Thread: 20 Illegals Come Ashore

20 Illegal Cubans Come Ashore

naplesnews.com
Human smugglers helped Cubans
By Elysa Batista, Eric Staats

Originally published — 8:04 a.m., August 15, 2006
Updated — 1:33 p.m., August 15, 2006

Twenty undocumented Cubans, including a pregnant woman and a 1-year-old boy, came ashore Tuesday morning near Marco Island with the help of human smugglers using at least one boat.

The Cubans reached land at the foot of the north end of the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge, and the refugees and two suspicious boats were brought to the boat ramp at Collier Boulevard, said Collier County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Stephanie Spell.

Spell said the Sheriff's Office began receiving reports from passers-by who saw the group of Cubans shortly after 7 a.m.

At about the same time, officers aboard a sheriff's marine patrol boat near the bridge saw a boat with no passengers aboard speeding up the Marco River away from the Gulf of Mexico and stopped it, Spell said.

Collier sheriff's Lt. David Johnson said an "illegal border crossing and landing was detected" and said authorities intercepted all the immigrants and "probably caught the people that were responsible" for bringing them ashore.

"We had two boats in the wrong place at the wrong time and at the wrong hour," Johnson said.

Ten of the 20 Cubans, including the pregnant woman and boy, were sent to Naples Community Hospital and North Collier Hospital for treatment of dehydration. Their conditions are not life-threatening, Spell said.

NCH spokeswoman Debbie Curry said she could not release any additional information, but confirmed that six Cubans had been brought into the hospital's downtown campus and four had been taken to North Collier. The six being treated downtown included a teenager and a toddler.

Meanwhile, nine adult males and one adult female sat in a white Sheriff's Office bus idling in the sun at the Collier Boulevard boat ramp.

The bus arrived at NCH at 10:30 a.m. Some of the detainees on the bus were briefly escorted into the hospital and back onto the vehicle.

One of the men, who gave his name as Juan Martinez, shook his head when asked if he had been heading to Miami, but responded that he had family elsewhere in Florida.

"In Tampa," he said before a sheriff's deputy led him away.

The six detainees who received treatment at NCH were escorted onto the bus before 11:20 a.m.. Several nurses and police offices wished them well as they climbed into the bus wearing hospital gowns.

Officers with the Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard swarmed the boat ramp Tuesday morning.

Crime scene technicians fingerprinted the refugees, two by two, using the tailgate of a pickup as a table. One man was barefoot with his pant legs rolled up. Another wore rubber waders. They were peaceful, at times chatting with officers.

About 10 a.m., the bus pulled out of the boat ramp parking lot on its way to pick up the other refugees at the hospitals before heading to the U.S. Border Patrol center in Pembroke Pines.

Under the U.S. "wet foot-dry foot" policy, Cubans that reach U.S. soil generally are allowed to stay in the country. If they are intercepted before reaching land, they are to be returned to Cuba, according to the policy.

"We got reports that they were walking on land," Spell said.

Investigators combed over two 24-foot fishing boats that authorities pulled out of the water near where the Cubans came ashore.

Spell said one of the boats appeared to have no evidence on it that would link it to the Cubans. It was loaded onto a trailer and taken away. Three men with that boat were questioned and allowed to go Tuesday morning.

The second boat, with nine fishing rods sticking into the air, remained in the water at the boat ramp Tuesday morning while crime scene workers took photographs, lifted fingerprints from its stern and used tweezers to pluck hairs or fibers from the center console.

Two men with the second boat were detailed Tuesday morning at the boat ramp by Border Patrol agents.

Spell said one of the boats had a questionable hull number, possibly altered or with a discrepancy with its registration, that allowed investigators to seize it.

Tuesday's scene at the Collier Boulevard boat ramp is the third time in the past year that Southwest Florida has been the scene of illegal immigration.

In June 2005, 19 Cubans reached Sanibel Island and. In January 2006, four Hialeah men suspected of smuggling nine Cubans to the Dry Tortugas were captured after their 32-foot boat ran out of fuel 47 miles off Marco Island.

Johnson said Collier County marine patrol officers keep watch along 80 miles of coastline between Bonita Springs and Chokoloskee.

Find additional coverage in Wednesday's edition of the Daily News.

© 2006 Naples Daily News and NDN Productions. Published in Naples, Florida, USA by the E.W. Scripps Co.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/aug ... nd/?latest

Under the U.S. "wet foot-dry foot" policy, Cubans that reach U.S. soil generally are allowed to stay in the country. If they are intercepted before reaching land, they are to be returned to Cuba, according to the policy.

Well this loophole needs to be eliminated.
Load them back on the boat and send 'em home.
What a stupid law that is! If we take away that incentive, maybe they'll think twice about crossing that much ocean.

Under the U.S. "wet foot-dry foot" policy, Cubans that reach U.S. soil generally are allowed to stay in the country. If they are intercepted before reaching land, they are to be returned to Cuba, according to the policy.

Just lucrious, especially since these illegal immigrants were helped by human smugglers! Why would we even have such a law? Illegal is illegal is illegal - it doesn't matter how or why you came here - it just matters whether you came legally or illegally.

The "wet foot-dry foot" policy makes absolutely no sense. Why should they be treated any differently than the illegals that enter through our Southern border? The hypocrisy of this rule just helps to undermine our immigration laws and border security. Believe it or not, our only borders are not with Canada and Mexico!

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 70402/1075

Authorities free Cuban immigrants
Smuggling suspects remain in custody

By Joel Moroney
jmoroney@news-press.com
& Jacob Ogles
jogles@news-press.com
Originally posted on August 17, 2006


The men accused of smuggling 20 Cuban immigrants to the shores of Marco Island are in jail but Juan Martinez and his fellow Cubans are free in Florida.

Noel Lopez and Juan Gonzalez Hernandez, of Miami, made an initial appearance in federal court in Fort Myers on Wednesday.

Each is charged with one count of human-trafficking, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The judge also seized a 2004, 25-foot boat authorities contend was used to smuggle the immigrants on Tuesday.

The men did not enter pleas. Gonzalez Hernandez was appointed a public defender; Lopez said he would retain an attorney.

Both men are to appear in court on Monday for a bail hearing.

The refugees' first step onto United States land virtually assured them they will be able to find work legally, apply for residency in a year and apply for citizenship in five years as long as they avoid trouble with the law.

The outcome would have been much different if they had been intercepted just minutes earlier, while still in the water.

Because of the United States' "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, those who make it to land usually are allowed to stay.

United States policy gives preferred treatment to Cuban immigrants because of this country's long-running diplomatic war with the communist nation's ailing dictator Fidel Castro.

But those who do not reach United States soil are deported back to Cuba.

Collier County Sheriff Lt. David Johnson said Tuesday marine units were there in time to capture the Cubans and their accused smugglers but not in time to keep them from reaching land.

"We would have liked it very much if we could have intercepted this at sea where they could not avail themselves of the wet-foot-dry-foot policy," Johnson said hours after Tuesday's incident. "We do not want illegal refugees loose in the community. We have no idea what their intent is."

But Martinez and the 19 others reached land with contact numbers of family and friends in hand.

Wearing a ragged blue tank top, olive pants and black wading boots, a smiling Martinez said he had family in Tampa in response to questions at Naples Community Hospital.

He likely made it to Tampa little more than 24 hours after reaching Florida — U.S. Border Patrol released all 20 into the hands of relatives and friends on Wednesday, Border Patrol spokesman Steve McDonald said.

"Under normal circumstances they will release them out," Fort Myers immigration attorney Paul Nuckolls said. "They're pretty much on the streets at that point."

McDonald said Tuesday's immigrants were fingerprinted; underwent background checks that likely would only reveal crimes committed in this country; were interviewed about their trip and the alleged smuggling operation; and gave their biographical information.

By noon Wednesday, they were free beneath the South Florida sun.

"We look for any known criminal history associated with the person, at least in the United States," McDonald said. "Normally there is not, at least that we can discover."

They were not given medical exams, he said.

Ana Santiago, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said they will be able to apply for permanent residency in a year and a day and citizenship in five years.

Meanwhile, organizations such as the Cuban American National Council are in place to help them land jobs, find living quarters and get education and social services.

"If they are allowed to stay, they are issued work permits and can find jobs," Council President Guarione Diaz said.

He said the organization helps about 900 new arrivals per year.

"The first year is a difficult year but then after that things begin to settle down," he said. "It's rare that someone will arrive from Cuba that does not have any relatives or friends here that can help them get settled."

http://www.naplesnews.com

Cubans freed; alleged smugglers held
Two Miami men face federal charges of dropping 20 Cuban refugees on Marco Island

By Ryan Mills

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Two Miami men were charged Wednesday with smuggling 20 Cuban nationals into Collier County on Tuesday morning, while earlier in the day the Cubans who were smuggled in were released from U.S. Border Patrol custody.

Noel Lopez, 32, and Juan Gonzalez-Hernandez, 38, both from Miami, were indicted by U.S. Attorney Paul I. Perez on Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to bring aliens into the United States. The charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The two men are being held in the Lee County jail and made their first appearance Wednesday afternoon, Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy said.

Lopez and Gonzalez-Hernandez were arrested Tuesday aboard a 25-foot boat after the 20 Cuban nationals, including a pregnant woman and a 1-year-old boy, came ashore at the north end of the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge at Marco Island.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit boarded the boat and found about 16 life vests, a tarp used to cover the Cubans and “substantial food provisions,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

Molloy said the boat had been seized but would not identify the boat’s owner. He would not say how Lopez and Gonzalez-Hernandez first made contact with the Cubans.

“The next step will be their formal arraignment on the indictment,” Molloy said. “Then the discovery procedure will begin.”

U.S. Border Patrol officials said the 20 Cuban nationals, who were transported Tuesday to a station in Pembroke Pines, were released Wednesday morning. The Cubans, they said, were processed and interviewed and their files forwarded to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility to determine if they would be detained.

“They never accepted custody,” U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Steve McDonald said of the detention facility. “Normally with people from Cuba, because they have a benefit process, they are not detained unless they turn out to be a threat to the United States — a criminal alien or something of that nature.”

After their release, the Cubans were transported to a volunteer resettlement agency where they can reunite with family, apply for benefits and go through an orientation process, McDonald said.

“In essence, they do leave our office with the understanding that they will not be detained any longer,” McDonald said. “They’re here. They’re free to come and go like you or me. There’s no watchdog agency. Typically, we get an address as part of the file.”

Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Robert Montemayor, of the U.S. Border Patrol office in Pembroke Pines, said after refugees leave his office, the Border Patrol does not have any contact with them. Montemayor said he did not know where the 20 Cuban refugees went after leaving his office and would not provide their names.

One of the Cubans, identified as Juan Martinez, said Tuesday he had family in Tampa.

Detainees said Tuesday the group left Cuba on Sunday, which was President Fidel Castro’s 80th birthday. They said the focus on Castro’s birthday gave them a chance to get out.

Collier County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Stephanie Spell said passers-by on Collier Boulevard reported seeing the Cubans shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday. At about the same time, officers aboard a sheriff’s marine patrol boat near the bridge saw a boat with no passengers speeding up the Marco River away from the Gulf of Mexico and stopped it, Spell said.

Under the United States’ “wet foot-dry foot” policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil generally are allowed to stay in the country. If they are intercepted before reaching land, they are returned to Cuba, according to the policy.

According to a U.S. Coast Guard report, the Coast Guard has stopped 6,796 migrants from illegally entering the United States since October 2005. Of those, 2,310 were from Cuba.

Eric Driggs, an associate researcher with the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, said that in 2004 the Cuban government reported that 35,429 people emigrated from the island. Many of those, Driggs said, probably came to the United States.

He said people leave Cuba for a variety of political and economic reasons. Many spend thousands of dollars and risk their lives to come to the United States.

“It’s a very closed, very controlled environment and people get fed up with it. Not to mention there is basically no economic opportunity whatsoever,” Driggs said. “There’s an understanding that the outside world is different and better in a lot of ways. People want a better life and the freedom to live as they see fit. It’s a basic human need.”

"We would have liked it very much if we could have intercepted this at sea where they could not avail themselves of the wet-foot-dry-foot policy," Johnson said hours after Tuesday's incident. "We do not want illegal refugees loose in the community. We have no idea what their intent is."

Don't tell us, tell Congress and our tunnel visioned President of the United States.

Bush is now proposing that Cubans with relatives in the U.S. be allowed to immigrate. This has the potential for disaster that Carter's accepting the Murrialitos did.

The outcome would have been much different if they had been intercepted just minutes earlier, while still in the water.

This is like some kinda insane game show. It's almost the same at the border, because you win if you can get by the BP and make it to the interior....home free. What makes these people any more worthy or different simply because they put their foot on dry land? You still have NO idea of who they really are or what their real intent is. It's ludicrous!!