Repatriated Cubans apply to leave country legally

Posted on Tue, Mar. 07, 2006

Repatriated Cubans apply to leave country legally
Cuban migrants sent back to their homeland after reaching a section of
an old bridge in the Keys are now applying to leave Cuba legally.

BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press

HAVANA - Cuban migrants who reached an abandoned bridge in the Florida
Keys only to be sent home began a new effort to reach the United States:
filling out paperwork Monday at the American mission in Havana.

Under U.S. migration policies, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally
allowed to stay, while those stopped at sea usually are sent back. The
migrants reached an old bridge that the U.S. government said didn't
count as dry land because chunks are missing and it no longer connects
to U.S. soil.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno in Miami last week ordered U.S.
federal officials to ''use their best efforts'' to help the Cubans
return to the United States. Moreno wrote that ``those Cuban refugees
who reached American soil in early January 2006 were removed to Cuba
illegally.''

But there was no guarantee that the Cuban government would let them go
back. Cuba requires its citizens to get special government permission to
leave.

''We stepped on American soil, we shouldn't be here,'' Ernesto Hernández
told reporters after meeting with consular officials at the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana and starting the paperwork that the migrants
hope will let them go to the United States for good.

The group includes two children, ages 2 and 13, who were traveling by
sea with their parents.

The American government's so-called ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' policy
springs from a 1966 law that allows Cubans who reach the United States
to apply for legal residency one year after arriving.

The Cuban government calls it a ''murderous law'' that encourages its
citizens to undertake dangerous and illegal journeys with the hope of
reaching U.S. soil and obtaining legal residency.

During the hearing before Judge Moreno in Miami, Assistant U.S. Attorney
Dexter Lee argued that the Coast Guard's decision to send the migrants
home was reasonable. The U.S. government could still appeal the judge's
ruling.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/5min/14034906.htm