US removes Cuban migrants from remote Florida islands

By CODY JACKSON and TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — The Coast Guard has removed more than 300 Cuban migrants from a remote island national park off the Florida coast. Homeland Security officials said 337 migrants were taken Thursday by Coast Guard cutter from Dry Tortugas National Park on a 70-mile trip to Key West, where they will be processed. They’re among more than 700 migrants, mostly Cubans, who arrived in Florida by boats over the New Year’s weekend. More than 4,400 Cubans and Haitians have arrived in Florida since August amid deepening and compounding political and economic crises in both countries. Almost 8,000 were stopped at sea and returned to their homelands. An additional 65 are known to have died at sea.