United States Border Patrol Observations of Cross-Sectional Migrant Landings in the Dry Tortugas National Park

The National Park Service expects the park to be closed for several days while law enforcement and medical personnel evaluate, provide care for and coordinate transportation to Key West for 300 migrants who arrived over the past couple of days.

Hundreds of migrants arrived in the Florida Keys over the New Year’s weekend, causing the US National Park Service to close Dry Tortugas National Park.

Multiple migrant landings this weekend are being pointed out by state and local authorities, according to the Homeland Security Task Force Southeast region.

Walter N. Slosar, a United States Border Patrol chief patrol agent, said on New Year’s Day there were over 160 migrants encountered in the Florida Keys. The area had 88 migrants in it on New Year’s Eve.

In October and November, there were nearly 14,000 Cuban migrant encounters in the state, compared to about 35,000 for the 12 months up to September 30, 2022, USCBP data shows.

First responders at the park are providing food, water and basic medical needs until the Department of Homeland Security arrives, the statement noted. Concession-operated ferry and sea plane services are temporarily suspended.

They will be provided with food, water, and basic first aid before being transferred to law enforcement agents in the Keys for processing in regards to their legal status in the United States.

Some of the migrant landings were captured by a former Florida resident camping on the park over the weekend. Migrants can be seen leaping off their makeshift chug boats, hugging each other, and cheering with joy after making it to land. He told the NPR member station that the migrants had life vests and crackers.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office stated that more than 160 refugees had arrived in the Middle and Upper Keys, in addition to the 300 people in the Dry Tortugas. Sheriff Rick Ramsay called it a “humanitarian crisis” created by “federal failure.”