http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/ ... 2919.shtml

The Other Way Into The United States
Thousands Try To Cross From The Dominican Republic To Puerto Rico Each Year

MONA ISLAND, Puerto Rico, Sept. 2, 2006

(CBS) Most of the talk about immigration is about controlling the flow from Mexico into the United States.

Well, there's another human smuggling route — hundreds of miles from the U.S. mainland — that you rarely hear about: Puerto Rico.

Because Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth, the inviting crystal-clear waters off its coasts are just as much a porous border as the one between Texas and Mexico.

On the look-out for illegal migrants, is the air-marine unit of the Customs and Border Protection Agency. CBS Evening News Saturday anchor Thalia Assuras joined them for an exclusive first-hand look at their patrol operation.

Hector Badillo is the radar operator on a C-12 surveillance plane. His team is looking for what are called "yolas" — small, barely seaworthy, barely visible boats.

The intel, the weather, the direction, the size of the vessel the migrants come in, that's all going to play into whether we detect them or not," says Francisco Rodriguez, an air interdiction agent.

Less than an hour after take-off, the team spots a potential target — its cargo camouflaged with a blue tarp.

Minutes later — the tarp off — the flight team knows it has a human smuggling operation in its sights and radios the coast guard. They pick up 11 men from the Dominican Republic.

The migrants come through the highly traveled Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Over the last year, 4,300 illegal immigrants have been caught. So far this year, almost 3,000 have been taken into custody. Most are Dominicans, but increasingly the migrants are Cubans — some 660 this year.

The Cubans set sail from the Dominican Republic aiming for Mona Island — just 38 miles away. That trip is just one-third of the more commonly risked route from Cuba to Florida. It's a costly voyage, both in payment to smugglers — up to $3000 per passenger — and lives lost.

No one knows for sure how many have died trying to cross the treacherous, 3000-foot deep channel, but it's estimated that as many as 10,000 people attempt to cross it every year.

"It's very dangerous," says Brian Schmidt, an executive officer in Key Largo's Coast Guard. "The seas here at the Mona Passage can change very quickly in a matter of (an) hour, two hours. You can go from what you see today to a six-foot swell."

Once the Cubans make it here to Mona Island, the "wet foot/dry foot" policy kicks in. That's because the Island is technically U.S. soil as part of Puerto Rico. The Cubans are not returned home. They're in.

Those caught at sea are immediately sent back home — the "wet foot" side of the equation.

Sgt. Benjamin Lozada, the chief of security on Mona Island for 27 years, says more Cubans have arrived this year than ever before.

Asked what Cubans say when they first encounter Lozada, he says they say, "I am Cuban. I am going to the free land."

But that policy only applies to Cubans. Dominicans, like 38-year-old father of three Francisco Rodriguez, end up in a Puerto Rican immigration detention center facing deportation.

"I thought I was going to die on our dangerous nighttime crossing," says Rodriguez.

Asked if he would do it again, Rodriguez replies that he wouldn't. His children need him.

Most though, try and try again — with the help of the smugglers who face only a few months in jail under lax U.S. laws.

I think we need to prosecute the operators, says Customs and Border Protection Agency's Francisco Rodriguez. "That's the only way we're going to slow it down. There's no retribution to the crime."

So, the patrols run 24/7 over more than a million square miles — on the water, and in the air.

They torch the boats they catch, but know that more are on the way.