MIAMI, Fla. (WFLA) — A federal district judge in Miami sentenced a 25-year-old woman to seven and a half years on Friday for her role in the voyage in which more than 12 people died for attempting to enter the United States illegally.
According to the U.S. Lawyer’s Office, Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves, a Cuban citizen who illegally entered the country in October 2022, pleaded guilty to alien smuggling conspiracy and related charges earlier this year.
The University of Florida represents campus police for immigration enforcement
Just a month after entering the US, authorities said Dominguez Nieves and her boyfriend had begun planning to illegally smuggle 18 Cuba by boat from the island through the Straits of Florida to the Florida coastal country.
They charged travel admission fees and raised a total of about $11,500 from immigrant families in South Florida.
All 18 people boarded the fishing boat on November 16th, 2024, departing from Playajaimanitas. The boat was only about 30 miles from the trip when authorities began sinking and said there were only two survivors remaining.
Many of the people killed included children, and authorities said three of them had been washed away in Monroe County. Their cause of death was listed as “own death.”
Two survivors said the boat was too small for 18 people. They reported that there were no lifemen on board, and the captain seemed to have no idea what he was doing.
On Friday, US District Judge Beth Bloom said he had decided to give Dominguez Nieves the sentence recommended by the Advisory Federal Judgment Guidelines for the severity of the violation.
