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Judge says rejecting 15 Cubans was wrong

MIAMI - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the government acted unreasonably when it sent home 15 Cubans who had made it to an abandoned Keys bridge under the presumption that they weren't actually on U.S. soil.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno ordered federal officials to "use their best efforts" to help the migrants return to the United States.

One of the 15 migrants, Elizabeth Hernandez, 23, spoke with the Associated Press by telephone Tuesday evening from her family's home in Matanza, Cuba, where she was celebrating the decision.

"I am so happy," she said. "I always had hope I would be able to return."

While Moreno sympathized with the difficulty the U.S. Coast Guard faces in making split-second decisions at sea, he wrote, "those Cuban refugees who reached American soil in early January 2006 were removed to Cuba illegally."

But the judge made clear his ruling was limited in scope.

"The court is not ruling on the wisdom, or lack of wisdom, of the "wet foot/dry foot' policy," Moreno wrote in his ruling.

Under that controversial policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those stopped at sea are sent back.

In this case, all sides agreed the group was not stopped at sea, but the government said the old bridge didn't count as dry land because chunks of it are missing, and it no longer connects to land. It was unclear Tuesday whether Cuban President Fidel Castro would allow the 15 to leave the communist island.

[Last modified March 1, 2006, 00:56:14]