12 detained in Florida Keys amid increasing immigration enforcement
Federal agents detained 12 people during an immigration enforcement operation in the Florida Keys last week.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations issued a press release Friday saying its agents participated in the operation with the Border Patrol on Nov. 21. A CBP Blackhawk helicopter was also used in the operation, the agency said.
Customs said the 12 people agents took into custody were illegally in the U.S. from countries including Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and Guatemala. The agency said the people were taken to the Border Patrol’s station in the Middle Keys city of Marathon to be processed for removal from the country.
Agents were pulling cars over that morning in the southbound lanes of U.S. 1 at mile marker 105 in front of the Winn-Dixie supermarket in Key Largo, a witness told the Miami Herald.
Customs said all of them had “prior charges and convictions” for offenses including re-entry after deportation, driving under the influence, illegal concealed carry of a weapon, drug possession with a weapon, battery and domestic violence.
As of Friday, none of the people’s cases have shown up in public federal court records.
Increased immigration enforcement in the Florida Keys
Since the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have ramped up operations in the Keys, according to court records.
Much of the enforcement effort appears to be happening around the Big Pine Key area in the Lower Keys.
But, increased operations appear to be happening in the Upper Keys as well. The Florida Keys Weekly reported that on Nov. 17, a man and 16-year-old boy were pulled over on the way to drop the teen off at Coral Shores High School on Plantation Key, where he is a student.
Both were detained, the newspaper reported. ICE could not immediately be reached for comment on where the boy is being held. Monroe County School District Deputy Superintendent Amber Acevedo told the Herald that she “did not have specific information” about the incident.
On Sunday, Border Patrol agents pulled over a Ford pickup truck at mile marker 99 in Key Largo because “law enforcement databases indicated that the registered owner is an illegal alien residing in the United States,” a Border Patrol complaint filed Tuesday states.
According to the complaint, the driver, Lucas Jimenez-Ramos is a citizen of Guatemala illegally living in the U.S. The complaint states that he was previously deported in October 2019. He now faces a charge of “re-entry of a removed alien,” the complaint states.
Also this week, a Customs Air and Marine Operations crew stopped a boat Tuesday off Rodriguez Key, a small uninhabited island just offshore of Key Largo, to conduct a “vessel document check,” the agency said in a statement.
A man on the boat was a Venezuelan citizen “illegally present in the United States after deportation,” the statement said. He was also taken to the Border Patrol’s station in Marathon to be processed for removal.
This story was originally published November 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM with the headline "12 detained in Florida Keys amid increasing immigration enforcement."
