3 January 12-18, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ FLORIDA MARITIME MIGRATION WAVES OF MIGRANTS ARRIVE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS DURING THE DEEPENING CRISIS. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN M onroe County officials are struggling to keep up with the stream of Cuban and Haitian refugees arriving on the shores of the Florida Keys in one of the biggest surges in maritime migra- tion from Caribbean nations in recent years. Over the past week, sea-worn boats packed with migrants have been arriving in the Keys daily, with crowds congregating around the islands in anticipation of process- ing by federal immigration officials. The U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector, which is responsible for enforcement across Florida, has experienced a more-than 400 percent increase in migrant encounters since October, according to Chief Patrol Agent Walter Slosar. Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Re- search Institute at Florida International Uni- versity, tells New Times that Cubans are leaving the island nation in historic numbers amid the lingering economic downturn. “It is a continuation of last year. Cubans are leaving the island in any way they can, mostly by air and then land, but also record numbers of people arriving by sea,” Duany says. “It is go- ing to continue to increase before it decreases.” This past weekend, the arrival of hun- dreds of Cuban migrants by boat forced Dry Tortugas National Park, seventy miles west of Key West, to close so federal agents could process the migrants. On Sunday morning, Slosar said that border patrol agents and local law enforcement had responded to ten mi- grant landings in the region since midnight the prior evening. Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, whose office is assisting Border Patrol in its response, called the influx a “humanitarian crisis” fueled by a lack of preparedness by the federal government. Ramsay said federal agencies failed to de- velop a working plan to “deal with a mass mi- gration issue.” “The Sheriff’s Office has been told by the U.S. Border Patrol that some migrant land- ings may have to wait for federal resources to arrive until the following day, aggravating the mass migration in the Keys,” the sheriff’s of- fice said in a January 2 statement. Ramsay said that over the New Year’s weekend, more than 160 refugees landed mostly in the Middle and Upper Keys. An es- timated 300 more arrived on the Marquesas Keys and at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortu- gas, Ramsay said. The influx of migrants continued on Tues- day. As reported by the Miami Herald, more than 100 Haitians arrived on an overcrowded sail- boat at a gated community in Key Largo from the northwest coast of Haiti. The group was taken by van to be processed by border patrol. Other groups of Cuban refugees arrived in Key Largo, Islamorada, and Marathon. The U.S. Embassy in Cuba announced to- day that it is reopening consular and visa ser- vices for the first time since 2017, when embassy employees developed mysterious illnesses dubbed Havana Syndrome. The spike in Cuban and Haitian migrants arriving on Florida shorelines comes at a time when both countries are coping with eco- nomic and social upheaval. In Cuba, U.S. sanctions and pandemic-re- lated lockdowns worsened already difficult conditions for those living in the island na- tion. With its tourism industry battered, the country has experienced one of its worst eco- nomic downturns in modern history, fueling the exodus. Since the July 2021 assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïs, gang violence has spread across the country. In addition to the increase in killings and kidnappings, a gang- controlled blockade of an essential oil terminal caused a shortage of food and water, making life grueling for many Haitians and prompting some to make the trek to the United States. Duany says he doesn’t see any imminent improvement in the quality of life in Cuba that would remove the incentives to leave the country. The nation is still experiencing its second-worst economic crisis of the last 30 years, he says. “Everything that we’ve seen... the black- outs, the scarcity of food, the scarcity of medi- cine, seems to be on the horizon for the immediate future,” Duany says. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicted more Haitians over a seventh-month period in fiscal year 2022 than it had in any prior year since 1994. The most recent nationwide data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that the agency encountered more than 41,000 Cuban and Haitian migrants in November 2022, as compared to roughly 7,900 in No- vember 2021. Most of the Cuban and Haitian migrants apprehended by Border Patrol had made their way to the U.S. by traveling to in- termediary countries and then approaching stateside land borders, though a small minor- ity attempted the trek directly by sea. | RIPTIDE | Photo courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol ▼ FLORIDA ON THE REBOUND HAVING RECOVERED FROM THE 2021 DIE-OFF, FLORIDA MANATEES REMAIN IMPERILED. BY ALEX DELUCA F ollowing the deadliest year on record for Florida’s manatees, fatalities of the be- loved marine mammal are showing signs of slowing. In 2021, more than 1,100 manatees perished, marking the species’ highest Florida death toll recorded in a year. The die-off was deemed an “unusual mortality event,” a rare designation that demands immediate attention under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The 2022 manatee mortality numbers have yet to be finalized. However, Pat Rose, director of the Save the Manatee Club, estimates that deaths decreased to around 800 this past year. While he acknowledges that some may re- joice in this news, especially given how terrible the year 2021 was for the mammals, Rose can’t bring himself to celebrate just yet. “There are some real positives that we’re looking at,” Rose, who has spent nearly five de- cades working with manatees, tells New Times. “But those positives are very small in comparison to the high risks that these manatees are facing.” In 2019, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conser- vation Commission (FWC) reported more than 500 manatee deaths. This figure rose slightly to around 600 in 2020. So when 1,110 manatees — more than 12 percent of the state’s estimated population — turned up dead in 2021, marine bi- ologists were alarmed. The recent spike in deaths of the iconic, thousand-pound sea cows has been attributed to the drastic loss of their primary food source: seagrass. Parts of the Indian River Lagoon, where herds of manatees gather during winter, have become increasingly clogged with pollu- tion and algae, preventing seagrass growth. Ac- cording to the Tampa Bay Times, a recent presentation from the St. Johns River Water Management District showed a 75 percent de- cline in seagrass coverage in the Indian River La- goon since 2009. The latest data from the FWC shows that in 2022, a total of 783 manatees died as of Decem- ber 23. Rose attributes the year-over-year decrease in deaths to a combination of factors, including the recently imple- mented programs in which wildlife offi- cials feed lettuce to manatees to help curb starvation, as well as the coopera- tive Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership, which he says rescued more than 100 manatees this past year to re- habilitate and release. Rose emphasizes Florida’s manatees still face a dire situation, especially in the northern Indian River Lagoon region of Brevard County. In the area, which is considered the epicenter of the mass die-off, there were only a few less manatee deaths in 2022 compared to 2021 — around 20, he estimates. “So again, it’s better,” Rose says. “But it’s not good by any means.” Although many stopgap measures have been undertaken to curb manatee deaths, Rose as- serts that safeguarding the manatee population on a long-term basis will require a plan to ad- dress nutrient runoff from farms and wastewater treatment plants, which is feeding algal blooms and stifling seagrass growth. In May, three conservation groups, including the Save the Manatee Club, filed a federal lawsuit over poor water quality in Florida. Rose sees the Indian River Lagoon as a har- binger of what will befall other aquatic ecosys- tems across Florida if the state does not improve water quality standards. “If we don’t get it under control within the In- dian River Lagoon system, then we’re going to probably see things getting worse in many other parts of Florida,” Rose says. [email protected] GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS “THOSE POSITIVES ARE VERY SMALL IN COMPARISON TO THE HIGH RISKS THAT THESE MANATEES ARE FACING.” Cubans are leaving the island nation in historic numbers amid the lingering economic downturn.
