The Coast Guard stopped a boat Sunday in front of the Florida Keys carrying nine Cubans trying to reach the United States.
The men were travelling on an improvised boat about 10 miles south of key colony beach in middle keys, according to a Coast Guard press release.
The crew of a patrol boat at Marathon Coast Guard station picked them up and moved them to the Kathleen Moore windings, which took the men to Cabañas, Cuba, according to the press release.
Coast Guard intercepts 9 Cuban refugees who attempted to escape communist Cuba on a raft https://t.co/mmX8aQwOoF pic.twitter.com/GALPFT9arZ
— Babalu Blog (@BabaluBloggers) September 30, 2020
Until early 2017, those leaving the United States from Cuba could stay in the country and apply for permanent residency if they made landfall. Those caught at sea were returned to the island.
The so-called “dry feet, wet feet” policy was eliminated in recent months by President Barack Obama’s administration, which restored diplomatic relations with the Cuban government.
Before the end of that policy, successful and failed immigration attempts across the Florida Strait were a thing of every week, even daily.
Although many Cubans still make the dangerous journey across the Florida Strait in boats barely fit to sail, they do so much less frequently because they almost always return them, wither landfall or not
