MIAMI — A toddler from Cuba who was aboard a migrant boat that the U.S. Coast Guard stopped off the Florida Keys has been released from the hospital after treatment for dehydration, according to the Border Patrol — and the boy and his family can stay in the country for now.
The child, about 2 years old, is with his mother and father, who were also aboard the vessel that the Coast Guard intercepted Friday night about 17 miles off Marathon, said Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations.
While with the Coast Guard, crew members decided the boy needed medical care for dehydration. A rescue crew from Islamorada took him to Mariners Hospital in the Upper Keys area of Tavernier.
The Border Patrol took the family into custody once the child was medically released by doctors. They have since been released under the requirement that they report to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office “on a future date,” Hoffner said Wednesday.
Since the end of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy at the beginning of 2017, most Cuban migrants whether stopped at sea or on land are sent back to their country. The policy allowed those who stepped foot on U.S. soil above the high water mark to stay in the country and apply for permanent residency after a year. Those intercepted at sea were returned to Cuba.
Ramón Saúl Sánchez, leader of the Cuban exile activist group Democracy Movement, said the government’s treatment of the boy and his family is expected given the circumstances.
“It’s not unusual for them to release them and have them report to a court at some point, especially when there is a child involved with immediate family or a health issue,” he said.
Federal authorities in South Florida are dealing with a maritime migration surge from Cuba and Haiti not seen in several years — not since 2017 for Cubans and 2004 for Haiti.
The Coast Guard said Tuesday that it has stopped 2,436 people from Cuba along the Florida Straits since October. To put that in context, three years ago, the agency only intercepted 49 people from Cuba attempting to migrate by sea to the United States.
Coast Guard crews have returned more than 5,900 people from Haiti who were stopped trying to reach Puerto Rico and South Florida since the fall. On Tuesday, the agency announced that it intercepted an overloaded sailboat packed with 67 Haitian men, women and children 16 miles off the Bahamian island of Great Inagua.
A Coast Guard cutter returned them to Haiti on Wednesday.
Since Saturday, groups of Cuban migrants have been found stranded on remote and uninhabited islands in the Lower Keys.
Between Monday and Tuesday, 20 people were found on an island 20 miles west of Key West, according to the Border Patrol. And on Saturday, 19 Cuban migrants were found stranded on an island within the Dry Tortugas National Park about 70 miles west of Key West.
Federal officials also report migrants from other countries are finding their way to South Florida shores. On Monday, the Border Patrol said it took three Jamaicans and one person from Nigeria into custody after they arrived in Sunny Isles Beach.
The Border Patrol said in a statement on Twitter that three of the people have criminal records, and Homeland Security Investigations agents are investigating the landing.
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