A Cuban migrant boat approaching Hollywood beach stopped by the Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard stopped a boat carrying migrants, at least some from Cuba, off the coast of Hollywood on Thursday afternoon.

Three people from Cuba were “medically screened” and taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol, said Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations.

Those three people jumped from the boat and were taken to shore by beach lifeguards, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Estrada, a Coast Guard spokesman.

In total, about 15 people were on the boat, said Deanna Bettineschi, Hollywood police public information manager.

Hoffner said the boat was a “rustic” vessel, a term federal officials use to describe the type of homemade, many times barely seaworthy, boats migrants from Cuba frequently use to reach South Florida.

The boat was stopped off shore around 3:25 p.m. near the Diplomat Beach Resort Hollywood hotel, between Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard.

All of the people are in federal custody and the Coast Guard has the boat, Bettineschi said.

The landing comes as federal, county, state and local authorities are dealing with a major increase in migrants from both Cuba and Haiti coming to South Florida. Most of these landings and at-sea interceptions are happening in and around the Florida Keys, however.

Areas farther north such as Hollywood have not been common destinations during this latest maritime migration increase, which began almost two years ago.

Earlier Thursday, a group of 17 Cuban migrants arrived in Islamorada in the Florida Keys on a homemade boat, according to the Border Patrol.

Their arrival is under investigation, Walter Slosar, chief agent for the Border Patrol’s Miami sector, said in a statement released on Twitter.

Since Oct. 1, the Border Patrol has responded to more than 216 landings in the Keys and encountered over 3,000 migrants from both Cuba and Haiti, Slosar said earlier this week.

And, the Coast Guard said it has intercepted at sea 4,822 people from Cuba along the Florida Straits.

That’s the most migrant activity from Cuba in almost seven years, federal officials say.

The name of the Hollywood police spokesman was incorrect in a previous version of this article.