U.S. sees steep rise in Cubans trying to come here illegally by sea

Posted on Mon, Oct. 31, 2005

U.S. sees steep rise in Cubans trying to come here illegally by sea

BY ALFONSO CHARDY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI - The number of Cubans leaving their homeland by sea in illegal
attempts to reach the United States has increased sharply.

According to the most recent figures from the Coast Guard and the Border
Patrol, the number of Cuban migrants stopped at sea so far this year is
nearly double the number intercepted last year. The number of Cubans who
made it to shore in the last 12 months is almost triple the number who
reached U.S. soil in the prior 12-month period.

Though landings and interceptions are up, American officials say the
figures do not portend an exodus comparable to the Mariel boatlift in
1980 when 125,000 Cubans reached South Florida or the rafter crisis in
1994 when more than 37,000 Cubans made it to the United States.

"Mariel, that was an exodus, and the rafters in 1994, that was an
exodus," said Luis Diaz, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. "What is
happening now is not an exodus."

According to figures posted on the Coast Guard's Web site, 2,368 Cuban
migrants have been intercepted at sea so far this year - compared with
1,499 in all of 2004. The number stopped at sea so far this year is the
highest for a single year since the 1994 rafter crisis.

Meanwhile, the number of Cubans who reached South Florida during the
12-month period ending Sept. 30 hit 2,530 - compared with 955 during the
12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2004.

State Department officials have accused Cuban authorities of encouraging
illegal migration by not doing enough to prevent departures.

Cuban officials, in turn, have accused Washington of encouraging illegal
departures through its controversial "wet foot, dry foot" policy.

The policy, set up after the rafter exodus, generally allows Cubans who
reach U.S. soil to stay while most of those intercepted at sea are
returned home.

National media attention recently focused on the policy after 6-year-old
Julian Villasuso drowned Oct. 13 when a suspected migrant smuggling
speedboat turned over in the Florida Straits as it fled the Coast Guard.

The child's death sparked renewed calls by Cuban-American leaders for
the U.S. government to scrap the wet-foot/dry-foot policy. Many of these
leaders prefer the old policy, when the Coast Guard rescued Cuban
migrants at sea and brought them to U.S. soil.

The Coast Guard, for its part, is urging potential Cuban migrants to
stop fleeing by sea.

"What we'd like to see is people apply for visas," said Diaz, the Coast
Guard spokesman. "It may take some time, but you arrive safe and alive."

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