Cubans' rough capture angers legislators

''The free world never threw anybody back over the Berlin Wall,''


That statement is so true! It's time to get rid of the dry foot/wet foot policy. Bush did not pass this into law but he can simply do away with it! please listen President Bush...


Friday's televised capture of 10 Cuban refugees by U.S. boats drew the ire of Cuban American leaders, who condemned the federal wet foot/dry foot policy.

BY OSCAR CORRAL

ocorral@herald.com


Some Cuban American leaders, outraged at the fresh drama of Cuban refugees that played out in front of Miami television viewers Friday, called for a review of the methods used to take 10 Cuban men into custody.

And they condemned the controversial immigration policy known as wet foot/dry foot that will most likely send the 10 back to Cuba.

Boats from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security sprayed a water cannon at the 10 Cubans' homemade boat and repeatedly bumped it, spilling four of the men into the ocean at one point.

Cuban American Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart said that if the United States was going to repatriate Cubans, then it should also blockade all oil going to the Caribbean island.

''The free world never threw anybody back over the Berlin Wall,'' he said. ``I denounce this policy.''

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez called wet foot/dry foot a ``failure.''

''U.S. policy must once again be made consistent with our tradition of standing with those who seek freedom and flee oppression,'' Martinez said.

He added: ``The tactics employed today also need review and clarification, but one thing is abundantly clear -- these men were desperate to seek freedom. My heart goes out to them.''

Diaz-Balart said he is asking the Bush administration to implement a policy where all refugees picked up at sea get an asylum hearing on dry land at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Under current policy, Cuban refugees picked up at sea are interviewed by the Coast Guard and very few receive hearings in what Diaz-Balart called a ''summary'' process.

Most are repatriated to the island, unless they make it to dry land in the U.S., in which case they can usually stay.

''The administration has told me that they are taking this seriously,'' Diaz-Balart said of his request to have Cuban migrants interviewed.

Diaz-Balart said statistics show that Cubans picked up at sea get a raw deal. He said that about 65 percent of Cubans who make it to shore receive political asylum, but only about 2 percent of those picked up at sea do.

`NOT CRIMINALS'

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln's brother, said he would also be seeking answers about the way these particular migrants were treated by U.S. authorities -- especially whether the boat from Homeland Security was justified in striking the Cuban men's boat.

''We always have to remember that these are not criminals, these are people that are fleeing tyranny,'' he said.

Few aspects of U.S.-Cuba policy stir up as much emotion in the Cuban exile community as wet foot/dry foot. In fact, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, already a congressman, was arrested during a 1995 protest against the policy crafted by the Clinton administration.

Toting a placard that said ''Clinton lies about Cuba,'' Lincoln Diaz-Balart blocked the sidewalk outside the White House along with Metro-Dade Commissioner Pedro Reboredo. Both were arrested, then released within two hours. The charges were eventually dropped.

In 2003, the Diaz-Balart brothers and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wrote a letter to Michael Garcia, commissioner for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security, asking that wet foot/dry foot be revised.

Among their requests:

• Legal counsel from recognized volunteer agencies should be allowed aboard Coast Guard vessels to provide legal advice to refugees.

• If a lawyer can't meet them, then all Cubans intercepted at sea should be taken to Guantanamo Naval Base for their cases to be ``properly evaluated.''

Nothing of the sort has been done to date.

CHANGES UNLIKELY

In August 2004, DHS wrote back to Lincoln Diaz-Balart, giving no hints that they intended to change the policy and explaining how the agency does a fair job.

''Most Cuban migrants we interview do not tell us they have left the Republic of Cuba seeking protection from persecution,'' said the letter, signed by Sarah Taylor in the office of Congressional Relations, in the name of the department director. ``Instead, they share their hopes of reuniting with family members already in the United States or their dreams of obtaining basic economic opportunities not available to them in their homeland.''

Lincoln Diaz-Balart acknowledged the wet foot/dry foot policy would be difficult to change because it was part of a greater migration accord with Cuba. So instead, the Diaz-Balarts feel the U.S. government should blockade all shipments of oil to Cuba to force Fidel Castro from power.

Ninoska Perez-Castellon, head of the anti-Castro Cuban Liberty Council, said that as long as Castro remains in power, these sad episodes will recur often.

''What's causing the problem is still there,'' she said. ``And his name is Fidel Castro.''