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Hurricane Dennis

Dennis' aftermath: a new flood of Cubans?

The Coast Guard boosts its patrols off South Florida, expecting a surge in people fleeing the battered island.

MIAMI - The Coast Guard has increased patrols and aerial surveillance off the South Florida coast, preparing for a rising number of migrants from hurricane-battered Cuba trying to make it to the United States.

"The cutters are out in force," said Coast Guard Cmdr. Timothy Ciampaglio in Key West.

Two out-of-town Coast Guard patrol boats have been sent to the Keys, federal Customs and Border Protection planes and helicopters are assisting with more aerial surveillance flights and the Florida Highway Patrol is checking boats towed southbound on state roads to see if they might be used by smugglers.

The aim is "to disrupt these runs before they even happen, catch 'em on the roads ... before they even get out of the starting gate," Ciampaglio said.

The Coast Guard's Key West sector is responsible for patrolling 40,000 square miles off the nation's coastline for search and rescue missions, to protect against terrorism, illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

This year, the number of Cuban migrants trying to reach U.S. shores is "significantly above" 2004, Ciampaglio said. Under the U.S. government's "wet foot, dry foot policy," Cubans intercepted at sea are generally repatriated; those who reach land almost always get to stay.

During the 2004 fiscal year, 1,225 Cubans were caught trying to make the 90-mile crossing from Havana to Key West. So far in fiscal 2005, which ends in September, the Coast Guard has intercepted 1,834 migrants in the Keys region, making this the busiest season for Cuban migration since 2001. Most of those intercepted were sent back to Cuba; a small number were sent to the Naval Station at Guantanamo for further questioning.

"I attribute that to the four hurricanes we had last year and deteriorating conditions in Cuba," Ciampaglio said.

He said the number of Cubans trying to leave the island rises as living conditions worsen there.

Summer is usually the busiest time, when migrants set out in homemade craft or pay smugglers to make the crossing.

The smugglers may charge $8,000 to $10,000 a person. "They stream across the Florida straits and attempt to drop off their cargo," said Luis Diaz, deputy public affairs officer for the Coast Guard in Miami.

But speeding across choppy waters with 30 or more migrants packed into an undersized boat designed to hold four or five people is dangerous for Cubans trying to reach American soil.

In late June, the Coast Guard intercepted a 23-foot boat with 33 aboard. One migrant died and the survivors were sent back to Cuba. "These are extremely dangerous trips. Smugglers don't really care. Some are known drug smugglers, they simply change their cargo from drugs to human beings," Diaz said.

"Several years ago, a woman died and the smuggler buried her in a Bahamian cay. The body was never located," Diaz said. Migrants who survived the trip told authorities, he said.

In that case, Jorge Aleman was sentenced in 2002 by U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King to life in prison plus five years, after pleading guilty to one count of attempting to smuggle an illegal alien resulting in a death and one count of conspiring to smuggle aliens. But he was later resentenced in 2004 to less than 13 years in prison.

Crossing on homemade rafts or small boats can be as treacherous as traveling on a packed speedboat. "There have been cases where we've found empty boats; we assume there are no survivors," Diaz said.

[Last modified July 12, 2005, 04:59:05]