No Decision In Case Of Keys Lighthouse Cuban Migrants
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The judge hearing the case for the Cuban migrants who reached a lighthouse in the Keys said he needs two to three more weeks to make a final decision.
While Judge Darrin Gayles did not make a decision Thursday, he recommended that the Coast Guard not repatriate the migrants.
"He indicated he is not prepared to rule yet because he feels this issue could affect others and it is going to require great analysis," Kendall Coffey said.
Coffey, among the attorneys representing the migrants for free, told Judge Gayles that he had the authority to block the lighthouse migrants' return to Cuba.
Ultimately, the Coast Guard will decide to send them back or keep them on the cutter.
The general thinking is that the Coast Guard will stay put and give this judge the delay that he wants.
The Coast Guard doesn't want to risk provoking a ruling from Judge Gayles that would go against them and turn the "wet foot, dry foot" policy on Cuban immigration upside down.
Gayles, who had already listened to nearly three hours of testimony, made a remark that may or may not be telling in what he thinks about this case.
"The only reason they made it to the structure in the first place is they ignored the Coast Guard's orders and swam to the lighthouse," he said.
The plaintiffs put on at least five witnesses on the stand, which included relatives and friends of migrants plus an expert on whether the lighthouse is U.S. territory.
The expert engineer, Jose Abreu, testified in excruciating detail about the structure and history of the 136-year-old lighthouse.
He said it's a permanent structure within the territory of the United States.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Dexter Lee said the migrants did not reach U.S. soil because the American Shoal lighthouse south of Sugarloaf Key does not qualify as American territory under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy.
"The closest dry land is seven miles away… The U.S. Coast Guard reviewed the situation and determined the light tower was in the water, was not on dry land," Lee said.
Lee said the decision of whether to allow the migrants ashore was solely at the discretion of U.S. agencies, who make these kinds of decisions every day.