USVI: Illegals detained

Authorities detained 29 immigrants - 23 Haitians and six Dominicanos - on St. John and surrounding waters and islands on Thursday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement marine officers spotted 10 immigrants in a 33-foot boat off the southeast coast of St. John while on a routine patrol about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, said Ivan Ortiz, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. The immigrants' boat led federal agents on a high-speed chase in the waters off St. John's coastline, Ortiz said.
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There has been a dramatic increase in the number of illegal immigrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic detained this year, according to U.S. Coast Guard statistics. So far in 2004, the Coast Guard has detained 2,207 Haitians, which is more than almost every year in the last decade. Officials have said that they are likely to detain more Dominicanos in 2004 than any year in the past decade, with a total of 748 immigrants from the Dominican Republic detained in April alone.