A good Samaritan notified Sector Miami watchstanders of a migrant vessel about 10 miles east of Sunny Isles, Florida, Jan. 8, 2023. The people were repatriated to Cuba on Jan. 16, 2023. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

I don’t normally post press releases about migrant interdiction. It is a routine dirty job, with little reward, but something the Coast Guard does virtually every day. Just wanted to post the statistics below, that I lifted from a press release about a recent repatriation, to show the current trend to much higher frequency of interceptions.

Since Oct. 1, 2022, Coast Guard crews interdicted 4,962 Cubans compared to: 

• 6,182 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2022
• 838 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2021
• 49 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2020
• 313 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2019
• 259 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2018
• 1,468 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2017
• 5,396 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2016

WMEC 210s and Webber class FRCs tend to be the workhorses of this effort, supported by aviation assets of both the Coast Guard and partner agencies.

For perspective, it is still nothing close to the Mariel Boatlift, 15 April and 31 October 1980, when 125,000 Cubans and 25,000 Haitians made it to the US.