The U.S. Coast Guard pulled 66 people off a crowded, makeshift boat in the Caribbean and sent them back to the Dominican Republic within two days of spotting the vessel.
Quick Take
- Coast Guard Cutter Heriberto Hernandez repatriated 66 migrants after intercepting their boat in the Mona Passage off Puerto Rico.
- A Customs and Border Protection aircrew first spotted the overloaded boat northwest of Aguadilla on September 9, 2025.
- The group included 48 people claiming Dominican nationality, 16 claiming Haitian nationality, and two Romanian men.
- All 66 were handed over to the Dominican Republic Navy at San Pedro de Macoris on September 11, 2025.
- The Mona Passage has been a major migrant route for decades, with thousands crossing it some years.
Coast Guard Spots Overloaded Vessel
A Customs and Border Protection Caribbean Air and Marine Branch crew found the makeshift boat northwest of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, on the morning of September 9, 2025. The boat was packed with far more people than it could safely carry. The Coast Guard Cutter Heriberto Hernandez responded to the scene and took over the interdiction in Mona Passage waters, a stretch of ocean between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic long known for migrant crossings.
Coast Guard crews boarded the vessel and brought everyone aboard the cutter without incident. The agency’s official statement says the crew “safely disembarked all 66 migrants” from the unsafe boat. No injuries or deaths were reported during the boarding or the two days the group spent aboard the Heriberto Hernandez before reaching shore.
Who Was on Board
The Coast Guard broke down the group by nationality based on what each person told officers. Forty-eight people said they were from the Dominican Republic, including 41 men and seven women. Sixteen said they were from Haiti, made up of 13 men and three women. Two men said they were from Romania. These numbers come straight from the Coast Guard’s own count and statements taken during the voyage back.
Independent maritime reporting matched these details closely. Baird Maritime confirmed the same total of 66 people, the same detection point northwest of Aguadilla, and the same safe disembarkation from the overcrowded boat, backing up the Coast Guard’s account of how the operation unfolded.
Return to the Dominican Republic
On September 11, 2025, the cutter delivered all 66 people to San Pedro de Macoris, a port city in the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic Navy authorities were waiting to take custody of the group once the transfer was complete. The Coast Guard release does not mention anyone being held back, charged, or kept in U.S. custody — it states plainly that all 66 were repatriated.
WATCH: A makeshift boat packed with 66 migrants is intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Caribbean, with aerial footage capturing the vessel as crews move in to assist those onboard.
The Coast Guard says the vessel was stopped Friday in the Mona Passage, a stretch of water… pic.twitter.com/BnWQkrPG9M
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This kind of mass interdiction and quick return is routine for the Coast Guard in this part of the Caribbean. Officials have described the Mona Passage as one of the busiest illegal-migration corridors in U.S. waters. Between 2004 and 2006, an average of more than 8,600 migrants crossed it each year before stepped-up patrols cut that number down to 1,268 by 2009.
A Long History of Crossings
The passage has stayed a steady route for people trying to reach Puerto Rico by sea, even as yearly totals rise and fall. Coast Guard figures given to Congress show 758 migrants intercepted in the Sector San Juan area in fiscal year 2021, jumping to 2,395 in fiscal year 2022 and 2,228 in fiscal year 2023. Those numbers show how much interdiction totals can swing from year to year.
This case follows that same pattern seen for two decades: a crowded, unsafe boat, a quick Coast Guard response, and a fast repatriation once everyone is confirmed safe. For the 66 people aboard this boat, the journey ended not in Puerto Rico but back where many of them started, under the watch of Dominican Navy officers at the dock in San Pedro de Macoris.
