The Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Fourteen Cuban migrants traveling on a wooden boat landed on Puerto Rico's Mona Island, officials said Friday.

The six men and eight women arrived Thursday and turned themselves in to Puerto Rican rangers who patrol the island, said Leila Andreu, spokeswoman for the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.

The Cubans arrived hours after another group of eight Cubans landed on Mona on Thursday. They were waiting to be picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The 14 were traveling with an unknown number of Dominican migrants who kept going toward Puerto Rico's main coast after dropping them off on Mona, Andreu said.

Also Friday, authorities detained about 20 more Dominican migrants who arrived in a group of more than 135 in northern Puerto Rico on Thursday. Authorities said 97 have been detained so far.

Dominican migrants are generally repatriated. Under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, most Cubans who reach U.S. shores can stay in the country and apply for legal U.S. residency after one year. Those caught at sea are generally repatriated.

U.S. authorities have intercepted more than 7,000 migrants -- mostly Dominicans -- trying to reach Puerto Rico since Oct. 1, more than double the number in the previous 12 months.

The illegal voyages have increased as the Dominican economy has deteriorated to crisis levels.

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