Caribbeans surge across U.S. borders
Illegal immigration from Haiti, Cuba and Dominican Republic sees sudden spike
MIAMI — A recent spike in Cubans attempting to reach the United States by sea has generated headlines. But the numbers of Haitians and other Caribbean islanders making similar journeys are up even more.
While federal law grants legal residency to Cubans reaching U.S. soil, anyone else can be detained and deported.
That law, the so-called wet foot-dry foot policy, and coast guard operations related to migrants remain unchanged even as Cuban and U.S. leaders say they are restoring diplomatic relations after more than 50 years.
“The coast guard strongly discourages attempts to illegally enter the country by taking to the sea,” Lt.-Cmdr. Gabe Somma, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard’s 7th District in Miami, said.
“These trips are extremely dangerous. Individuals located at sea may be returned to Cuba.”
U.S. authorities captured, intercepted or chased away at least 5,585 Haitians, 3,940 Cubans and hundreds from the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean countries attempting to sneak into the country during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
That’s at least 3,000 more migrants intercepted than in the previous fiscal year. It’s also the highest number of Haitian migrants documented in five years and the highest number of Cubans recorded in six. It’s unknown how many made it to U.S. shores without getting caught, or how many died trying.
More than 1,920 migrants — most of them Cuban or Haitian — have been intercepted so far during the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The U.S. Coast Guard worries that number will increase as news spreads about recent changes to the immigration system, including fast-tracking visas for some Haitians already approved to join family here and an executive order signed by U.S. President Barack Obama that would make millions already illegally in the country eligible for work permits and protection from deportation.
U.S. Coast Guard and immigration officials think another calm summer without many tropical storms and a recovering U.S. economy might have encouraged more to take to the sea. They also say the increased captures may reflect better law enforcement.
U.S. authorities deported George Lewis to the Bahamas in May 2013 following a four- year sentence for a felony drug conviction. Lewis was born in the Bahamas, but his Haitian mother brought him to Miami as an infant, and though he always considered the U.S. home, he never became a legal resident.
Five months after he was deported, he got on a Bahamian smuggler’s boat with about a dozen Haitians and Jamaicans trying to sneak into Florida. Lewis said he talked his way onto the boat after striking up a conversation with some locals at a sports bar in Bimini, a small cluster of Bahamian islands 90 kilometres off Miami.
The failed trip cost $4,000 US. The boat capsized and four Haitian women drowned. He and the others were rescued.
After his rescue, U.S. authorities initially accused Lewis of being a smuggler, partly because he was the only person on board with a phone, which he used to call the emergency dispatcher when the boat started taking on water. He scoffed at the allegation.
Now Lewis finds himself back in the U.S., but not at home. He just started a five-year sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. and faces another forced return to the Bahamas, a homeland he doesn’t know and where the government considers Haitians who have migrated illegally and their children an unwanted burden.
The 39-year-old Lewis knows he’d try to reach the U.S. again.
“It’s not worth losing your life,” he said, “but what life do you have when you have a whole country against you? I’m completely alienated from a country where I’m supposed to be from.”
What life do you have when you have a whole country against you? I’m completely alienated from… where I’m supposed to be from. GEORGE LEWIS 39-YEAR-OLD ARRESTED ATTEMPTING TO ILLEGALLY ENTER U.S.