MIAMI – A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a group of Cuban migrants who made it to the American Shoal lighthouse near Sugarloaf Key will not be staying in the United States.
After an eight-hour standoff on the 109-foot-tall lighthouse ended, a dilemma started. If the lighthouse was considered U.S. soil under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, the migrants would be allowed to apply for legal residency. But if it wasn't, they would have to go back.
Judge Darrin P. Gayle's 35-page ruling said the lighthouse that 24 Cuban migrants used as refuge is not dry land but a "navigational aid." As such, the migrants, who have been in the custody of the U.S. Coast Guard since May 20 and 21, will be sent back to Cuba.
"Because the migrant plaintiffs here would necessarily require transportation from the lighthouse to the mainland in order to survive, landing on the lighthouse is essentially no different than having been interdicted at sea," Gayle said in his ruling.
Gayle also said the attorneys who filed the injunction in U.S. District Court on May 24 disputing the Cubans return were from a group that doesn't have "any standing in this case." Gayle listened to arguments June 2.
The attorneys were working pro bono upon the request of the Democracy Movement, a group of anti-Castro Cuban exiles.
Gayle also disagreed with the Cubans' lawyers when they argued the group of Cuban migrants was denied due process. The U.S. Constitution does not protect immigrants, Gayle said.
INFLUX OF MIGRANTS
The ruling comes as the U.S. Coast Guard faces a new influx of Cuban migrants. With the renewed diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, the immigration policy could come to an end, and many more Cubans are risking their lives.
On Saturday alone, a group of five Cubans arrived to Key Biscayne in the morning. In the afternoon, a group of 11 made it to Hollywood Beach. One of the 11 didn't find freedom. In an act of desperation, he pulled out a machete to threaten a federal agent. He left the beach in handcuffs.
Gayle said the court found it troubling that the migrants only reached the lighthouse after arming themselves with metal pipes and disobeying the Coast Guard's orders by swimming away.
"This is a very sad moment for all of us," Cuban activist Ramon Saul Sanchez said. "We have had our day in court, but we had hopes that freedom could also be enjoyed."