19 others stopped near the Marquesas Keys
BY BECKY IANNOTTA
Key West Citizen Staff
First there were shouts of jubilation coming from the beach. Then a couple men, clothes dripping wet, ran down the concrete steps from Smathers Beach to the sidewalk. Then a couple more, and then more.
"America? America?" one asked Key West resident Phyllis May. "I said, 'Yes, this is America,'" May said Sunday. "They just got down and kissed the ground. .... Until somebody told them it was America, they just didn't want to believe it."
The men were among 27 Cubans who stepped ashore at Smathers Beach at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday as May pedaled her bike along the popular beachside path.
The 17 men, two boys and eight women were all reportedly in good health when Key West police officers arrived moments after the Cubans were dropped off by a light blue speed boat that fled the scene, Christie Phillips, spokeswoman for the Key West Police Department said in a press release.
The group told authorities they left Cuba at 2 a.m. and encountered rough seas. Most were soaking wet, and some of them were dehydrated from seasickness, Phillips said.
Officers gave the refugees water and food from McDonalds, and Key West firefighters gave them T-shirts.
Under the U.S. wet-foot, dry-foot policy, Cubans who make it to American soil are allowed to stay in the United States, while those stopped at sea are returned to Cuba.
That explains the early morning shoreside celebration, which took a few minutes for May to comprehend.
"[At first] I thought whoa, somebody's really having an early morning exuberating experience," she said, adding that she finally realized what had happened when they started asking about America and kissing the ground. "It was something that I thought I'd never see, but it was just heart-wrenching."
The Cubans were being held at the Monroe County Detention Center while U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents traveled from Miami to take custody of them. The U.S. Coast and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were on the lookout Sunday for the speed boat that shuttled the Cubans across the Florida Straits to Key West.
Another group of Cubans was stopped at sea near the Marquesas Keys, about 22 miles west of Key West after the Cuban government alerted the U.S. Coast Guard of a possible migrant crossing at 4:30 a.m. Friday, according to a Sheriff's Office report. The Coast Guard located the boat and activated lights and siren to try to stop it, but the driver of the 33-foot 2007 Avanti with twin 275 horsepower Mercury engines refused to stop, Detective Paul Schultz said in the report.
Several times during the pursuit the alleged smuggler drove at speeds reaching 45 knots and attempted to ram the Coast Guard vessel, one time actually hitting it, according to the report.
Because of the extreme danger to both the passengers on the fleeing boat and the crew on the Coast Guard vessel, Schultz said the Coast Guard had to fire a weapon into the starboard engine of the speed boat to bring it to a stop. The 19 Cuban migrants and alleged smugglers Yudel Armada, 26, of Hialeah and 23-year-old Dariel Sanchez of Homestead were taken to the Coast Guard station in Key West. None of them was injured.
The Sheriff's Office was notified and Schultz arrested Armada and Sanchez on charges of fleeing and eluding police, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and reckless operation of a vessel. They were booked into the Monroe County Detention Center on Stock Island.
Schultz said the Coast Guard took custody of the 19 Cuban migrants, who are likely to be repatriated to Cuba because they did not make it to American soil.
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“and Key West firefighters gave them T-shirts.”
that just sounds wrong
Wow—the chase scene description rivals most episodes of Miami Vice.
Sure wish I had pictures of this happy event to show the Lefties that I encounter. They can never explain to me why people would risk their lives and react this way if America were the evil place the Left portrays it to be. Nor have I ever had a taker on the offer of a one way ticket to that bastion of Communist utopia called Cuba.
Sure sad that the others were intercepted. I’d give them asylum. Anyone who wants to get out of Cuba would get a pass from me.
Thanks for the article & photo. It’s wonderful to see foreigners who ‘love’ our country. I pray they have a bright and successful future.