U.S. cracking down on smugglers who bring Cubans to Florida
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
AP Hispanic Affairs Writer
MIAMI --
A man signaled with a flashlight in the early July morning as his
pregnant wife and 30 other Cubans huddled along the coast of Matanzas. A
go-fast fishing boat pulled close to shore and two smugglers loaded the
group aboard.
Then, like thousands of Cubans who attempt the trip each year, they
prayed the cramped vessel would make it across the roughly 150 miles to
Key West.
If caught at sea by the Cuban or U.S. coast guards, they would be
returned to the communist island to be ostracized, deemed unemployable
or even imprisoned. If their boat capsized, they likely would die in the
dark waters.
But if successful, most would win eventual U.S. citizenship. Under
federal policy, most Cubans who touch dry U.S. soil get to stay. And an
increasing number of them (or their U.S. relatives) are willing to pay
up to $10,000 each and jeopardize their lives for the swift trip across
the Florida Straits.
Interviews with U.S. Coast Guard officials and a review by The
Associated Press of court documents show that from October 2002 through
October 2006, the number of Cubans known to have attempted the voyage to
Florida or Puerto Rico more than doubled, reaching 7,027 last year. More
than half make it.
Many in law enforcement attribute the spike not to the uncertainty over
Fidel Castro's health but to the paid smugglers, who have turned human
cargo into big business. A go-fast boat costs about $150,000 new - an
investment easily recouped when a boatload of Cubans can gross $300,000
or more. Also, the prison term they face if caught is significantly less
than if they were caught smuggling a drug shipment of equal monetary value.
"Somehow because it's human smuggling, some individuals would like to
think that this is something different, perhaps more altruistic or
humanitarian. But it's not," Miami U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta
said. "The reality is that these human beings are being killed. They are
being killed at the hands of smugglers who do this for profit, not for
humanitarian reasons."
--
Back onboard the go-fast boat, the Cubans and their smugglers were 10
miles from Florida when they were met by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.
Cuban intelligence had tipped off U.S. officials about the boat's
departure, according to court documents. The Cuban migrants urged the
smugglers to ignore the Coast Guard's orders to stop. They sped up, the
go-fast boat flying at 50 mph through the waves.
---
Some who reach the United States say Cuban officials take bribes to look
the other way, but stopping human smugglers is one of the few areas in
which Havana and Washington cooperate. And the perpetrators are getting
more sophisticated, armed with GPS navigating systems and satellite phones.
In response, U.S. officials are stepping up prosecutions.
Acosta, a Cuban-American, is a rising star in the Justice Department.
Last year, he began charging suspected smugglers with felonies -
breaking a practice of filing misdemeanor charges when no one was hurt -
and filing more charges, adding to a smuggler's potential sentence. He's
also the first U.S. attorney to use a new law making it a felony to
refuse to stop a vessel or prevent its boarding.
Acosta hopes the threat of long imprisonment will pressure low-rung boat
crews to seek lighter sentences by testifying against the ringleaders.
But it's not just the smuggling threat that motivates the crackdown.
"When we intercept a boat at night, it's dark. We don't know if it's 10
abuelas (grandmas) on board or 10 terrorists," said Zach Mann, a
spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami. The smugglers
are "taking away resources that could be focused on terrorism."
---
Out at sea, the Coast Guard finally pulled up against the go-fast boat.
An officer shot out an engine. In the chaos, passenger Anai Machado
Gonzalez, 24, smashed her head against the side of the boat. Blood
poured from her temple. She died before she reached U.S. soil.
The smugglers and the man who flagged them down would be among the first
pinched by Acosta's new policies. Heinrich Castillo Diaz and Rolando
Gonzalez Delgado, both pleaded guilty to Machado's death and to
smuggling. Amil Gonzalez Rodriguez was convicted by a jury on smuggling
conspiracy charges but acquitted in connection to Machado's death.
Most of the other Cubans were allowed to come to shore.
--
Critics of U.S. policy toward Cuba question whether stiffer penalties
can help reduce human smuggling from the island when those who avoid the
Coast Guard are rewarded with green cards. Most illegal immigrants from
nearly any other country are deported if caught.
Even Cubans who serve time in the U.S. for human smuggling are rarely
sent back to the island for fear they might be tortured.
But Acosta says the penalties can serve as a deterrent. Although he has
yet to indict anyone else in the Matanzas case, he has at least two open
cases that target wider smuggling rings, and more than 50 other cases
pending.
--
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Moore, who oversaw the Matanzas case,
lauded the crackdown as a departure from the prior practice of filing
misdemeanors. In response, he sentenced all three to 12 years, including
Amil Gonzalez now the father of a baby boy - nearly twice the minimum
sentencing guidelines and longer than Acosta had requested.
All three are now appealing their sentences. Their attorneys declined to
discuss the case.
But Amil Gonzalez's lawyer blamed the so-called Cuban wet-foot, dry-foot
policy for the rise in smuggling.
"Basically, if they don't touch land, it's like a high seas football
game," attorney Israel Encinosa said. "Maybe if people were not allowed
to come, there would be more pressure on the Cuban government."
---
The number of Cubans trying to cross the water is down slightly in the
fiscal year that started in October, with 3,181 known to have attempted
the voyage so far. Yet the portion reaching land has risen to nearly 70
percent.
Officials say the overall drop is partly due to beefed up Coast Guard
patrols following Castro's illness and to a crackdown in Cuba. They
blame the rise in landings on more sophisticated smuggling rings and the
fact that smugglers are using boats with greater capacity.
Acosta acknowledged it's too early to tell how much of a role the
stepped up prosecution has played.
--
To make things harder for law enforcement, most Cubans who do make it to
the U.S. are loathe to testify against the smugglers who brought them.
Machado's husband, Agustin Uralde, told authorities that the smugglers
had actually rescued them from a sinking catamaran. Others from the boat
acknowledged the smugglers picked them up from Matanzas, but none agreed
to testify without immunity, which they didn't get. Even a Cuban doctor
aboard the boat who attempted to revive Machado said he feared for his
family back home.
----
For U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, every
interdiction is also a potential rescue, and more resources are needed
for both, especially if Cubans should attempt to leave the island en
masse, as they did in 1980 and again in 1994.
Yet when it comes to talk of border protection, he said, it's the
U.S.-Mexico border getting attention.
"In the national debate of immigration and border security, that
discussion rarely focuses on the Southeast border, which is harder to
defend, just by its very nature," O'Neil said.
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