13572: (Chamberlain, news item) Migrants Ashore (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   MIAMI, Nov 5 (AP) -- The Coast Guard said Tuesday it has stepped up sea
and air patrols in response to a possible increase in the flow of illegal
migrants from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
   The increase was announced as 19 Haitians were sent back home. They were
the only ones who failed to get ashore when an overcrowded wooden freighter
carrying more than 225 Haitians was run aground in Miami one week ago.
   "We are preparing just in case -- better to be safe than sorry," Louis
Diaz, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami, said of the increased interdiction
efforts. "We don't want to see more boats like that. The trip is extremely
dangerous."
   Diaz wouldn't give details on the increased interdiction. The Coast
Guard regularly patrols the Windward Pass off western Haiti, the Old Bahama
Channel between Haiti and Florida, and the Straits of Florida separating
Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas.
   It is normal U.S. policy to repatriate all migrants picked up at sea,
after brief shipboard interviews by immigration officials.
   The 19 migrants returned Tuesday had been held on a Coast Guard cutter
since being taken into custody on Oct. 29.
   The other migrants aboard the freighter, all Haitians except for three
people from the Dominican Republic, made it ashore and remain in detention.
They await asylum hearings, except for six Haitians accused of running the
smuggling operation.
   The federal government changed its detention policy on Haitian refugees
last December to discourage a feared mass exodus. Before the policy change,
Haitian migrants applying for asylum were released into the community while
their petitions were processed.
   Haitians arriving since December, however, are kept in custody until
they receive asylum or, more likely, are deported.