Record Migrants Detained in Puerto Rico

[Judi Lynn]

Record Migrants Detained in Puerto Rico
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 4, 2004


Filed at 12:33 a.m. ET

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- U.S. authorities have detained a record number of illegal migrants trying to reach Puerto Rico, surpassing the previous year's total in only four months, officials said Tuesday.

Authorities have detained 3,480 migrants, mostly Dominicans, since the start of the 2004 fiscal year on Oct. 1, a U.S. Border Patrol agent Victor Colon said. That surpassed 3,477 people detained in 2003, which was the previous record.

Early Tuesday, the Border Patrol detained 45 Dominican migrants in southeastern La Parguera. On Monday, authorities detained 11 migrants, one of them Haitian and the rest Dominicans, on the tiny island of Isla Mona between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Officials have said the increased number of detentions is due in part to more patrols, better cooperation between agencies and a deteriorating economy in the Dominican Republic.

Each year, thousands of Dominicans in search of jobs attempt the dangerous sea journey across the choppy Mona Passage separating the Dominican Republic from this U.S. Caribbean territory. Some have drowned during the trip and most of those who are caught are repatriated.
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Puerto-Rico-Illegal-Migrants.html
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