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  1. #1
    Senior Member dman1200's Avatar
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    Congressmen Blast Feds for Sending Migrants Back to Cuba

    http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=11539

    Congressmen Blast Feds for Sending Migrants Back to Cuba

    by Jim Burns
    Posted Jan 12, 2006

    Florida Republican Congressmen Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff criticizing the U.S. Coast Guard for sending 15 Cuban migrants back to Cuba on Monday even though they had physically reached the Florida Keys after leaving the communist run island.

    ''These Cubans did in fact reach land by reaching the Seven Mile Bridge,'' said the letter. "Accordingly, the apprehension of the Cuban refugees by the Coast Guard is uncalled for, inflammatory, and violates U.S. policy and precedent. We respectfully urge you to immediately parole these Cuban refugees into the United States.''

    The 15 migrants, including women and children, were found on an old bridge called the “Seven Mile Bridge�, south of Marathon Key in the Florida Keys. But Washington officials decided that the bridge was not connected to land so the U.S. Coast Guard decided to send the Cubans back.

    Coast Guard officials said the migrants were sent back to Cuba on a Coast Guard cutter on Monday.

    "The particular structure that they were found upon is not connected to land. The 'bridge' is kind of a misnomer," Coast Guard Lt. Commander Chris O'Neil, spokesman for the department's Southeast region told Miami’s WPLG-TV.

    O'Neil said officials in Washington determined the Cubans should be considered "feet wet," because they were not able to walk to land from where they landed.

    The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1965 {which badly needs to be abolished} allows Cuban migrants that reach land to remain in America. But those at sea are returned to Cuba. The policy has been the subject of controversy between Washington and Havana for many years.

    Wire service reports said the 15 repatriated Cubans were discovered last Thursday on the old bridge but since that bridge is no longer used, the section of the bridge they landed on was not connected to land because sections on either side are missing.

    ''The old Flagler Bridge is unused and this segment is not connected to land,'' the Coast Guard said in a statement. ``Through a legal review, the migrants were determined to be feet-wet and processed in accordance with standard procedure.''

    Meanwhile, Miami’s WPLG-TV reported that a Cuban advocacy group angry over the U.S. Coast Guard's interpretation of the controversial "wet foot, dry foot" policy gathered off the McArthur Causeway, a major Miami traffic artery to protest the feds action.

    A Cuban exile group called the “Democracy Movement� asked that the 15 refugees be allowed to stay. Its leader, Ramon Saul Sanchez, went on a hunger strike in front of the Coast Guard station in Miami on behalf of the Cubans.

    WPLG-TV said Sanchez, along with about 35 others from the group, has made his cause visible to the public, displaying signs that read, "Hunger strike for freedom. Mr. President, respectfully, immigrants have rights too," and refusing food and water from those concerned by his actions.

    But the part of the old bridge piling that the Cubans touched is no longer connected to land -- a gray area in the law that Sanchez and his supporters believe is unfair.

    "We recognize that the old Key West bridge is part of the United States, as much as the Statue of Liberty, and (that the government should) allow the Cubans that were found there, as the law says, to remain in freedom in the United States," Sanchez said.

    Sanchez also said his hunger strike will not end until President Bush agrees to hear from leaders of the Cuban exile community about what he called "the arbitrary manner in which the wet-foot, dry-foot policy is being implemented."

    Veteran immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, who is not involved in the case, told the Associated Press that he thought the Coast Guard decision was “ridiculous.�

    "The wet-foot, dry-foot policy has no foundation in law," he said. Kurzban said the policy is inconsistent with U.S. and international law, noting that the federal government's jurisdiction extends beyond dry land to waters as far out as 100 miles.

    "International law says that refugees should be granted a hearing before they are forcibly returned," he said.

    Mr. Burns worked for several years on Capitol Hill. He previously reported on Cuba and Latin America as a correspondent for Cybercast News Service and United Press International.
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    The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1965 needs to be abolished in the WORST way.

    I am so doggone tired of people who don't belong here, have no rights here, contribute nothing here...DEMANDING this or that or whatever.

    For heaven's sake y'all let's elect a president who gives one damn about our country...just one big d--- would do it.

    RR
    The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. " - Lloyd Jones

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    Senior Member LegalUSCitizen's Avatar
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    RR, close to 100% of the American people who did not come from Cuba who live in Florida would agree.

    Of course, those who came from Cuba would disagree....of course !
    Just about 100% of them.

    So there's the problem. When do they stop focusing in on just themselves.

    When do they see the country from the standpoint of looking at what is best for everyone and not just their own special interest in the people who came from where they came from ?

    Apparently assimilation under the present way of doing things comes....NEVER. THAT is also the problem.

    When do they cut the umbilical cord and stand up for ALL Americans and for what is in the best interest of maintaining a UNITED States of America,
    instead of a DIVIDED States of America ??
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  4. #4
    Senior Member LegalUSCitizen's Avatar
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    CORRECT. The Cuban Adjustment Act needs to be abolished and WHO
    will be the person to stop talking about it and DO IT ?

    I guess it will have to be the NEXT President.
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  5. #5
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    Yeah--I've never understood that wet foot/dry foot theory. They are JUST AS ILLEGAL as the ones who cross the border from Mexico and they should get the same treatment. I know YOU would be thrilled, wouldn't you, Legal??!!!
    "POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton

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    Senior Member Rockfish's Avatar
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    The 15 migrants, including women and children, were found on an old bridge called the “Seven Mile Bridge�, south of Marathon Key in the Florida Keys. But Washington officials decided that the bridge was not connected to land so the U.S. Coast Guard decided to send the Cubans back.
    [FontSize=14]HOORAY![/FontSize]
    Darn, HTML tags don't work here?

    WPLG-TV said Sanchez, along with about 35 others from the group, has made his cause visible to the public, displaying signs that read, "Hunger strike for freedom. Mr. President, respectfully, immigrants have rights too," and refusing food and water from those concerned by his actions.
    Illegal immigrants have no rights here. Respectfully, Mr. Sanchez, if Cuban people come here, let them come legally by touching land and have them assimilate, otherwise, be gone!

    "The wet-foot, dry-foot policy has no foundation in law," he said. Kurzban said the policy is inconsistent with U.S. and international law, noting that the federal government's jurisdiction extends beyond dry land to waters as far out as 100 miles
    This was developed during the Clinton years because something had to be done to counteract the free will of Castro to empty his jails onto the U.S. That's exactly what happened with the Mariel boat lift of 1980. That scumbag told his people that if they can get off the island, they were free to go. He didn't give a damn about the peril they faced crossing the Straits of Florida. Alot of them died coming across. So, you tell me, what in the world are we suppose to do? Let all of them in automatically? Anyone advocating their parole is obviously looking out for this minority rather than America as a whole. If the current law states that they must touch LAND and not some retired bridge, then so be it. No matter how much we disagree with our laws, there's no excuse to break them. Use the system to change, that's how our country works.
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    Representative Mario Diaz-Balart did not vote on HR 4437. Representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen voted against HR 4437.

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    I was under the impression that the wet foot/dry foot policy had been in effect for many years. AM I WRONG about that?? LEGAL--do you know how long that's been the policy??
    "POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton

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    Too long, Bootsie...waaaay too long.

    RR
    The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. " - Lloyd Jones

  10. #10
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    THAT is for SURE. A DAY is TOO LONG!
    "POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton

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