Thread: Cuban Migrants Hopeful They'll Be Back

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/ ... 5939.shtml

Cuban Migrants Hopeful They'll Be Back

HAVANA, March 6, 2006
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(CBS) By CBS News Producer Portia Siegelbaum in Havana.

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Slightly disappointed but still hopeful, 15 Cuban migrants walked out of the American Mission on Monday morning after reinitiating their bid to enter the United States, this time legally.

"We stepped on U.S. territory, we shouldn’t be here," declared Ernesto Hernandez, 48, upon exiting the U.S. Interests Section in the Cuban capital.

The 11 men, two women and two children, sailing on a cobbled together craft, made it to the Old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys in January, only to be sent back to the communist island by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The bridge has been abandoned and is no longer connected to the mainland, leading the Coast Guard to conclude the migrants were not eligible to enter the United States under Washington’s “wet foot-dry foot” policy. Cubans who make it to land are allowed to stay; those picked up at sea are returned to Cuba.

The Cuban government has repeatedly criticized the policy, part of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which lets Cubans who make landfall in the United States apply for legal residency within one year. Havana says this encourages “dangerous and illegal” immigration.

Hernandez and the 14 others who risked all to leave Cuba are now banking on last week’s ruling by federal judge Federico Moreno, who ruled the Coast Guard action a mistake and told federal authorities to “use their best efforts” to bring the group back to the United States. The government has 30 days to appeal this decision. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the Cuban government will permit them to leave.

Proclaiming faith in the process that is taking place, Hernandez was nevertheless clearly disappointed that the U.S. consular officials were less than forthcoming about their situation. “They said they couldn’t tell us anything, because they didn’t know anything,” he shrugged. Two American officials, he noted, interviewed them, one by one, asking only if there had been any reprisals by the Cuban authorities since their return. Hernandez and the others claimed there has been none.

Hernandez tried to reach the United States five times before this — once, in 2005, he got within 14 miles of Marathon Key before running out of gasoline. The Coast Guard shipped him back to Cuba that time also. He made this last trip with his wife and 22-year-old son. “My wife and I dream of a better life for our son, a better life for me,” he said.

Elizabeth Hernandez, no relation to Ernesto, said the American officials didn’t talk about the possible appeal. “They said they would continue to get in touch with us by telephone and that they would let us know when it was necessary for us to return here,” she said.

All 15 live in Matanzas province in central Cuba. They hired a van to make the two-hour trip into the capital for Monday’s interviews.

Elizabeth made the risky sea voyage along with her husband, Junior Blanco, and their 2½-year-old son. “We think it’s our right to go to Miami again,” she said.

Junior’s cousin Alexis Gonzalez, 28, held up photos of the 21-foot boat that they’d constructed at Junior’s house out of aluminum tubing, wood and bronze screws. He’s resentful about getting sent back after spending 26 to 27 hours on the dangerous seas.

“One supposes that if you pass these 90 miles, risking your life, the lives of the children and step on land, step on U.S. territory like we did,” you should get to stay, he said. “You feel tremendously deceived; because we were sure we had arrived.” He imagines his aunt Maria Antonia, who lives in Miami, watched on TV and also felt cheated.

This was the first time Alexis, who fixes flat tires and farms, tried to leave Cuba. Now back working on the farm, he’s still optimistic. “Our hopes are the same, we know we are going to the United States again but we have to wait for the legal process, because everything depends on the [U.S.] government.”

Last week, Cuba’s state-run television ran a lengthy report on the drowning deaths of 31 Cubans who set sail on an overcrowded vessel, saying it capsized some 20 miles off the coast. There were three survivors, according to the report, which did not specify when the accident took place. One survivor, Daysel Alfaro Blanco, who appeared in the report, claimed the boat was built to hold only 10 passengers. The official account ended blaming Washington for the deaths, “caused by that monster, the Cuban Adjustment Act.”

A bilateral migration accord was hammered out by Washington and Havana in an attempt to end the 1994 rafters’ crisis, in which tens of thousands of Cubans set out in flimsy crafts hoping to make it across the Florida Straits and thus escape economic crisis at home. Under that agreement, the United States committed itself to issuing 20,000 visas annually for Cubans to migrate legally. This has reduced the number of Cubans risking their lives at sea but not eliminated the flow. According to Coast Guard figures, 2,952 Cubans fled the island by sea in 2005, double the number who tried a year earlier.

They'll probably throw them a parade!

Elizabeth made the risky sea voyage along with her husband, Junior Blanco, and their 2½-year-old son. “We think it’s our right to go to Miami again,” she said.

Oh boy here we go again, "It is our right..........."
As a Cuban born American it really bothers me to see these people having this type of mentality.
When my family arrived in So. Ca in 1967 the last thing in our minds were rights, we were too grateful to be out of there.
I remember the first words my father told us upon arriving, "We are in their country, we go by their rules"
Now it seems, everybody has "rights" in this country except us the American Citizens and the sad part is that it is not their fault, it is the fault of our government.