In our series of stories regarding migrant landings, we have shown you various agencies that have been at the helm of rescuing migrants, repatriating them or providing humanitarian services.
Reporter Sophia Hernandez and photojournalist Ismael Louis spent a day with Miami’s Coast Guard to see how they are assisting the hundreds of migrants they encounter on a monthly basis. They also investigate how things have changed in just a few months' time.
“We have arrived. The time is 10:30,” shared Hernandez. “We have arrived at the Opa Locka Air Station for the Coast Guard. We are going to meet with some of the crew members to be able to get on the plane.”
Upon entering the air station, Hernandez witnesses the six crew members with Miami’s Coast Guard Station preparing for their Friday flight. It will be one of a handful they will each partake in this month.
The crew members speak with headquarters and partner agencies to evaluate their route and make sure it’s a plan that brings a good search. And then, they grab their belongings and make their way to board their Ocean Sentry plane.
“Our flights about to be 5 hours, 6 hours more or less, overlooking the Florida straits,” shared Hernandez on the tarmac.
As the crew prepares for take-off, you can hear over the internal radio the pilots communicating, “You’re clear. They are clear.”
It was a bumpy ride towards the Florida Straits, and Hernandez took the time to speak with Co-pilot Lieutenant Connor Hoehle.
“Sometimes their vessels are not sea-worthy, they may have broken down, and they are in some kind of situation where they need assistance. So, we are here,” he explained.
In the air, this crew of six each has an important role to play.
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“You guys are up here,” Hernandez said, referring to the cockpit.
She asked Hoehle, “There are two guys in the back looking at different technology, tell me kind of what you guys are looking at and what you are able to see?”
While he kept his eyes on the skies, Hoehle responds, “Up front, we are flying in the area that needs to be flown using our flight maps and other instruments, and they are the ones actively pinging radar targets, putting the camera on to see who it is and whether they need assistance."
Lieutenant Hoehle has been with this branch of the agency for a year. He said during months of increased migrant sightings, the additional burden didn’t come from their routine trips.
“It was the non-scheduled flights where a good Samaritan sees these ventures, calls in the coast guard, and our 24/7 crews are flying on them. So that’s where we have really seen the uptick,” he stated.
Since the start of January, the federal government has reported about a 90% decrease in the number of crossings from Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans at the southern border. The federal government claims that President Joe Biden’s parole program is a deterrent.
But in the open waters of the Atlantic, the crews that are the first eyes are seeing a different picture.
“While we have seen there is a bit of a decrease, it’s hard to gauge because there was a surgence,” explains Public Information Officer, Ryan Estrada. “So I don’t know if we can directly correlate that to the recent legislation that’s been passed, but we can say there’s been a bit of a drop off as of recent.”
“The operations are at such a high tempo constantly, the relief isn’t felt very much upfront yet,” explained Hoehle. “But we do appreciate the measures being taken.”
And our crews on Friday's flight were no different.
Miles offshore the Florida Straits and in the middle of the Atlantic, boat upon boat was being found by technology special to the Coast Guard.
The crew circles the vessel and determines if those onboard are in distress. Then they communicate with other agencies to see how they will help. In a day, they average 3 to 4 sightings relating to migrants.
“What is different from when you first started until now?” Hernandez asked Estrada.
“The numbers,” he answered. “The numbers. If you compare them from last year to this year, the numbers have grown significantly. But as far as the voyages themselves and the conditions that these people are in, they are very much the same.”
And our crew saw it firsthand.
21 migrants were stranded for eight days without food or water.
Hernandez shared, “We are about two hours into this flight with the Coast Guard and we are about 90 miles off the shores of Miami near Cay Sal."
“You can see that we’ve already seen a group of migrants,” she explained while pointing to the images. “The pilots are now working to survey where this group is exactly, pinpoint their location, see if they are in need, and survey the area.”
Circling the Bahama Banks, our crew finds more boats and more signs of landings.
“I would definitely say I see more people on the islands rather than the boats. I don’t know the reason for that, but the vast majority have been on the islands,” said Mission System Operator, Raul Tavares.
Those like Tavares are tasked with pinpointing exact locations and inputting them into databases to figure out next step solutions for rescues.
“We just wait on the response from our headquarters and depending on the eta for a rescue plan from there we decide as a crew if we are going to drop our resources to them,” he explained. “Or if the ETA is soon, we don’t drop our resources.”
This plane has three options to assist groups they stumble upon. One option is three bags, 2 of which are rafts and the other is a survival kit. Another kit holds a water pump for sinking vessels.
And what’s called ADSCAN is filled with water, food, and blankets.
“How do we know when to drop these kits at the proper time, how do you know when to drop them?” Hernandez asked Drop Master, Isaiah Stratton.
“It depends on the situation,” he said. “So let’s say what we have now, we have roughly 15 to 20 people who have probably been there for a couple of days, so we would drop the ADSCAN because it has the water and food that would help them get to the next day.”
After the crew circles the area for an hour to find other areas of distress, the plane drops off a saving grace. Once it has been received, they connect with those on land via radio.
“We call them over and over again until we get a hold of them and nine times out of 10, we do,” shares Tavares. “And we ask them critical questions like how many people? That’s the most important so that when we rescue them, we have the same number of people.”
The group of 21 migrants were picked up by a Coast Guard cutter from Tampa thanks to this small plane’s intel.
In the coming days, according to the Coast Guard, these migrants will be transferred to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.
Estrada said it’s work that they couldn’t do without the help of others, “The more people see it they think it’s more of it, which may not necessarily be the case, it’s just before it was easy to miss.”
He furthered, “And now with all these assets, partners and everyone being engaged, essentially everyone’s on the same page right now. It makes it that much easier for us to find them.”
After circling the skies for another 4 hours and being routed to different areas to provide visuals, the crew finally ends their humanitarian services for the day.
The crew, including Hoehle, know their work is essential in saving lives, “We are going out and assisting people who need help. And down here a lot of times that’s a migrant venture in a very desperate situation.”
This small crew said they are ready to take off to help those on the dangerous journey to freedom.
