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A crew from the Tybee Station of the United States Coast Guard rescued two people from the water near the Savannah River in Georgia on Saturday morning, after both attempted to illegally enter the country, according to the official account of the Southeast Coast Guard on social media platform X.
The two individuals were transferred to the custody of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue the identification process and immigration procedures on land under federal custody.
The operation was carried out in coordination with the partners of the Operación Vigilant Sentry del Sureste (OVS Southeast), a joint initiative of the Coast Guard, CBP, and other federal agencies to combat illegal migrant trafficking by sea in the Caribbean and the southeastern United States.
The image published by the Coast Guard shows a nighttime operation aboard a patrol boat, with agents identified by institutional vests and at least one person with a pixelated face and a visible red backpack.
"A crew from the Tybee Station rescued two people from the water near the Savannah River on Saturday morning, after they allegedly attempted to illegally enter the United States. Both were transferred to CBP. The Coast Guard and our partners at OVS Southeast remain committed to protecting the borders of the United States," noted the Southeast Coast Guard in its official statement.
The Savannah River, which forms the natural border between Georgia and South Carolina, is not a common point for illegal migration crossings. The vast majority of maritime interceptions of migrants in the southeastern United States occur in the Florida Straits, the Keys, and the Caribbean, making this case geographically atypical.
The Tybee Station, located on Tybee Island in Chatham County, Georgia, operates under the Charleston Sector of the Coast Guard and is responsible for maritime surveillance along Georgia's Atlantic coast.
This incident occurs in the context of intensified maritime border control operations under the Trump administration. In 2026, the Coast Guard has recorded a significant increase in interceptions in the southeastern sector. The Coast Guard vessel Vigorous recently completed a 46-day patrol in the Florida Straits, during which it intercepted, processed, and repatriated over 67 migrants in five operations, coming from Honduras, Bangladesh, Haiti, and China.
The Coast Guard's operations in the region have been a constant in recent years. In 2024, the Coast Guard repatriated 13 Cuban rafters intercepted in the waters of the Florida Strait, and in January of that same year repatriated six Cuban rafters captured near the shores of Florida.
In the fiscal year 2023, the Coast Guard intercepted over 6,200 migrants during maritime operations in the southeast, a figure that reflects the magnitude of irregular migration flow through this route and the extent of border control efforts in the region.
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