|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Six men indicted for smuggling Haitians
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Six men were indicted Thursday for alien smuggling in connection with the arrival of more than 220 Haitians on board a 58-foot wooden vessel that ran aground October 29 off nearby Key Biscayne, south Florida's U.S. attorney said. The men -- including the boat's captain -- face up to 20 years in jail if convicted of the conspiracy and smuggling charges returned by a federal grand jury in a 229-count indictment, U.S. Attorney Marcos Daniel Jimenez said in press release. The men are accused of bringing the Haitians on a dangerously overcrowded boat to the Florida coast. When the boat ran aground, the would-be immigrants streamed over the sides, waded to shore and began walking across the Rickenbacker Causeway, a bridge that leads into Miami. Local law enforcement detained most of the Haitians and took them to the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Krome Detention Center, where many are filing claims for political asylum. Unlike Cubans, who under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act are automatically granted asylum if they reach shore -- also known as the "wet foot, dry foot" policy -- Haitians and other migrants must apply for political asylum. If they pass a "credible fear" interview, showing they have reason to believe they would be persecuted in their homeland, they are cleared to begin the asylum process. Some officials have warned that if the Haitians are allowed to stay, it could set off a migrational wave from the poor country and tempt people to make the perilous journey on vessels that are not seaworthy. Over the weekend, the Coast Guard intercepted two ships in the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti that were carrying a total of 238 Haitians and one Bahamian. A Coast Guard statement said the vessels were believed to be headed toward the United States. The migrants were repatriated Wednesday to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Coast Guard said it had intercepted more than 24 migrant and migrant-smuggling boats since October 1. More than 600 migrants -- including 215 Cubans, 324 Haitians and 89 Dominican Republic citizens -- have been repatriated.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
