Oleander Street resident Mike Diaz took out his phone to video another breathtaking Florida Keys sunrise on Thursday morning. He panned his camera to the left to discover quite a surprise off the Tavernier shore.
There, he noticed a large sailboat carrying what appeared to be migrants. The boat grounded just off the shore of Tavernier around 7 a.m. A total of 114 Haitian migrants jumped ship and swam to the shore of a private residence at the end of Oleander Drive.
Diaz’s video captured the moment they arrived to land, shouting for joy following a lengthy journey from a country in Haiti where its people have suffered from violence and economic despair.
“They were super happy,” Diaz said.
A young Haitian male appearing in front of Diaz’s camera expressed his excitement upon touching U.S. soil. Diaz said the event happened quite fast.
A Florida Highway Patrol and the U.S. Homeland Security bus arrive on scene. JIM McCARTHY/Keys Weekly 
U.S. Customs & Border Protection agents, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation officers and Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies respond to the large migrant landing on Thursday morning. JIM McCARTHY/Keys Weekly 
Haitian migrants walk to a bus. JIM McCARTHY/Keys Weekly 
Haitian migrants receive a mask from a federal agent before being loaded onto the bus. 
Haitian migrants walk from a private residence to a bus. 
Haitian migrants wait to be loaded onto a bus. 
Haitian migrants walk to the bus. 
A Haitian migrant gives the thumbs up. 
“I stepped out for two seconds right when I woke up, and I saw this big sailboat coming,” he said. “And I was like, what?”
Diaz said it’s the second time that his Tavernier neighborhood witnessed a migrant landing. Not long ago, a Cuban chug arrived in the same vicinity.
U.S. Customs & Border Patrol agents were assisted at the scene by a number of Florida Highway Patrol troopers, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation officers and Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies.
A U.S. Homeland Security bus arrived around 9 a.m. to load the Haitian migrants, a majority of them being males, for processing. Migrants walked from the property to the bus as they smiled and put the thumbs up as neighborhood residents watched from the side. Local EMS was on scene to conduct medical screenings.
— This story will be updated as more becomes available.
