Thread: Cubans deported from bridge reach U.S. on 2nd try

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/15/cubans.ap/index.html

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A group of Cubans deported in January after nearly reaching the United States landed Friday at close to the same spot, a bridge in the Florida Keys that authorities earlier ruled wasn't American soil, a relative said.

The people who beached around 3:30 a.m. at the new Seven Mile Bridge's south end near a state park in the lower Florida Keys had not been identified, Monroe County sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin said. They were being taken to a Border Patrol station for processing.

Mariela Conesa said her teenage son, husband and five others in the January group were among the new arrivals. "I am so, so happy," said Conesa, who hadn't seen her son since she left Cuba by homemade boat in 1998.

Under the U.S. wet-foot, dry-foot policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are normally allowed to stay, while those caught at sea are usually returned home.

The U.S. deported the 15 who arrived in January because the Old Seven Mile Bridge is missing several chunks and the section where they landed no longer touches land. Their relatives sued, and U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno ruled they should have been allowed to stay. Federal officials agreed to give 14 of the migrants visas; the 15th was repatriated because he may have had a criminal record, Reuters reported.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, of the Miami-based Democracy Movement, which represents some of the relatives, said Cuban officials recently told members of the original group that they would not be permitted to leave Cuba for another four years because theirs was such a high-profile case.

"Sadly, the rest are still in Cuba," he said.

It's like a TV game show......ridiculous!

gofer wrote:

It's like a TV game show......ridiculous!

Ridiculous isn't a strong enough word to describe this insanity! I'll never understand why immigrants from Cuba are allowed to openly come into the country, yet we discriminate against all others. How can this make any sense? Anyone who enters the United States without the proper documentation should be immediately deported. The few we hear about being picked up attempting to enter from Cuba isn't but a drop in the bucket to the true number that enters without documentation. Why should they be given special privilege? What makes them so special? The policy regarding Cuba migrants needs changed. Personally, I suspect the high profile politicians of Cuban descent in Washington is the reason the law hasn't been revised. We can probably thank people like Sen. Menendez, Sen. Martinez, Rep Guiterrez, and a few others for the continued policy of accepting Cubans that touch American soil. The majority of those in the U.S. Congress of Hispanic descent are Cuban. Go figure.........

MW wrote:

Ridiculous isn't a strong enough word to describe this insanity! I'll never understand why immigrants from Cuba are allowed to openly come into the country, yet we discriminate against all others. How can this make any sense?

It does not make any sense...America is turing into a country that is ruled
by a group of greedy men backed by greedy corporations who are paying them not to care about the safety and welfare of American citizens ......and letting invaders into the country to destroy it and than trying to brainwash us that it is okay....................with emotional manipulations and lies....It turns my stomach.