An advice-of-rights hearing is scheduled for Friday in U.S. District Court for two groups of illegal immigrants taken into custody on St. John.
Eighteen individuals were apprehended around daybreak Wednesday on the island's North Shore near Trunk Bay Beach, according to police.
Three others, said to be Chinese, were reported in the custody of a private citizen near the exclusive Peter Bay residential area around 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to the police.
The groups were said to include at least two women and three minors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugh Mabe said all of the adults in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service would appear at the Friday hearing.
While groups of illegal immigrants, notably from other Caribbean islands and the Far East, have been coming ashore on St. John since the mid-1990s, Mabe said, this one differed from most in that its makeup was of multiple nationalities. "There are some Chinese. There are a larger number of Haitians and a person from the Dominican Republic," he said.
Mabe said he could not comment on the number of minors or provide any information concerning them.
One St. John resident who saw the larger group Wednesday said he spotted a small boy, perhaps 4 years old, clutching a yellow toy truck.