CUBA: Fifteen Cuban migrants react to news that they will be allowed to return to the United States

Record ID: 348682

  • Title: CUBA: Fifteen Cuban migrants react to news that they will be allowed to return to the United States
  • Date: 3rd March 2006
  • Summary: (BN01) LIMONAR, CUBA (MARCH 01, 2006) (REUTERS) STREET SCENE OF TOWN
  • Embargoed: 18th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAE2OOOCPI2UT6YDGE851O1QEZ7
  • Story Text: Fifteen Cuban migrants who were returned to the Communist-ruled island by the United States reacted to news on Wednesday (March 1) that a U.S. judge had ordered that the government bring them back.
    U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. Coast Guard's decision to send the migrants back to Cuba was unreasonable. He ordered the government to make its best effort to transport them to the United States for immigration proceedings.
    "When we received the news, all of us began hugging each other, jumping up and down because of the happiness because it is what we have all wanted for a very long time," one of the migrants, Elizabeth Hernandez Betancourt, said.
    Under the controversial U.S. "wet foot-dry foot" immigration policy, Cuban migrants who manage to touch dry land are usually allowed to stay in the United States, but those intercepted at sea are routinely returned home.
    The policy angers Cuban immigrant advocates, who believe all Cubans should be allowed to stay because they are fleeing persecution in the communist-ruled country.
    It is also opposed by other immigrant groups because it gives Cubans preferential treatment over Haitians and others who make similar risky voyages to find better living conditions in the United States but are routinely shipped home if caught.
    The 15 migrants were found in early January on the pilings of a section of the Florida Keys' old Seven Mile Bridge, which was built nearly a century ago and replaced in 1982. The old bridge, used mainly by fishermen, is missing sections and no longer attached to land.
    Had they landed on the new bridge nearby, the Cubans would have routinely been admitted for immigration proceedings. But the Coast Guard decided that because the bridge was not connected to the islands, they had not reached U.S. soil.
    The lawsuit had initially sought a broader ruling that anyone who reaches U.S. territorial waters should be considered to have touched U.S. soil, which could have had important implications for immigration policy.
    But at a hearing two weeks ago, advocates for the Cubans told the judge he did not have to rule on that issue to decide the bridge controversy. Moreno's ruling did not address the broader issue of the wet foot-dry foot policy.
    Nonetheless, Cuban-American advocates hailed the decision.
    There was no guarantee Havana would let the 15 leave. Saul Sanchez said he was hopeful they would be returned to Florida.
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