Althouse: "Dry Tortugas National Park has been closed to the public after hundreds of migrants arrived by boat at the remote islands on the tip of the Florida Keys."

January 3, 2023

"Dry Tortugas National Park has been closed to the public after hundreds of migrants arrived by boat at the remote islands on the tip of the Florida Keys."

"The National Park Service estimated that 300 people arrived at the park over the past couple of days and said Sunday that there will be no visitor services and 'extremely limited' emergency services during the closure.... The people will be transferred to federal law enforcement agents in the Keys.... Though the National Park Service didn’t specify where the migrants were from, it said the Florida Keys has seen an uptick in arrivals from Cuba. The Coast Guard, which sent 80 asylum seekers back to Cuba last week, has also had a number of recent at-sea interdictions but has not provided specific numbers...."

WaPo reports.

31 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...: But are the sea turtles ok? Won't someone please think of the sea turtles!; 1/3/23, 8:25 AM
Clyde said...: The invasion of America continues apace.; 1/3/23, 8:31 AM
cassandra lite said...: "The Coast Guard, which sent 80 asylum seekers back to Cuba last week," without regard to what'll likely happen to them, while illegals seeking better financial prospects from countries whose governments, though inept, won't persecute them if they return home, are welcomed and resettled all over the country.

No amount of cynicism is enough to encompass reality.; 1/3/23, 8:33 AM
Inga said...: They’re sending Cubans back to Cuba? This won’t go over big with Republicans.; 1/3/23, 8:34 AM
Sebastian said...: How does this invasion differ from an invasion?; 1/3/23, 8:42 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Cubans should be allowed in. Every other illegal entrant - many who are drug smugglers for the cartels, paid coyotes, human traffickers, human slave traders - should be refused entry.

Alas - we have it backwards.; 1/3/23, 8:52 AM
Lurker21 said...: If they have National Parks Passports they can get them stamped and have a lifetime memento of the experience.; 1/3/23, 8:53 AM
Old and slow said...: So, legitimate asylum seekers get sent back to a tyrannical communist country while economic migrants from democratic countries (Mexico is at least as genuine a democracy as we are these days) get to remain in the US. Makes perfect sense.; 1/3/23, 8:56 AM
John henry said...: It sounds like the migrants did not come from Cuba but that the govt wants us to think they did.

Maybe one of our many journalists can investigate.

OT: I just got kicked off the new Journ-O-List journa.host for mentioning that Hilary had a stroke in 2012 and Brandon had the top of his skull removed twice in the 80s.

They told me it was "misinformation" and was a journalistic sin. Then they changed their story to it being "misinformation" to say that both had lost a step due to these events.

I know what the real issue is. They just don't want any Puerto Ricans on the instance.

I intend to have some fun with this.

John Henry; 1/3/23, 8:57 AM
Charlie said...: These were the dumb ones......don't they know you can just walk across the border in other states?; 1/3/23, 8:57 AM
Old and slow said...: Inga said...
They’re sending Cubans back to Cuba? This won’t go over big with Republicans.

Partisan point scoring is really the only thing that matters to you, isn't it? People fleeing a brutal communist regime, meh so what?

You are a piece of work Inga.; 1/3/23, 8:58 AM
Dave Begley said...: Here's a prediction from another blog: 10m illegal aliens in 2023.; 1/3/23, 9:03 AM
Inga said...: “People fleeing a brutal communist regime, meh so what?”

That is what you are saying (and worse) to those seeking asylum from South American countries, hypocrite.; 1/3/23, 9:11 AM
retail lawyer said...: Repurposing National Parks. Barring access by Americans to accommodate illegal immigrants. What would Teddy Roosevelt have thought?; 1/3/23, 9:12 AM
wendybar said...: REAL refugees who are fleeing a tyrannical government and communism have no place here, because we have to let the rest of the world in, but ONLY through the southern border so the left can lie and say it isn't happening.; 1/3/23, 9:15 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Old and slow for the thread win.; 1/3/23, 9:22 AM
Joe Smith said...: These are the kind of 'migrants' we need.

The kind that have seen the true face of the Democrat party already and don't like it a bit...; 1/3/23, 9:35 AM
typingtalker said...: I hated history as taught in US public schools. When by chance I had an excellent history teacher in college, I changed my tune.

Here is an interesting source ... the National Archives.

Cuban Refugee Program, 1960-1970

The Cuban Revolution (July 26, 1953–January 1, 1959) sparked a wave of asylum seekers that steadily grew as the 1950s came to a close. In November 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Tracy S. Voorhees to look into the growing refugee situation and serve as the President's Personal Representative for Cuban Refugees. This led to the establishment of the Cuban Refugee Emergency Center in Miami, FL. On January 27, 1961, President John F. Kennedy directed Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Abraham Ribicoff to conduct an investigation into Cuban refugee activities occurring under the direction of the Executive branch. Official state and locally-based volunteer welfare agencies struggled to keep up with the needs of asylum seekers. The Cuban Refugee program was the result of this effort to streamline refugee aid.

Cuban Refugee Program, 1960-1970; 1/3/23, 9:54 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: It's a secret government experiment to prove whether people can't survive the coming global warming catastrophe as predicted in yesterday's NYT article.

Tortugas are shorter than migrants. I'm just saying.; 1/3/23, 10:11 AM
Enigma said...: Dry Tortugas is "DRY" -- let them stay as long as they like or until they croak. This might be the worst possible landing location in the US, as it's hot and in a hurricane zone and dry.

If they arrived from Cuba, observe that the migrants didn't go to the Cayman Islands. Those islands are also dry, and the last Caribbean islands to be developed. The wealthy came in to replicate the Bermuda model ($$$$$$$) and considered water a mere tax on a Jeffrey Epstein-like lifestyle. As such, the Caymans allow low income people from other Caribbean islands to work on the Caymans for 7 years. For life. No returns, no roots, no sense of Cayman identity. The islands next door include grossly overpopulated Haiti and nearly as overpopulated Jamaica.

Humans are brutal. Immigrants / migrants are often lucky to avoid a genocide. Migrants are pawns to be used and abused by politicians. Beware changing winds.; 1/3/23, 11:05 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: AYE, it be the Dry Tortugas, a thorn in me side forever!; 1/3/23, 11:07 AM
JAORE said...: Not gonna be many gotta-a-ways from that speck in the ocean.; 1/3/23, 11:26 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: When did immigrants of any definition become migrants? So that we have less of a chance to term them "illegal migrants" because of how it sounds?

Jeez.

Marcus B. THE OLDMAN; 1/3/23, 12:27 PM
rcocean said...: Illegal aliens arrived. They are not "Migrants".; 1/3/23, 12:49 PM
tommyesq said...: So an open southern border to who-knows-who is a policy preference of the dems, but we are also quietly sending Cuban refugees back to Cuba?; 1/3/23, 2:03 PM
n.n said...: Emigration reform to mitigate progress and collateral damage at both ends of the bridge and throughout.; 1/3/23, 3:07 PM
Mikey NTH said...: Fort Jefferson would make a great migrant holding station.

Famous detainees: Dr. Samuel Mudd.; 1/3/23, 5:19 PM
Robert Cook said...: "So an open southern border to who-knows-who is a policy preference of the dems...."

Except...it's not.; 1/3/23, 5:23 PM
Narayanan said...: so can visitors boat around and get in the National Park for site/sight seeing?= bearing witness!; 1/3/23, 6:42 PM
Narayanan said...: asking typingtalker said...

I hated history as taught in US public schools. When by chance I had an excellent history teacher in college, I changed my tune.

Cuban Refugee Program, 1960-1970
===========
which came first US Cuban Refugee Program or UN Palestinian Refugee Program?; 1/3/23, 6:48 PM
typingtalker said...: Narayanan asked, " ... which came first US Cuban Refugee Program or UN Palestinian Refugee Program?"

"UNRWA was established in 1949 ... " so it came first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNRWA

Why do you ask?; 1/4/23, 9:56 AM