SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Authorities gathered just south of 167th Street and Collins Avenue after several migrants landed on Sunny Isles Beach.
At around 11:20 a.m. Monday, police and fire rescue crews responded to the scene, along with marine patrol units after, officials said, a white, unmarked cigarette boat dropped off about 20 migrants. Some ran toward the Newport Beach Resort.
According to witnesses, a man who was on the boat got out and was barking orders.
“He lead to them what they are going to do, ‘Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up,'” said Yury Rakhnayev, a witness.
According to U.S. Border Patrol Chief Walter N. Slosar, the agents of the department “responded to a suspected maritime smuggling event and encountered four Chinese migrants.”
Cellphone footage captured the migrants jumping off the boat near the shoreline. Good Samaritans helped some of the migrants get out of the water, and in a matter of minutes, Sunny Isles Police were on the scene.
“I saw a big white boat came to the shore, very close to the shore and they just pushed them to the water and their belongings,” said Luda Boguslavksy, a witness.
“The moment we walked off, they were already taping off the entire section here,” said Diego Quevedo, a witness.
Quevedo said he also saw a family detained in the lobby of the Newport Beachside Resort.
“It was a little family, it was a dad and a mom, of course, and then one little kid. About three, four years old,” he said.
Live video footage captured a few of those migrants with police soaked in seawater.
On the beach, six men and two women were checked out and taken into custody while police searched for the remaining migrants that fled on foot.
The Department of Homeland Security interrogated the migrants and has taken over the investigation. A search of the water is underway for the cigarette boat that brought the migrants here.
“It’s a first time. I live here for 13 years, it’s a first time this happens,” said Boguslavksy.
Witnesses said they counted a total of 22 people coming to shore.
Authorities confirmed a total of 10 Chinese migrants were taken into U.S Border Patrol custody.
Federal authorities are asking anyone with information, pictures or videos of what occurred to contact the Homeland Security Investigations Line, at 866-347-2423, or use the HSI Tip Form.
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