Smugglers Dump Haitian Migrants On Desert Island

A group of 14 Haitian migrants were abandoned by “ruthless” smugglers on a desert island off the coast of Puerto Rico.

U.S. Border Patrol agents successfully rescued the stranded people, which included four children, from Monito Island on September 29.

The group was found after agents received reports of “suspicious activity” and unusual movements near the shoreline.

Monito is an uninhabited island about 46 miles from the Puerto Rican mainland and 35.73 miles from the island of Hispaniola in the Dominican Republic.

Park Rangers from the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources stationed on nearby Mona Island relayed the presence of migrants to border authorities on September 28.

U.S. Coast Guard cutter Joseph Tezanos rescued the migrants comprising five men, five women, and four children.

Authorities transported the group to the Mayaguez Port of Entry; they were taken into custody and were processed by Ramey Station Border Patrol agents on Puerto Rico.

“There are safe, orderly, and lawful paths to immigrate to the United States. There is no need to risk their lives traversing the Mona Passage in the hands of ruthless smugglers, only to arrive at our coast and face the legal consequences of unlawful entry,” said Reggie Johnson, Acting Chief Patrol Agent for Ramey Sector.

“Smugglers and bad actors continue to spread falsehoods and show complete disregard for the safety and well-being of vulnerable migrants.”

Border Patrol works closely with local and federal government agencies to tackle human smuggling into the U.S.

Authorities removed 31 Haitians who were abandoned in the same location two weeks ago, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Humanitarian parole programs allow Haitian migrants to obtain citizenship in the U.S. For example, many of the estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian nationals who arrived in Springfield, Ohio, did so through a humanitarian parole program called Advanced Travel Authorization (ATA), currently known as CHNV.

This program is designed to assist migrants from specific nationalities: Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.

The Department of Homeland Security has the authority to admit up to 30,000 migrants from these countries each month.

Former President Donald Trump has pledged to target migrants admitted into the country under programs established to protect migrants from certain countries.

Trump has said he would force the million-plus people who arrived under humanitarian parole or were allowed to stay in the U.S. through Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to leave if he wins November’s election.

“Get ready to leave because you’re going to be going out real fast,” the Republican presidential candidate told Fox News last week.

“TPS is a specific initiative, a specific law that Congress enacted that has been applied by Republican presidents, Democratic presidents, and at the moment is currently available to citizens of over a dozen countries from around the world,” César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an immigration law professor at Ohio State University previously said to Newsweek.

Haitian migrants were brought to the forefront of the national conversation after unfounded claims of Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, began circulating during the 2024 presidential election.

Republican presidential nominee Trump and his running mate JD Vance have repeated the false claims.

During a debate night rebuttal to Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs—the people that came in. They’re eating the cats.”

Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com