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Posted on Wed, Nov. 27, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
U.S. brings Cuban boy to shore
'They were trying to save their families'
By Jennifer Babson, Elaine de Valle and Andres Viglucci.
jbabson@herald.com.
KEY WEST - Five Cubans concealed aboard a disabled 21-foot motorboat towed
into port by the U.S. Coast Guard popped out of their hiding place and scampered
onto a dock before they could be stopped, virtually winning the right to remain
in the country.
But left on the boat, unable to manage the few steps from the boat to dry
land, was the teenage son of one of the Cubans. And for most of the day Tuesday,
U.S. authorities wrestled with the question of what to do with the 14-year-old,
who under normal circumstances likely would have been taken back to Cuba.
In the end, U.S. Justice Department officials defused a potential
controversy when they ordered the boy brought to shore. The reason: The boy is
to be a witness against two Miami men who allegedly piloted the boat and are
accused of attempting to smuggle him in along with his father and the four
others.
The upshot is the boy, his father and their companions, like all Cubans
whose feet touch U.S. soil, will likely be allowed to stay in the United States.
Those detained at sea are routinely repatriated.
'Right now, the decision to 'dry-foot' him has been made as a prosecutorial
decision that he is a material witness,'' said Jacqueline Becerra, a spokeswoman
for the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.
Becerra said Tuesday night that the boy was not yet reunited with his
father, who was being held with the other boat passengers by federal
authorities.
ANOTHER TWIST
The case may have another wrinkle: Relatives of the alleged smugglers --
identified as Elizardo Ruiz Alvarez and Martin Mendez Diaz -- said the people
they are accused of smuggling in are their relatives.
Mirta Mendez, who said she is Martin Mendez's wife, said the 14-year-old is
her nephew, and his father, whom she referred to as Leonel, is her brother.
Other relatives said Ruiz's girlfriend, Daileen Abreu, was the lone woman
among the passengers.
Luis Crespo, who identified himself as a cousin of Ruiz's, said it was not a
for-profit smuggling operation.
''They were trying to save their families,'' he said outside the Krome
detention center in West Miami-Dade, where family members gathered to await
developments. "There was no money involved.''
FLOWN BY HELICOPTER
The boy, whose name was not released Tueasday night, was flown Tuesday
evening by helicopter from Key West to Miami, where authorities held a closed
hearing in federal court. Later, the teenager was expected to be turned over to
the Immigration and Naturalization Service for placement, at least temporarily,
in a facility for minors.
''Because he is a minor INS has to keep him in a facility that is
appropriate for minors,'' Becerra said. "I don't know if that eventually
means he is with his father or not.''
But a Justice official who asked not to be identified said authorities
expect to eventually reunite the two.
''The authorities are not believing the story of the adult males. They are
believing the kid,'' the official said. 'The five adults are saying they left in
a rickety boat and they were found by these two other gentlemen at sea. The kid
is saying, 'No, they picked us up in Cuba.' ''
The boy's testimony will likely be used at trial, the official said.
''Once that is accomplished, the minor will obviously be united with his
father,'' the official said.
ELIAN ANNIVERSARY
Monday's surprise disembarkation was especially charged because it came on
the third anniversary of the rescue at sea of another Cuban boy, Elián
González, whose ensuing plight touched off an international custody
dispute between his father in Cuba and relatives in the United States.
The INS declined to comment on the new boy's situation Tuesday, saying it
was part of an ongoing investigation. But agency spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez
acknowledged that officials did not fail to notice the coincidence of the date
with Elián's arrival.
''This is me speaking, not on behalf of the service: Nothing surprises me,''
Gonzalez said.
This new case differs in several important aspects, not the least of which
is that the boy and his father are both alive and on U.S. soil. Elián's
mother died on the crossing from Cuba.
U.S. authorities believe the boy's mother may still be in Cuba, though the
father is reportedly claiming custody of the boy. Even if his mother should try
to press a custody claim, legal experts say he is old enough at 14 to
successfully assert his desire to stay -- unlike Elián, who at age 5 was
too young to apply for asylum without his father's agreement.
''The kid says he lived with his father in Cuba,'' the Justice Department
official said. "This is not Elián, Part Two. We haven't heard from
Castro, and we haven't heard from the kid's mother.''
The arrival of this group of Cubans also comes in the wake of controversy
surrounding the detention of some 235 Haitians who spilled out of a boat onto
the Rickenbacker Causeway last month. Nineteen Haitian men were repatriated
because they were picked out of the water by the Coast Guard before they could
reach shore.
The two Miami-Dade men accused of smuggling in the Cuban boy will appear
before a U.S. magistrate today. Elizardo Ruiz, records show, is the owner of a
21-foot Wellcraft boat.
Tania Crespo, a cousin of one of the boat passengers, described Ruiz as a
Miami boat mechanic who arrived from Cuba about seven years ago. She said he
left for Cuba several days ago on a 21-foot boat to pick up family members.
Ruiz's former landlord in Hialeah remembered him as a hardworking young man
with a passion for sea-faring.
He said Ruiz worked as a boat repairman at a Hialeah mechanic shop and spent
most of his time fishing on his 21-foot boat.
''He loved that boat and he spent a lot of his time on the water, but I
never knew him to make any trips to Cuba with it,'' said José González,
who rented a room in his home to Ruiz until last year.
LEFT FROM MARIEL
Becerra, the U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman, said the group departed
from the port of Mariel, Cuba.
At about 7:05 a.m. Monday, the Coast Guard was contacted by a tanker that
spotted a small boat tossing and disabled in about five-foot seas about 25 miles
south of Key West. Two men were at the helm.
The tanker towed the Florida-registered boat closer to Key West, while the
Coast Guard ran a check on Florida driver's licenses information the men
provided.
No criminal histories popped up on the federal and local databases that were
checked.
And no one checked a cabin inside the boat.
''We could not put a boarding team on because of the bad weather
conditions,'' said Luis Diaz, a Coast Guard spokesman.
By 2 p.m., a 23-foot Coast Guard patrol boat was on the scene, and
eventually began to tow the boat toward Key West, where it arrived at 3:41 p.m.
Fourteen minutes later, a Coast Guard boarding team of three or four men
began to inspect the boat.
''We opened the forward hatch and found six Cuban migrants,'' Diaz said.
''They jumped out and everybody started running'' to the dock.
The 14-year old boy, however, did not.
''I don't know if he froze, or what,'' Diaz said.
Herald staff writers Oscar Corral, Elisabeth Donovan, Tere Figueras, Tim
Johnson, Larry Lebowitz, Renato Perez, Nancy San Martin, Jay Weaver and Luisa
Yanez contributed to this report.
This case is different from Elián's
By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com.
The case of the Cuban teenager who was allowed to stay in the United States
on Tuesday after arriving in Key West may bring back memories of the Elián
González case, especially since the boy's arrival on Monday fell on the
third anniversary of Elián's rescue in the Florida Straits.
But immigration experts say there are crucial differences.
The most important: The newly arrived boy is 14 -- nine years older than Elián
was when he was rescued off Florida's coast on an inner tube on Thanksgiving Day
in 1999. In Elián's case, U.S. Justice Department officials concluded he
was too young to ask for asylum, and his father in Cuba wanted him returned to
his homeland after Elián's mother perished at sea. The federal courts
backed the agency's decision to send the boy back.
In the latest case, the older boy's age would allow him to make a claim for
asylum on his own, regardless of his parents' wishes, legal experts said.
Another key difference: The boy's father was on the boat that smuggled them
to the United States and is being held by immigration authorities.
The father can qualify for residency under a special federal law for Cuban
migrants who reach U.S. soil. Elián's mother died during the trip that
brought her son to Florida.
''This is a clear-cut Cuban Adjustment Act case,'' said Miami attorney Linda
Osberg-Braun, one of Elián's attorneys. "The boy alone could apply
for residency or his father could act on his behalf.''
University of Miami law professor Bernie Perlmutter agreed.
''If the father is going to be paroled into the community, then I can't see
why the son would not be allowed to be in his custody,'' said Perlmutter.
Federal authorities said Tuesday they allowed the boy to stay in the country
as a material witness in the smuggling case that the government expects to make
against the two Miami-Dade men who brought the group from Cuba.
''Maybe they are looking for a pretext for [the boy] to be paroled to avoid
another international episode'' such as the Elián case, Perlmutter said. "We
learn from our mistakes.''
Unknown as of Tuesday was whether the boy's mother agreed to his leaving
Cuba with his father. If the mother didn't, a custody dispute could unfold.
Federal authorities would have to weigh both U.S. and Cuban law, but because the
boy is already in Miami and is a teen, his own wishes about his future would
carry some weight, Perlmutter said.
The Cuban Interests Section, which represents Cuba's government in
Washington, D.C., was unreachable for comment about the incident Tuesday night.
Migrants go through system
Elaine de Valle
Normally, Cuban migrants who reach U.S. soil are paroled into the community
within 24 or 48 hours.
If there is suspicion that they were smuggled, they are questioned by U.S.
Border Patrol agents at the agency's Pembroke Pines office.
Then, the migrants are taken to the Krome detention center in West
Miami-Dade to be fingerprinted and processed by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. After that, they are taken to the Miami-Dade Health
Department office in Little Havana, where they get basic medical screenings.
The migrants are then taken to a Catholic Charities office or another
immigration assistance center to fill out paperwork. They also typically get at
least eight months of government assistance. | 
