107 Cuban migrants have arrived in the Florida Keys in the last week

107 Cuban migrants have arrived in the Florida Keys in the last week

Three arrived Tuesday morning on Sugarloaf Key, following a surge of 64
new arrivals between Monday and Sunday
Thirty-nine arrived in Summerland Key on Monday nigh
Arrivals are 106 percent higher than the same time last year
BY CHABELI HERRERA
cherrera@miamiherald.com

Another three Cuban migrants arrived on the shores of the Florida Keys
on Tuesday morning — the latest in a wave of arrivals that has brought
more than 100 Cubans with dry feet to South Florida in the last week alone.

Todd Bryant, U.S. Border Patrol Miami Division Chief, said three Cuban
men arrived on Sugarloaf Key at about 6 a.m Tuesday. Their arrival marks
the eighth landing by Cuban nationals in the Keys since July 12.

On Monday, 51 Cubans arrived in three separate vessels.

At 1:18 a.m., a group of nine Cubans arrived near Key Largo. The group
was at sea for six days after departing from Punta Alegre in north
central Cuba. At about 10 a.m., another three Cubans arrived in the
Middle Keys community of Key Colony Beach after traveling for two days
from Villa Clara, just west of Punta Alegre. Both groups traveled in a
"single-engine rustic vessel" and arrived in good health, according to
the U.S. Border Patrol.

On Monday night at about 9, 39 Cubans made a three-day journey from
Santa Clara, also in north central Cuba, and touched land near Sugarloaf
Boulevard on Summerland Key in two "go-fast" type vessels, Bryant said.
Four in the group were taken to the hospital and the other 35 — 30 men
and five women — were all healthy.

On Sunday, another group of 13 Cuban men traveled from Ciego de Ávila in
the southern central part of the island on a single-engine rustic vessel
for four days before arriving in Marathon.

The surge over the weekend, although slightly elevated, is in line with
the usual summer uptick in arrivals due to better weather conditions for
crossing the Florida Straits, said Becky Herrin, a spokeswoman for the
Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

Earlier in the week, six Cubans from Havana arrived on a small fishing
vessel in Key West and another 13, also from Havana, landed in Dry
Tortugas National Park, west of Key West. Both groups arrived on
Wednesday. On July 12, a 24-person group made it near Sand Key in
Biscayne National Park on a "go-fast" vessel.

The number of Cuban migrants arriving in South Florida by boat has
surged since late 2014 when President Barack Obama announced the U.S.
was reestablishing ties with the island nation. This month, South
Florida has seen a 106 percent increase in successful boat migrations
over the same time last year, Bryant said.

Cubans who make it to dry land are allowed to stay in the U.S. and apply
for residency a year and a day after their arrival date as per the
"wet-foot, dry-foot" policy of the Cuban Adjustment Act. All Cubans who
are intercepted at sea are sent back to the island.

Following the thawing of relations, Cubans have left the island in
record numbers fearing a change to the U.S. policy that affords Cubans
special immigration benefits not extended to immigrants from other
countries.

Source: 107 Cuban migrants have arrived in the Florida Keys in the last
week | In Cuba Today - http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article90555217.html