A6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022
BY TIM CRAIGsummerland key, fla. — The
sea in this slice of the Florida Keys
that locals call “paradise" had
been rough all week, with 6-to-8-
foot swells keeping even the most
experienced boaters on land.
But on the morning of March
14, a stately wooden sailboat
emerged from the emerald waters
that anchor life here. Residents
could hear the sound of singing
and hymns onboard.
As the boat approached the
dock behind a house where Julia
Barraclough works, it ran
aground on a sandbar and started
tipping on its side. “I saw people
just pouring out like lava,” said
Barraclough, 59. “It was absolute-
ly surreal. This big, beautiful
boat, and it was so close, and it
took a minute to register. These
are refugees!”
Barraclough, a former scenic
artist for “Saturday Night Live”
and experienced diver, immedi-
ately rushed into the water. For
the next 30 minutes, she threw
lifelines to dozens of Haitians, she
said.
By the time Monroe County
Sheriff’s deputies and U.S. Cus-
toms and Border Protection
agents arrived on Summerland
Key, 30 miles northeast of Key
West, about 130 migrants had
come ashore. The landing, one of
four major migrant arrivals in the
Florida Keys since January, repre-
sents the latest challenge for fed-
eral and local authorities trying
to control the flow of undocu-
mented immigrants entering the
United States.
Although the Florida Keys
have been an entry point for
refugees fleeing communist Cuba
since the 1960s, officials say the
influx of migrants by boat repre-
sents a shift in migration pat-
terns.
Since the start of the year, more
than 800 Haitians have landed in
the 113-mile-long Florida Keys,
made up 1,700 small islands. Two
of the landings occurred in Ocean
Reef, an exclusive gated commu-
nity near Key Largo that is home
to some of nation’s wealthiest
residents, officials said.
“We have not seen this number
of migrants in many years, and
it’s very unusual,” said Monroe
County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, who
has been a law enforcement offi-
cer in the county since the 1970s.
“These boats just seem to be
drifting, with no electronics, and
very little ability to navigate ...
closest place they see shore is
what they want.”
Other officials are seeing simi-
lar trends. The U.S. Coast Guard
has been intercepting about four
Haitian migrant vessels per
month at sea, each with an aver-
age of about 150 occupants on
board.
Coast Guard crews have inter-
dicted 2,953 Haitian migrants at
sea since the start of the federal
fiscal year on Oct. 1, nearly 1,
more Haitians than were picked
up at sea last year. The Coast
Guard is now on track to inter-
cept 15 times as many Haitian
migrants this year as it did in
fiscal year 2020, according to data
supplied by the Coast Guard.
Capt. Adam A. Chamie, com-
manding officer of the Coast
Guard’s Key West sector, said
human smugglers from Haiti
have “figured out a way to reach
South Florida” by sailing through
the Old Bahama Channel ship-
ping route between the Bahamas
and Cuba.
“We are adapting our posture
to respond to that,” said Chamie,
noting the Coast Guard is adding
patrol boats and surveillance
flights near the Florida Keys.
The Haitian migrant landings
are part of a broader spike in
refugees from Caribbean nations
taking to the sea to reach the
United States, a trend that some
advocates say could accelerate in
the coming weeks, as President
Biden relaxes some covid-era im-
migration policies.
That influx has concerned local
residents and officials, who say
the administration isn’t doing
enough to address the issue. And
it has vexed Haitian activists, who
worry both about the migrants’
safety at sea as well as how the
federal government has been
treating Haitians once they are
detained onshore.
“We know they are being taken
to detention centers, far away
from family members” in Florida,
said Marleine Bastien, a Haitian
American community activist
and executive director of the Mi-
ami-based Family Action Net-
work Movement. “There is a high
expectation most will be deport-
ed.”
There has also been a surge of
migrants from Cuba this year,
though they have been arriving
on smaller boats and their num-
bers still pale compared to past
upticks in Cuban migration. Still,
with migrants from either Cuba
or Haiti now landing in the Flori-
da Keys every few days, advocates
and local officials say the issue
could complicate the debate over
immigration.
Florida’s robust and over-
whelmingly Democratic Haitian
American community is already
feels toward the Haitian mi-
grants, Nunez is not convinced
they should be allowed to remain
in the country.
“I get being in their shoes is
really tough,” Nunez said. “But at
the same time, a country has to
protect its borders, and it has to
be controlled immigration.”
As he sliced pork fat to feed the
bait fish he raises in a cage an-
chored to his dock, Jay Januik
said the migrant landing left him
feeling conflicted.
The retired electrician does not
like Biden, and believes he is
allowing undocumented immi-
grants to stream across the Mexi-
can border. But Januik doesn’t see
the Haitian migrant ships as a
major U.S. policy challenge.
Januik, an avid boater and wind
surfer, does not believe that most
Haitian vessels can make it to the
Florida Keys without capsizing.
“I feel bad that they took that
kind of chance, probably for noth-
ing,” said Januik, as a highly
poisonous Portuguese man-of-
war swam past his dock. “But it’s
not like the Mexican border
where it seems like anyone can
come over, they test you, treat
you, give you medical care, put
you on a bus and let you go, which
I consider one of Biden’s biggest
screw-ups.”‘A very personal issue’
Ramsay, the Monroe County
sheriff, said he’s frustrated that
the federal government isn’t do-
ing enough to support state and
local governments, he said.
A Republican, Ramsay said it
can take hours for a Customs and
Border Protection agent to re-
spond to migrant landings. When
a large Haitian migrant vessel ran
aground near Ocean Reef Club in
the northern Florida Keys earlier
this year, Ramsay said the Cus-
toms and Border Protection agen-
cy had only one deputy on duty in
the region, and it took him several
hours to respond to the scene.
Ramsay said he recently
shared his concerns with senior
leaders of the CBP’s Miami sector.
“The conversations were not
mean, but we were clear that we
are carrying most of the water
here,” Ramsay said. “And we are
tying up resources here instead of
doing patrol and police work.”
In a statement, the CBP’s Mi-
ami office said it uses a “layered
enforcement approach” that in-
cludes working closely with the
Coast Guard, Homeland Security
Investigations and local law en-
forcement agencies to “secure the
Florida Keys.” The agency also
plans to expand “intelligence
techniques” to further disrupt
undocumented immigration.
“Because the Florida Keys has a
total land area of 983 square
miles, the partnership and collab-
oration among law enforcement
is vital to responding to maritime
smuggling events,” the agency
said.
State officials also note they,
not the federal government, are
responsible for figuring out how
to remove abandoned migrant
vessels. The Haitian vessel in
Summerland Key, for example,
still rests in a harbor near the
Niles Channel Bridge on Route 1.
David Dipre, captain of the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conser-
vation Commission’s Florida Keys
division, said the increase in mi-
grant landings is “taxing” be-
cause his office is already short
about 20 staff positions than it is
budgeted for.
“We have removed lots and lots
of vessels related to migrant land-
ings, and there are still quite a few
out there,” said Dipre, who said
his officers also respond to calls
for “migrants in the water” or
when federal law immigration
officials need help with crowd
control.
Yet in a county where all four
county commissioners are Re-
publicans, Monroe Mayor and
County Commissioner David Rice
said he hopes the influx of Hai-
tian migrants does not become
yet another divisive political is-
sue.
Florida Keys residents, he said,
have a lot to be concerned about,
including a severe lack of afford-
able housing, sea level rise, the
boom-bust cycle of the lobster
harvest and chronic traffic con-
gestion on Route 1. And Rice said
most of his constituents under-
stand that “things are really hard
in places on this earth,” so they try
to be compassionate and helpful
when a migrant vessel shows up.
“This is absolutely a politically
charged issue, but it’s also a very
personal issue,” said Monroe
County Commissioner Holly Ra-
schein, who represents Ocean
Reef, where residents raided the
pool club for towels to keep mi-
grants warm until help arrived.
Barraclough, for example,
vows she will be right back out
there in the water if another
vessel in distress lands in her
neighborhood. Barraclough said
the refugees “didn’t say anything”
as they scrambled out of the
water to safety on Seveneant’s sea
wall.
When the last person made it
to shore, “I shouted, ‘Welcome to
America,’” Barraclough said. “And
then they all cheered.”unnerved that deportations of
Haitian refugees have not slowed
under Biden, with some activists
threatening to sit out this year’s
midterms. Meanwhile, Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), up for
reelection this year and also wide-
ly mentioned as a possible 2024
presidential candidate, has been
pushing policies to keep undocu-
mented immigrants out of the
state.
“Haitian advocates have been
put in a really difficult situation,”
said Randolph P. McGrorty, direc-
tor of Catholic Charities Legal
Services in Miami. “My biggest
worry is Haitians are now going
to swarm the border, after getting
bad advice from smugglers ... and
think the U.S. is going to welcome
them with open arms.”‘It’s just a matter of time’
The rise in Haitian migrants is
connected to the humanitarian
conditions and political instabili-
ties that have engulfed the coun-
try for nearly a half century.
The country has been repeat-
edly battered by natural disasters,
epidemics, a crumbling economy
and relentless violence. Last year,
the country’s president, Jovenel
Moïse, was assassinated, leading
to even more upheaval.
As he stood outside a laundro-
mat in Miami’s Little Haiti neigh-
borhood, Joseph Fontanes, 65,
said his wife and children who
still live in Haiti must spend $
for a bag of ice. Fontanes, who
emigrated to the U.S. in 1990 but
used to frequently travel back to
Haiti to see his family, said there
is also widespread fear of kidnap-
ping and gun violence.
“I have not seen my wife for five
years, because the risk is too
great,” he said. “Even if they see
you with a small gold chain,
someone will shoot you.”Since the 1970s, there have
been several periods when tens of
thousands of Haitians have at-
tempted to reach the United
States because of political insta-
bility, including in the early 1990s
after President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was overthrown in a mil-
itary coup.
In the past, Haitians who fled
the country by sea mostly at-
tempted to reach the United
States by traveling through the
Bahamas, making their way on
vessels headed toward south or
central Florida, including Palm
Beach.
Now, more smugglers are lur-
ing Haitians onto boats that sail
directly toward the Florida Keys.
It’s a perilous journey, as most
of the vessels are severely over-
crowded. Weather and seas along
the route can also change rapidly,
Chamie, the Coast Guard com-
mander, said.
“These boats, every single one
of them is taking on water,”
Chamie said. “Every single one of
them is unseaworthy, simply be-
cause they overloaded with so
many people on these boats, it’s
just a matter of time until they
sink.”‘A solemn sense of relief’
The sailboat that came ashore
on the south side of Summerland
Key — a community where nearly
every resident owns a boat, and
even the local pizza shop is
named “A Slice of Paradise” —
used tree trunks for its mast and
bow. The sail appeared to consist
of parachute cloth and blankets.
Barraclough, who helped res-
cue the migrants, said most were
teenage males, with no personal
belongings or spare clothes. One
man was so disorientated when
he hopped off the boat that he
attempted to swim out to sea,until Barraclough helped guide
him toward land.
“Their faces had the look of
exhaustion, fatigue and gratitude
at the same time,” Barraclough
said. “It was just a solemn sense of
relief that they had made it.”
Barraclough believes that luck
— or fate — led the migrants to
the perfect location to run
aground.
Barraclough’s employer — 95-
year-old Gilbert Seveneant,
whose family once operated two
now-shuttered French restau-
rants in Manhattan, Café Brittany
and Brittany du Soir — spoke to
some of the migrants in French.
He allowed one to call home to
alert his family that he was safe,
telling him how his own family
left Brittany, France, in 1930 and
arrived in the U.S. by boat.
Others around Summerland
Key, a neighborhood where
oceanfront homes are now selling
for about $2 million, were
shocked that the vessel evaded
the weather and the Coast Guard.
“There were 6-to-8-foot seas
that entire week, and we could
not go out on our boats, and then
they show up,” said William R.
O’Neil, 60, who owns three prop-
erties here. “I thought, ‘Holy crap,
they came 700 miles in this
ship?'”
Although O’Neil feels sympa-
thy for the migrants and hopes
that they are not deported, he
wonders why neither the Coast
Guard nor U.S. Customs and Bor-
der Protection agents detected
the vessel before it reached his
community. Besides the Coast
Guard vessels and aircraft that
patrol Florida waters, O’Neil said
a large surveillance blimp hovers
over the lower Florida Keys to try
to deter smuggling and border
intrusions.
“You had to know they werecoming,” O’Neil said. “If you had
two or three guys in a 24-foot
boat, okay, maybe. But if that
thing got through, and we didn’t
see it, we’ve got a big problem.”
Coast Guard officials said 90
percent of Haitian migrant ves-
sels are intercepted at sea. “There
really is a lot of water out there,”
Chamie said. “So, while we at the
Coast Guard, along with several
other partners, are trying to iden-
tify, intercept and interdict those
vessels as they are heading north,
there is so much area to cover.”
The migrant landing in this
heavily Republican community,
where it is common to still see
signs of support for former presi-
dent Donald Trump, has also
touched off emotional debate
over immigration policy.
Francisco Nunez, 58, recently
retired to Summerland Key after
a career owning an automobile
repair shop in Texas.
When Nunez saw the migrant
vessel from his dock, it brought
back memories of his own jour-
ney to the U.S. from Cuba in 1980,
as part of the Mariel boatlift.
Sixteen at the time, Nunez
boarded a Cuban shrimp boat
along with his brother and 200
others for a journey across the
Straits of Florida to Key West. The
journey terrified him, even
though it only took a day. He
thinks about how anguished the
Haitian migrants had to be dur-
ing their 7-to-10-day journey.
“I was on the back of the boat,
and when the wave hits, that boat
comes up like this,” Nunez re-
called, flinging his wrist upward.
“You can see every head from the
whole boat because it’s full of
people.”
“When it goes down,” Nunez
continued, “you think the ocean is
going to eat you and swallow you.”
But despite the sympathy heCompassion tested in Florida Keys
as Haitian migration routes change
J ULIA BARRACLOUGHTIM CRAIG/THE WASHINGTON POST
Julia Barraclough, 59, stands on the beach where she helped rescue dozens of Haitian migrants. “Their faces had the look of
exhaustion, fatigue and gratitude at the same time,” Barraclough said. “It was just a solemn sense of relief that they had made it.”
Since the start of the year, more than 800 Haitians have landed in the Florida Keys.