The two Cubans who made it to shore were cheered by onlookers  MESSAGE BOARD: US/Cuba relations

June 30, 1999
Web posted at: 7:34 p.m. EDT (2334 GMT)

In this story: Protests block Florida highways "Feet-wet, feet-dry" immigration policy RELATED STORIES, SITES

MIAMI (CNN) -- With the U.S. Coast Guard under fire for using water hoses and pepper spray to prevent half a dozen Cuban refugees aboard a 12-foot boat from reaching U.S. soil in South Florida, the U.S. Border Patrol said Wednesday it believes the six were part of an organized smuggling ring.

The chief of the Miami Border Patrol office, Keith Roberts, said the six Cubans who entered the United States illegally Tuesday gave stories with numerous inconsistencies when they were questioned.

Officers said the Cubans showed little of the sun damage that normally is found on those who've been exposed for 24 to 36 hours. Nor did the men appear to be weak or dehydrated as is common with most Cuban rafters. They appeared coherent and attentive, not weak and dazed, Roberts said.

He went on to say that the men's hands did not show injuries common from rowing a long distance.

The Border Patrol investigation is continuing. But the officers said while the Cubans' arrival on a small wooden boat was a powerful television image, it actually was an "artfully staged, organized smuggling venture."

Upset over the Coast Guard's actions, protesters blocked Miami roads

Protests block Florida highways

No refugee trying to float to freedom in a boat should be greeted with hoses and pepper spray, said outraged Cuban- Americans whose protests overnight Tuesday shut down two Florida roads.

The Coast Guard said it used a fire hose only to signal the Cubans to stop their boat Tuesday. But two of the men jumped in the water and swam ashore, where they were greeted by a cheering crowd and arrested by waiting police officers. Four other Cubans were plucked from the water.

Cuban-Americans were so angered by the televised actions of the Coast Guard that they staged a protest blocking a busy highway overlooking the Coast Guard base and cut off the causeway between Miami and Miami Beach at rush hour.

At one demonstration on a major thoroughfare, the protest erupted in a melee, with the mayor of the town of Hialeah, Florida, getting involved in the fighting.

The mayor of Miami-Dade County and U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, R- Fla., spoke out against the Coast Guard's response.

"We all believe that the particular actions of the Coast Guard at that time were unnecessary and unwarranted," said Mayor Alex Penelas.

"When people escape the last tyrannical regime in the Western Hemisphere, they should not be greeted with water hoses and pepper spray. This is not the American way," Mack said.

Even the Coast Guard acknowledged the incident was unusual.

"Video footage shows that one officer used pepper spray on a migrant in the water," said Coast Guard Capt. Greg Sutton. "This is not a common or accepted practice."

"Wet feet, dry feet" immigration policy

The events highlighted frustration over a changed U.S. policy.

For almost 40 years, Cubans making their way to America in virtually any way were usually welcome.

But after the so-called "rafter crisis of 1994," when more than 30,000 Cubans took to the sea, President Clinton changed the policy.

"The U.S. policy regarding illegal migrants is a feet-wet, feet-dry policy," Coast Guard Senior Chief Glenn Rosenholm said.

"If migrants make it to land, they're allowed to go through the process of seeking American citizenship through proper legal channels. If the migrants do not make it to dry land and they're interdicted by the Coast Guard, they will normally be repatriated," Rosenholm said.

"It has to be part of the U.S. mainland per se, not like some sandbar that's occasionally above water," he said.

"There is no personal animosity between the migrants and the Coast Guard in general," Coast Guard Lt. Ron LaBrec said Wednesday. "We try to do it with the highest degree of compassion and humanitarian concern that we can, but ultimately it is a law enforcement mission."

So far this year the Coast Guard says it has stopped at sea more than 800 Cubans. The expectation is that many more will come.

The six men who arrived in the wooden boat Tuesday are being allowed to stay in the United States, pending review of their claims for political asylum. They were released late Wednesday after being held at the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Krome detention center.

CNN Correspondent Pat Neal and Reuters contributed to this report.

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