Drowned migrant was among group abandoned off coast

BISCAYNE BAY
Drowned migrant was among group abandoned off coast
A 28-year-old man found drowned in Biscayne Bay was part of a group of
Cuban migrants abandoned on a sandbar off Cape Florida, authorities say.
Posted on Sat, Jan. 12, 2008
BY DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com

A dead man found floating in Biscayne Bay last week was part of a group
of Cuban migrants who were abandoned by smugglers on a sandbar off Cape
Florida early on New Year's Day.

Feisy Rafael-Miranda, 28, one of 30 Cuban migrants, including six
children, were left on the sandbar after an argument broke out over
payment money.

Rafael-Miranda was found Jan. 4, when a fishing boat captain spotted the
corpse bobbing in a channel south of Stiltsville.

The case comes as federal authorities are increasingly concerned about
human smuggling from Cuba. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents and Miami-Dade homicide detectives are investigating the death.

''ICE has an ongoing investigation into this incident,'' said Anthony V.
Mangione, special agent-in-charge of Miami's ICE office.

``We suspect that the incident is related to human smuggling. The
discovery of this body underscores the dangers encountered by
individuals taking to the high seas in an attempt to illegally enter the
United States.''

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, 12 migrants made it to shore.
Seventeen more, including six children, were rescued from the sandbar
and water.

Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cubans who arrive on American soil
are generally allowed to stay while those interdicted at sea are usually
sent back to the communist island.

Miami-Dade police cannot comment because of the ongoing investigation,
said Detective Nelda Fonticiella, a spokeswoman.

The migrants had been left on a water-logged sandbar about 50 to 100
feet from the seawall. To reach the wall, they had to swim through a
swift current and an 8- to 10-foot deep channel.

The channel swept Rafael-Miranda away, while others had to be rescued as
they tried to come ashore. Others stayed on the sandbar and recall
seeing fireworks explode overhead in celebration of the new year.

One migrant who was aboard the vessel, Sixeo Sanchez, 29, a physical
education teacher in Cuba, said the trip began on the night of Dec. 30.
He said he and the others departed from Caibarién, a coastal city in the
country's Villa Clara province.

DANGEROUS CROSSING

He said he tried walking from the sandbar, holding his daughter, Rachel
Sanchez, 6, but fell into the water. She staggered back to the sandbar,
he reached shore.

''I'm not religious, but God had a hand in this,'' he said.

His wife, Milagros Toledo, and daughter remain on a U.S. Coast Guard
cutter and it's unclear if they will be repatriated to Cuba.

''I'd rather be with them,'' said Sanchez, who is staying with his
sister in Miami.

Luis Guzman, 57, a plumber from Havana, was holding a small child and
refused to leave the sandbar, said his sister, Elidia Peña.

She gleaned the account from talking to migrants who made it to Key
Biscayne. ''He would have rather saved the child than gotten asylum,''
Peña said, adding: ``I don't know how the sandbar doesn't count as
American soil.''

Guzman was alone on the trip, coming to rejoin his wife and son, who
came to Miami six months ago on a visa.

Three of those now held aboard a Coast Guard cutter in Key West belong
to a dissident group in Cuba known as Democracy Movement. Hailing from
Cienfuegos, they are Manuel Leon Chacon, 36, Angel Viamontes Machin, 44,
and his wife, Ines Eustaquia Delgado, 45.

Several men reached the seawall, placed their belongings there and swam
back to help the women and children, only to be picked up by the Coast
Guard.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Miami-based Cuban migrant advocacy group
Democracy Movementa, said he believes the migrants should be allowed to
stay.

''I think it should count as American soil,'' he said of the sandbar.

Sanchez believes Rafael-Miranda, a professional diver in Cuba, may have
tried to go back to help others.

DISSIDENTS IN PERIL

He also believes the three Democracy Movement members will be
''repressed'' if they are repatriated to Cuba. ''They could be
incarcerated,'' he said.

The office of U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, said those rescued
from the water and sandbar are still in Coast Guard custody and being
interviewed for possible asylum.

''What these human traffickers do -- if that's what this turns out to be
-- is prey on hopes and desperation of the Cuban family,'' said Mayte
Sanz, the lawmaker's Miami district director.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which would
decide on asylum, declined to comment.

There would be precedent for allowing the migrants to stay in the United
States as part of a death investigation.

In 2006, 28 migrants detained at sea were allowed to stay as ''material
witnesses'' against smugglers because one woman aboard hit her head and
died during a high-speed chase.

Curbing human trafficking from Cuba has been a top priority for federal
authorities.

Last year, former baseball agent Major League Baseball agent Gustavo
''Gus'' Dominguez was convicted of alien smuggling for financing two
Cuban smuggling trips. Three others pleaded guilty.

Special Agent Mangione on Friday said: ``Let me be clear: smugglers have
no regard for human life. Those seeking to enter the country should do
so in a safe, legal and orderly manner.''

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