( CNN ) -- U.S. Coast Guard officers continued to search for survivors Tuesday after a boat carrying 28 Haitian migrants ran into trouble in the Bahamas while on its way to the United States , leading to at least 11 deaths . Thirteen people are believed missing , the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday . Four of those on board made it safely to shore Monday and raised the alarm with the Bahamas police force , U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios said . The hunt for survivors continued early Tuesday , with U.S. Coast Guard officers scanning the seas from the air and Bahamian police conducting surface searches . The Haitians ' vessel ran aground and broke up near Hawksbill Cay in the Bahamas , the Coast Guard said . The Coast Guard sent three aircraft , one of them a rescue helicopter , to the scene after Bahamian authorities asked for help and recovered 11 bodies there , Rios said . Rescued Haitian migrant boat refugee becomes Coast Guard rescuer . Capt . Brendan McPherson , 7th Coast Guard District chief of response enforcement , said it was a `` tragic and preventable loss of life , '' in a statement Tuesday . `` As we continue our efforts to locate any survivors , the Coast Guard urges family members everywhere to plead with loved ones overseas who might wish to immigrate to the U.S. to only do so through safe and lawful means , '' he said . The United States has long been a destination for migrants from Haiti , with many sailing via the Bahamas or the Turks and Caicos Islands . Boats overflowing with migrants fleeing persecution under the regime of Jean-Claude `` Baby Doc '' Duvalier began landing on U.S. shores in the 1970s . Others sought refuge after the collapse of the Duvalier dictatorship in the late 1980s , according to the Migration Policy Institute . Council urges probe of sinking refugee boats . In the early 1990s , tens of thousands more Haitians migrated to the United States after the coup d'etat deposing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide . The January 2010 earthquake that devastated the capital , Port au Prince , and surrounding communities did not result in an immediate wave of mass migration to the United States , as some had feared . Nonetheless , about 587,000 Haitian-born people were living in the United States as of 2010 , according to the U.S. Census Bureau , about half of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens . That number had climbed from 408,000 in 2000 and 218,000 in 1990 , according to a 2010 report by the U.S.-based Center for Immigration Studies , citing earlier census figures . At least 16 dead after migrant boat sinks near Dominican Republic . Nearly half the migrants from Haiti have settled in Florida , with New York , New Jersey and Massachusetts also attracting sizable communities , the CIS report says . A fifth of Haitian immigrants and their young children residing in the United States live in poverty , it adds . The Haitian diaspora has traditionally helped its Caribbean homeland recover from natural disasters , with large sums sent back to Haiti in remittances , the Migration Policy Institute says . The United Nations estimates the January 2010 earthquake affected nearly 3 million people and killed about 220,000 . More than 1.5 million people were left homeless in a country that was already the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and racked by crisis . CNN 's Nick Valencia , Laura Smith-Spark and Catherine Shoichet contributed to this report .
NEW : The search for survivors continues after a boat carrying 28 Haitian migrants sinks . The boat , bound for the United States , ran aground off Hurricane Cay , the U.S. Coast Guard says . No bodies have been found and 13 people are missing ; four made it to shore . About 587,000 Haitian - born people live in the United States , 2010 Census figures show .