The tropical vacation paradise hiding an ominous secret
Illegal migrants are using the white sandy shores of the Bahamas as a 'springboard' to enter the United States, experts revealed.
The tropical vacation paradise has become a hotbed of illegal migration and human trafficking due to its proximity to South Florida and abundance of recreational boats.
Some of the Bahamas' more than 700 islands are only 50 miles from Florida's coastline, but the treacherous waters can make it a dangerous journey.
However, Customs and Border Protection has been trying to crack down on the illicit trafficking.
On Thursday, a federal district judge in Miami sentenced a Bahamian national, Keith Kevin Russell, 46, to 20 months in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to alien smuggling in January.
On November 8, CBP officers had stopped Russell while he was transporting 18 migrants on his boat from The Bahamas to the United States.
The migrants on the vessel were from China, Haiti, Jamaica and the Bahamas, and all of them did not have authorization to enter the United States.
'Normally, when we think of maritime migration, we think about Haiti or Cuba, maybe the Dominican Republic, but the unknown in that equation is the Bahamas,' retired Rear Adm. Peter Brown told Fox News Digital.
'The Bahamas presents a special case, not so much because Bahamians want to get to the U.S., although a few do, but because the Bahamas ends up being a springboard for others who want to reach the U.S.'
Brown, a former Homeland Security advisor to President Donald Trump, explained that the island nation attracts migrants from across the globe due to its lax visa laws.
'The Bahamas' economy is so dependent on tourism they offer visa-free travel to citizens of 160 different countries around the world,' he said.
'The difference is that the Bahamas offers visa-free travel to people from Russia, people from El Salvador, Guatemala, from Venezuela, from Nicaragua, from Jamaica, from Brazil. And there are many people from those countries who want to come to the United States.'
Visa-free travel to the Bahamas allows people to enter the island nation legally then use it's shore to attempt illegal entry into the U.S.
In February, the Coast Guard returned 31 migrants of mixed nationalities to The Bahamas following three interdictions of illegal maritime ventures in U.S. territorial waters east of Miami.
During one of the intercepts, one migrant was medically evacuated ashore for a higher level of care.
'Illegal maritime migration is always dangerous and often deadly, and human smugglers do not care about the safety or lives of aliens during these ventures,' said Lt. Cmdr. John W. Beal, Seventh Coast Guard District public affairs officer.
'Our message is simple – do not entrust your lives and money to criminal human smugglers just to be repatriated or deported. Don't take to the sea.'
Brown warned that illegal entering the United States through water channels from the Bahamas can be deadly.
'Thousands try, hundreds die, because every year we see multiple cases of folks capsizing, running aground and people drowning,' he said. 'And it's very unfortunate. And so the deterrence message actually saves lives.'
'If we can, by deterrence, prevent people from ever setting sail, from hiring a migrant smuggler who has no regard for human life, if we can do that, then we'll save lives, and we'll reduce the number of these dangerous ventures.'
In January 2022, a boat carrying 39 migrants capsized in a suspected human smuggling incident.
The sole known survivor was rescued by a commercial mariner who spotted them clinging to the overturned vessel, reported NBC News.
A recent report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection found the total migrant encounters in the Miami Sector rose from 2.77 million in 2022 to a peak of 3.2 million in 2023, before slightly decreasing to 2.9 million in 2024.
As of March, fiscal 2025, there have been 531,440 encounters recorded.
The U.S. State Department 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report on the Bahamas said traffickers recruit victims from Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, PRC, Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela and the Philippines under the false premise of employment.
'What often happens is that people paying migrant smugglers are already part of the community on the Florida side, funding the journey for a relative, family member or friend to reach the United States,' Brown said.
'This is frequently accompanied by a form of indentured servitude, where migrants must work to repay the smugglers, creating a cycle of crime that often goes unnoticed.'
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