History and Background
The Ramey Sector was established in 1987 to combat the rising tide of illegal aliens arriving from the Dominican Republic located some 90 miles to the west on the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti. Citizens and government officials alike expressed great concern in the mid-1980s to the rising tide of illegal aliens. In those days only one immigration agent from the San Juan District immigration office was tasked with processing aliens apprehended by local authorities in the western area of the island.

Since then, aliens have begun arriving from all parts of the world and use Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as a stepping stone to the U.S. mainland. A great number of all illegal aliens arriving in Puerto Rico from abroad continue to the mainland. Puerto Rico's airports are considered to be domestic airports and immigration enforcement operations are tailored accordingly.

The Sector Headquarters and the Ramey Station are co-located. They opened on Oct. 5, 1987, on a 3.3-acre site at the former Ramey Air Force Base that had been closed in 1974.

The Sector resides within and interacts harmoniously with the San Juan District immigration office and other law enforcement efforts within this region. The coastal boundary of Puerto Rico alone is a distance of 340 miles, not inclusive of the twelve-mile international water boundary. The small islands of Desecheo and Mona lie in the Mona Passage west of Puerto Rico, Mona being some 40 miles away. Mona Island's west coast actually lies closer to the Dominican Republic than its east coast does to Puerto Rico, providing an incentive for aliens, especially those from China and Cuba, to journey unhindered to its shorelines.

To the east of Puerto Rico lie the inhabited islands of Culebra and Vieques, both within the jurisdictional area of Puerto Rico. A few miles beyond them lie the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St.Croix and St. John. This area of the Sector is within a few hours' boat ride of several Caribbean nations, including St. Martin, St. Maarten, Martinique, Tortola, Dominica, St. Kitts and many others located within the Lesser Antilles island chain. The population of Puerto Rico nears four million, and an additional 100,000 residents reside in the Virgin Islands.

Ramey Sector conducts a very large maritime enforcement operation supported by an air operations unit. Other operations include linewatch, traffic check, a prosecutions unit and a Special Response Team.