A boat captain was busted Friday while bringing at least 14 migrants into Florida — after first ramming into a sheriff’s vessel as it tried to stop him, officials said.
A specialist marine unit vessel had tried to intercept the suspicious boat as it was heading to Jupiter just after 9 a.m., the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) said.
“Upon making contact with the captain on board, the captain rammed the PBSO Marine Unit Vessel damaging two engines,” the sheriff’s office said, noting there were no injuries.
A sheriff’s office helicopter and additional marine units then helped chase the boat, which eventually beached just north of the Juno Beach Pier.
Captain Bazaelius Francois, 30, was “immediately apprehended,” the sheriff’s office said — with 14 immigrants also detained to be handed over to Border Patrol.
Francois is facing two counts of aggravated battery on a police officer, the release said.
It was not immediately clear if it was the same case in which the Border Patrol said 17 immigrants were detained on a boat that landed in Jupiter Friday. There were 16 from Haiti and one from the Bahamas, the region’s Chief Patrol Agent Walter Slosar said.
The incident comes amid an influx in illegal immigration.
On average 1,400 migrants a day are crossing into Arizona illegally, US government statistics show.
Last month 42,561 migrants were encountered in the Tuscon sector, which includes Lukeville, making the region the number one hot spot in the entire nation for illegal entries and the nation’s busiest border crossing.
There, migrants can easily pass through 114 floodgates that have been welded wide open.
