Coast Guard Apprehends 190+ Aliens at Sea

Off both US East & West Coasts

Sep 23, 2025

The US Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton stopped this boat with 103 Haitians aboard 15 miles off Turks & Caicos this week. (US Coast Guard Photo)

The US Coast Guard (USCG) has been busy apprehending illegal aliens at sea - more than 190 in multiple apprehensions so far this month. The latest interception was announced on Monday, September 22, 2025.

The USCG Cutter Hamilton, aided by a Turks and Caicos Police Boat, stopped a small craft dangerously overloaded with 103 Haitians aboard 15 miles off those islands in the Atlantic.

A US Coast Guard boarding party approaches a dangerously overloaded boat packed with Haitians as a Turks & Caicos Police Boat stands watch. (US Coast Guard Photo)

The first order of business was to provide life jackets to all those packed aboard the vessel before it could be escorted to land without loss of life. The boat was then directed to Providenciales in the northwest Caicos Islands (in the custody of the Coast Guard and Turks & Caicos Police), where it docked safely.

Another view of the dangerously overloaded human smuggling boat from a Coast Guard "Ocean Sentry" patrol plane circling overhead. (US Coast Guard Photo)

That incident followed another large-scale human-smuggling attempt also stopped by the Coast Guard this month, this time off Puerto Rico. On September 9, 2025, the USCG Cutter Heriberto Hernandez intercepted another overloaded boat in the dangerous waters of the Mona Passage northwest of Aguadilla.

This dangerously overcrowded human smuggling boat was intercepted by the USCG Cutter Heriberto Hernandez off Puerto Rico on Sept. 9, 2025. (US Coast Guard Photo)

This human smuggling vessel was found to be carrying 66 aliens (41 men and seven women who claimed Dominican Republic citizenship, 13 men and three women who said they were from Haiti, and two men, who claimed to be Romanian).

An armed US Coast Guardsman keeps a watchful eye over a human smuggling vessel as they approach to board and commandeer the boat. (US Coast Guard Photo)

The aliens were transferred to the Coast Guard Cutter, where they were processed to determine their identities. They were also provided with food, water, and basic medical attention. They face the possibility of prosecution as well as likely repatriation to their homelands.

An alien is escorted from the dangerously overloaded smuggling vessel onto the Coast Guard Cutter Heriberto Hernandez for processing. (US Coast Guard Photo)

These human smuggling busts aren't just occurring off the East Coast of the United States. The Coast Guard also recently stopped another 25 illegal aliens from reaching the California Coast in two separate incidents.

On September 14, 2025, the crew of the USCG Cutter David Duren stopped a suspicious 30-foot vessel 26 miles west of La Jolla, California, to find 21 illegal aliens aboard (two of them unaccompanied teenagers).

17 claimed Mexican nationality, three claimed Venezuelan nationality, and one claimed Honduran nationality.

21 illegal aliens were discovered in a smuggling boat off California by the crew of the USCG Cutter David Duren on September 14, 2025. (US Coast Guard Photos)

On Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, the crew of the USCG Cutter Benjamin Bottoms intercepted another human smuggling boat off the coast of California, this time with four illegal aliens aboard. All aboard were adults who claimed to be Mexican citizens.