently investigating this case as per a May 15 news release from CBP.
The Ramey Sector under CBP's jurisdiction includes Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It covers around 6,000 square miles of coastline, land and water including a twelve-mile band of territorial waters surrounding these islands.
The inception of US Customs and Border Patrol dates back to 1924 when it was officially created by The Labor Appropriation Act of 1924 to secure borders between inspection stations. As per the website focused on the history of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the duties of the US Border Patrol were expanded to include patrolling the seacoast in 1925.
