The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. October 19, 2022 100 Haitian Migrants Stranded on Island Near Puerto Rico -------------------------------------------------------- Over 100 Haitian migrants, including pregnant people and children, were found stranded on an uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico Tuesday. Mona Island, located midway between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, has become a popular drop-off point for boats of migrants departing from the Dominican Republic. Smugglers often abandon migrants there, falsely telling them they've reached the main island of Puerto Rico. Haiti is facing one of its worst crises of instability and violence as gangs continue to control a major port in Port-au-Prince, triggering critical shortages of food, water, fuel and other resources. Harsh U.S. immigration policies blocking migrants from seeking asylum have forced many to rely on smugglers and embark on extremely dangerous routes to enter the U.S. .