20 Cuban migrants who clung to lighthouse to be sent to Guantánamo naval station

20 Cuban migrants who clung to lighthouse to be sent to Guantánamo naval
station

U.S. Attorney's Office says there are 'credible fears of persecution'
Allegations filed they were mistreated in Coast Guard custody
Lawyers want access to their clients
BY DAVID GOODHUE
dgoodhue@keysreporter.com

Twenty of the 24 Cuban migrants who sought refuge on a lower Florida
Keys lighthouse in May are going to be sent to the U.S. Naval base at
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for further evaluation because they have "credible
fears of persecution," according to federal court documents.

The four other migrants who arrived at the American Shoal Lighthouse,
6.5 nautical miles off Sugarloaf Key, are being sent back to Cuba,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dexter A. Lee wrote in a notice filed in U.S.
District Court on Thursday.

The fears of persecution came to light on the same day that allegations
emerged claiming the migrants had been mistreated while aboard a U.S.
Coast Guard cutter, where they were held somewhere at sea since they
came down from the lighthouse May 20. The allegations came in the form
of a message in a bottle thrown overboard of the cutter and found by a
fisherman, who gave it to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard is investigating the allegations, said one of the
migrants' attorneys, Virlenys Palma.

The migrants are represented by a nonprofit immigrant legal advocacy
group, Movimiento Democracia, or Democracy Movement. Lawyers with the
group argued the American Shoal Lighthouse constitutes dry land under
the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy added in 1995 to the Cuban
Adjustment Act. The policy states Cuban migrants caught at sea trying to
come to the United States must be sent back to their homeland. Those who
reach land, however, can stay and apply for permanent residency a year
after their arrival.

U.S. District Court Judge Darrin Gayles on Tuesday denied an emergency
injunction petition from Democracy Movement filed May 24 to let them
stay in the United States. The ruling means the Coast Guard can begin
repatriation proceedings, but Democracy Movement attorneys, working pro
bono on the case, filed a request Thursday to be able to speak with the
migrants.

Palma said Gayles gave them 24 hours to find where in the Administrative
Procedures Act it states that the Cubans have right to access to counsel.

"He's giving us a chance to show him in black and white that they have
the right to be able to see a lawyer," Palma said.

Gayles, in a 35-page order issued June 28, ruled that the migrants who
arrived at American Shoal Light were not denied constitutional rights to
which they are entitled. He did not weigh in on whether the Cubans
reached dry land, but rather stated the Coast Guard and U.S. Homeland
Security were not wrong in determining the migrants were interdicted at sea.

"The Court neither approves nor disapproves the Executive Branch's
decision that the Cuban migrants in this case do not qualify for refugee
processing as dry foot arrivals to the United States," Gayles wrote.
"Developments and revisions of immigration and foreign policy are left
to the political branches of the government."

Marilyn Fajardo, a civilian spokeswoman with the Coast Guard, said the
agency "just serves as a platform for repatriation," but the ultimate
decision is made by the Coast Guard Investigative Service.

Palma said the USCGIS will also ask the migrants about the mistreatment
allegations.

The 24 migrants were confronted by a Coast Guard patrol around noon May
20 and would not stop. After experiencing engine trouble around 1:40
p.m., 21 of the migrants swam off their makeshift vessel and climbed
onto the lighthouse. Two were immediately caught after jumping into the
water.

About eight hours later, most of the group came down off the 109-foot
lighthouse, which is anchored into the coral reef in about four feet of
water. Three men in the group hid inside the lighthouse after the others
surrendered and weren't found until the next day.

David Goodhue: 305-440-3204

Source: 20 Cuban migrants who clung to lighthouse to be sent to
Guantánamo naval station | In Cuba Today -
http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article87093857.html