The United States and international partners interdicted a Haitian vessel trapped at sea on Monday, with 240 people on board attempting to illegally enter the United States.
The vessel was first spotted on May 31, roughly 65 nautical miles south of Turks and Caicos, a cluster of islands located southeast of the Bahamas.
“The vessel, a 50-foot Haitian wooden boat equipped with two outboard engines, was heading north toward the islands,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a June 4 statement.
A monitoring aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard reported that the vessel “lost one engine and was slowly taking on water. Occupants were seen bailing three to five gallons of water per minute.”
By nightfall, the Coast Guard said the vessel was “dead in the water and that passengers continued to bail water using buckets.”
Authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands declared a search-and-rescue operation after the vessel was at risk of capsizing.
Early Monday, authorities interdicted the vessel and rescued the 240 people on board, of whom 191 were men, 44 were women, and five were minors. There were no injuries to the passengers.
The individuals never reached U.S. soil and were taken into custody by Turks and Caicos authorities. The passengers’ nationalities were not disclosed.
“Our crews are trained to respond quickly and effectively to situations like this, where lives are at risk,” Drew Gellerson, director of CBP’s Air and Marine Operations in Jacksonville, said.
“Working closely with our partners, we were able to track the vessel and provide critical information to ensure a safe rescue. This incident highlights the importance of international cooperation in protecting lives at sea.”
In a June 4 post on X, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said that the vessel from Haiti was attempting an “illegal maritime migration.” Scott praised the Coast Guard, Air and Marine Operations, and international partners for the effort.
“Our personnel helped prevent what could have been a catastrophic loss of life while stopping yet another illegal migration attempt,” Scott said.
“The message remains clear: illegal maritime migration is dangerous, it is not worth the risk, and you will not gain entry into the US.”
This is one of the latest interdictions of illegal immigrants by U.S. authorities.
On May 26, the Coast Guard announced that it had intercepted a 154-foot vessel carrying 36 suspected illegal immigrants near San Diego. Earlier on May 20, the CBP announced intercepting a vessel in western Puerto Rico that was smuggling 64 illegal immigrants.
These interdictions are part of the Trump administration’s broader push to tackle illegal immigration in the United States, including stopping crossovers at land borders and deporting illegal immigrants already present inside the country.
During the first year of the Trump administration’s second term, almost 3 million illegal immigrants left the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a Jan. 20 statement.
On May 15, DHS announced that the Trump administration delivered a “full year of zero releases” at the southwest border.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is assessing a case about the Trump administration’s decision to end temporary protected status for Haitians. The designation allows Haitians to live and work in the United States until such time as the DHS secretary determines that conditions in their homeland are no longer dangerous. No ruling has been issued in the case.
‘Unconstitutional Uses of Force’
The Trump administration’s immigration policies have been criticized by the Illinois Accountability Commission.
In late April, the commission released its report on Operation Midway Blitz. The operation, launched in September 2025, targeted criminal illegal immigrants “terrorizing” citizens in Illinois, DHS said at the time.
The report alleged that federal immigration agents engaged in beatings, shootings, and indiscriminate use of chemical agents in their operations, which amounted to “unconstitutional uses of force.”
“High-level White House, DHS, and other federal officials enabled and encouraged misconduct by ICE and CBP agents during Operation Midway Blitz by urging agents to ‘go hard,’ defending and mischaracterizing incidents of use of force, shielding agents from accountability, lifting safeguards, and effectuating harmful policies,” the report said.
“Operation Midway Blitz had a pervasive chilling effect on civic life, negatively undermined community trust in state and local law enforcement.”
In a Dec. 19, 2025, statement, DHS had said that Operation Midway Blitz led to the arrests of more than 4,500 illegal immigrants.
The operation was launched in honor of 20-year-old Illinois woman Katie Abraham, who was killed in a drunk-driving hit-and-run car wreck caused by a criminal illegal alien, the department said.
DHS said at the time that the operation would target criminal illegal immigrants who flocked to Chicago and Illinois to take advantage of the sanctuary policies in these places.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is working to increase deportations, White House border czar Tom Homan said in a May 20 interview with the Washington Examiner.
While the numbers are “slightly down,” the federal government has a plan to “get them back up and even higher,” according to the border czar.
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