Judge Rules for Cubans Who Got to Bridge

Judge Rules for Cubans Who Got to Bridge

Judge Rules in Favor of Cubans Who Made It to Abandoned U.S. Bridge Only
to Be Turned Away
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

MIAMI - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. government acted
unreasonably when it sent home 15 Cubans who thought they had safely
made it to the United States when their boat reached an abandoned bridge
in the Florida Keys.

Judge Federico Moreno ordered the federal government to make its best
effort to help the immigrants return to the United States, said Kendall
Coffey, an attorney for the Cubans and their relatives.

One of the 15 migrants, Elizabeth Hernandez, 23, was celebrating the
decision from her family's home in Matanza, Cuba.

"I am so happy," she told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday
evening. "I always had hope I would be able to return."

It was not known, however, whether President Fidel Castro would allow
the Cubans to leave the communist island.

Under the federal government's long-standing "wet-foot, dry-foot"
policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while
those stopped at sea are sent back.

In this case, the U.S. government argued that the old bridge did not
count as dry land because chunks of it were missing, and it is no longer
connected to U.S. soil.

The migrants landed on the pilings along a nearly 3-mile span of the
former bridge Jan. 4, as their small boat began to take on water. Had
they landed a 100 yards away on the new bridge, the U.S. Coast Guard
would likely have allowed them to stay.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Democracy Movement, a Cuban-American
advocacy group that also joined in the lawsuit against the government,
was pleased with the judge's ruling.

"Really, it is a vindication for all immigrants," said Sanchez, who
waged an 11-day hunger strike to protest the group's return to Cuba.

But the judge made clear that his ruling was limited in scope and not a
decision on "the wisdom or lack of wisdom" of the American government's
policy, Moreno wrote.

A federal prosecutor had argued that the Coast Guard's decision to send
the migrants home was reasonable and the judge should defer to it.

Moreno stated in his ruling that besides being unreasonable, the Coast
Guard's decision was informal and carried less weight than a published
opinion.

It was unclear whether the government would appeal the ruling. A message
left Tuesday for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami was not immediately
returned.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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