The United States Border Patrol says smugglers have been trying to bring increased numbers of Cuban and Haitian immigrants into south Florida over the holiday season, in the hope that there would be fewer guards on duty.

A spokesman said more than forty Cubans and thirty Haitians as well as six Jamaicans had been picked up along the coast since Saturday.

One group of about eighteen people from Cuba landed on the shore at Miami Beach, in the middle of the city's restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

The illegal immigrants are currently in detention while the authorities determine their eligibility to stay in the United States.