REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MIAMI -- The US Coast Guard picked up 16 Cubans and two Dominicans traveling in a makeshift wooden boat as they tried to reach Puerto Rico, authorities in the US territory said Monday.

The 13 Cuban men and three women were repatriated while the Dominicans were arrested for illegal re-entry, having already been deported, US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.

The immigrants were spotted by a US Coast Guard helicopter in an overloaded vessel Wednesday night as they neared Puerto Rico, a US territory whose inhabitants are American citizens.

The Cubans were sent home under a US policy that repatriates the island's citizens who are caught at sea but allows those reaching American soil to stay.

In December, Cuba and the United States announced that they would begin normalizing relations after more than 50 years of hostility, but the US border patrol emphasized Monday that that "does not signify a change in the current immigration policy toward Cuba."

"Coast Guard cutters aggressively patrol the Caribbean and Florida Straits to interdict migrants traveling from Cuba to the United States by water," it said.

Fear that the rapprochement between Washington and Havana will bring an end to the special immigration privilege enjoyed only by Cubans has resulted in a rush to the United States.

The Dominicans could face fines and jail time, border patrol said.

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