|
Feds: We're prepped for
mass migration
No repeat of Mariel is
the goal
By Curt Anderson Associated
Press. Posted-Wednesday, April 13, 2005
in Keynoter.com.
Wayne Justice was skipper of a U.S. Coast
Guard cutter out of Key West in the spring
of 1980 when his patrol ran into boatloads
of Cuban refugees fleeing to freedom in
the United States. He remembers thinking
it would end soon.
"Little did we know that this was
the start of a pretty crazy time,"
said Justice, now chief of staff of the
Coast Guard's district that patrols the
Southeast and Caribbean.
The boats turned out to be the beginnings
of a huge wave of 125,000 Cubans coming
to the United States after Cuban President
Fidel Castro opened the Mariel port west
of Havana to people seeking to leave the
communist island.
The mass migration included a freedom
flotilla of thousands of private boats,
often of questionable seaworthiness, that
Cuban-Americans used to bring relatives
to the United States. It caught the U.S.
and Florida governments woefully unprepared
and over the years led to changes in immigration
policies.
Unlike 1980, when U.S. officials had to
scramble to deal with the Mariel crisis,
the government now has a detailed sea, air
and land plan to handle mass migrations
from Cuba, Haiti or any other nation to
the Southeast U.S. coast.
"If there is a mass migration threat
to Florida, there's lots of plans in place,"
said Amos Rojas Jr., special agent in charge
of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's
Miami office. "My sense is it's better
to be prepared than to have the chaos we
had in 1980."
The plan, dubbed Operation Vigilant Sentry,
was developed by the Homeland Security Department
along with Florida officials and the military.
It reflects the greater sense of urgency
surrounding border security in the wake
of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Its central goal is to intercept migrants
at sea - preferably close to their home
shores - and immediately return them in
hopes of deterring more people from attempting
a dangerous ocean crossing.
Concerns about another mass migration from
Cuba similar to Mariel and an exodus of
about 30,000 in 1994 have surfaced in recent
years, usually when tensions mount between
the U.S. government and Castro's regime
or when there is economic or political strife
in Cuba.
But if there are signs of a mass migration,
the Coast Guard plans to set up a perimeter
around Cuba, with help from U.S. Customs
and Border Protection aircraft such as the
sophisticated Orion P-3 radar plane that
is also used in drug interdiction operations.
The response will be coordinated from a
command center in Miami.
The Coast Guard and other state and federal
agencies will try to prevent people from
leaving by boat from Florida in an attempt
to pick up migrants trying to reach U.S.
shores.
Yet, if anything approaching Mariel's scale
happens again, some people will get through.
And federal law dictates how they are handled,
with Cubans having a clear advantage under
the so-called wet foot-dry foot policy that
has its roots in U.S. efforts to undermine
the Castro government.
Under the wet foot-dry foot policy, Cuban
migrants who reach U.S. soil are allowed
to stay, while those intercepted at sea
are returned to Cuba. Those who display
a genuine fear of persecution if returned
are taken to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, to await asylum in a third country.
Rojas said the state has designated facilities
in Palm Beach, Broward, Dade and Monroe
counties to handle the migrants' medical
needs and begin documenting them.
Copyright
© 2005, Keynoter Publishing Company
Inc.
| 
