Cuban migrants land in Mexico after 17 days at sea

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080513/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_cuban_castaways;_ylt=AiVXp9cpnuzvWPAtLdj52vu3IxIF

I wonder if they had their Cuban exit visas??



CANCUN, Mexico - An attempt to reach Florida turned into 17 days at sea for Cuban migrants crammed aboard a rickety sailboat that drifted ashore in Mexico near the Belize border.

The migrants — 12 men and two women — were severely dehydrated when they landed Saturday and two of them had to be hospitalized, local deputy police chief Didier Vasquez Mendez said.

"These people survived by a miracle. The boat was made of sticks, very small and not seaworthy," Vazquez Mendez said Monday. "Plus they ran out of water."

The migrants told reporters they drank urine with sugar in their efforts to survive.

The tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula near Cancun is only 120 miles (190 kilometers) southwest of Cuba. But the migrants landed in Xcalak, a town near the border with Belize more than 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cancun.

The Cubans were detained by Mexico authorities, but most Cubans who arrive in Mexico are released after being held 90 days at an immigration center.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Boat Carrying Aliens Sinks Off Puerto Rico

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Boat Carrying Aliens Sinks Off Puerto Rico

Published: March 1, 1988
LEAD: A small boat said to be carrying about 40 illegal aliens from the Dominican Republic sank in rough seas just off the west coast of Puerto Rico, but a survivor said today he believed most made it to shore.

A small boat said to be carrying about 40 illegal aliens from the Dominican Republic sank in rough seas just off the west coast of Puerto Rico, but a survivor said today he believed most made it to shore.

One person was in custody and another was hospitalized. Two bodies were recovered and a third was spotted but washed away before it could be retrieved, said Luis Garcia, an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent.

Hundreds of Dominicans leave in wooden boats each year on the dangerous, 90-mile journey across the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. Official estimates of the number of Dominicans living illegally in Puerto Rico range from 40,000 to 160,000.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4D71F3DF932A35750C0A96E948260


~~~~~~~~~~
Migrants Die At Sea
Dominican Navy rescues 7 male migrants who were trying to reach Puerto Rico when boat, which was carrying at least 30 people, capsized; at least eight people have died and helicopters and rescue boats continue to search for 15 people who are still missing

November 18, 2004

Nightmare at Sea Shatters Dreams in a Dominican Town
By SIMON ROMERO
Accounts from the survivors of an ordeal that killed about 50 people stranded at sea have gripped the Dominican Republic.

Americas: Dominican Republic: 33 Migrants Found
United States Coast Guard and Dominican Republic officials report that fishermen in Nagua (Dominican Republic) have found 33 Dominican migrants that left northeast coast July 29 trying to reach Puerto Rico; boat left carrying 78 people and Dominican Navy holds some people died during journey and their bodies may have been thrown overboard

August 11, 2004

20 Dominicans Lost at Sea
Twenty Dominican migrants trying to get to Puerto Rico are missing at sea after their boat capsized on Saturday.

January 27, 2004

August 16, 2004

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html?query=PUERTO%20RICO&field=geo&match=exact

ETC.

One could spend the entire night looking for case after case of people trying to get somewhere in boats and drowning.

[Mika]

2. I wonder if they passed a US immigration background check? Usually, rafters haven't.

Of all the boat people, only Cubans get wide range of perks (extra socialism for Cubans only) when they get to the US.

While the non Cubans usually get deported right back to the country they came from, only Cubans that touch US soil are granted instant entry, get instant work visa, instant resident alien status, instant access to social security, instant access to food stamps, instant access to medicare, instant access to medicaid, and are bumped to the head of the list for section 8 taxpayer subsidized housing - all of this is instantly available even to those known to have felony criminal records who failed to pass a criminal background check for a legal immigration visa.

Considering that the US offers Cubans more legal immigration visas than any other nationality (with the criminal background research done by the US interests section in Cuba), its amazing that there are DUers who support this activity that results in known felony criminals who've bypassed the legal avenues and are released onto the streets of my hometown, Miami USA.


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[Bacchus39]

3. the article says Mexico releases them after 90 days

and I thought you liked Cubans. oh no, that's right. you don't necessarily like Cubans just their oppressive government.

[Mika]

4. No such wait in the US. Less than 24 hours and they're released.

My post was referring to the treatment of Cuban illegal entrants by the US.

I do love Cubans on both sides of the Straits of Florida. What a ridiculous accusation you make, seeing as how I constantly give credit for all of Cuba's world class infrastructure, their health care and education systems for example, to all Cubans in Cuba - not the government. What utter swill you peddle.

I also love my own hometown and my country. That is why I object to the current US illegal entry policy (wet foot/dry foot) for Cubans with unknown (and often known) felony criminal records that disqualify them for a legal immigration visa. The current wet foot/dry foot policy for Cubans only allows felons and other undesirables (according to the legal US immigration visa application process) to enter the country and be released onto the streets within 24 hours.

That puts the residents and visitors of my hometown at greater risk.

It seems reasonable to me that your approval of such a policy that endangers us here at home reveals that you don't necessarily like Americans and US residents, just the oppressive policy of the US government that permits this endangerment.

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on edit: Where do you think that those Cubans in Mexico will end up? The US grants Cubans an instant visa if they enter from a 3rd country - without a background check, and even if they've failed the criminal background check done in Cuba by the US gov if they applied for one in Cuba they gain entry into the US - yet another perk for Cubans only.

I'l bet dollars to doughnuts that they will be in Miami in 90 + 2 to 3 days.


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[Bacchus39]

5. I never said I agreed with it, its politics

although its not my fault Cubans would want to leave their country, but I can't blame them either.