U.S. Border Patrol officials say the group, 11 adults and two children, was smuggled into the Keys on a speedboat.
By Wire services
Published February 23, 2004
MARATHON - Thirteen Cuban migrants this weekend were picked up near this city in the Keys by U.S. Border Patrol agents after being smuggled into the country aboard a speedboat, an official said.
Members of the group said they left from Matanzas, Cuba, on Friday night, and the boat left them on Duck Key, about 90 miles southwest of Miami, about 3 a.m. Saturday, Border Patrol supervisor Kerry Heck said.
The agency learned about the migrants when the Monroe County Sheriff's Office passed on a caller's information that a large group of refugees was in the area, looking as though they had just arrived.
When border agents arrived, the boat was gone, and the group - 11 adults, a 3-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy - gave no information about their smugglers.
Heck said the group would be taken to the Border Patrol office in Pembroke Pines, then to the Krome detention center in Miami before they are released.
All of them said they have family members in Florida, who will pick them up when they are released.
Under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are generally permitted to stay. Those caught at sea usually are taken back.
And the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act allows any Cuban citizen permitted to stay in the United States for a year to apply for permanent residency.
