Court Lifts Obstacle to Deporting Cubans : In Second Case, Judge Orders Release of 34 Imprisoned Refugees

A federal appeals court Wednesday set aside a lower court’s ruling that had effectively blocked the deportation of 2,746 refugees under an agreement reached last month with Cuba.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the government’s request to stay U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob’s Oct. 15 order requiring the Immigration and Naturalization Service to hold new hearings on the Atlanta refugees’ claim that they should be granted asylum in this country because they would face persecution in Cuba.

The ruling came less than two hours after Shoob concluded a hearing on another matter dealing with the Cubans. The judge ordered the release of 34 of the imprisoned refugees to halfway houses.

About 125,000 refugees came to the United States in 1980 in the so-called “Freedom Flotilla” boatlift, and most have entered U.S. society. The Cubans remaining at the federal prison in Atlanta were branded either dangerous or mentally ill by the federal government, or they committed crimes in this country after their release and were returned to prison.

Dean St. Dennis, a Justice Department spokesman in Washington, said the department would have no comment on the appellate court action until it could study the ruling.

But court records show the government had agreed not to immediately deport any Cuban refugee who, fearing persecution if returned to Cuba, sought asylum in the United States.

At his Wednesday hearing, Shoob ordered the release of 34 of the Cubans held at the Atlanta prison who already have been approved for release and paired with sponsors.

Government Appealed Order

The government also appealed that order to the 11th Circuit, which took it under consideration.

Officials have said all the Cubans at the Atlanta prison, and hundreds of others living elsewhere in the United States, are covered under the December deportation agreement with Cuba.

Government attorneys told Shoob that all the Cubans jailed in Atlanta should be held pending deportation. In earlier hearings, government attorneys argued that some of the 147 Atlanta prisoners tentatively approved for release have broken prison rules and previously committed serious crimes in this country.

Once the agreement with Cuba was reached in December, the government stopped releasing detainees from the prison even if they had sponsors and had been cleared.

The government argued that any refugees who are freed are likely to run away to avoid deportation under the pact with Cuba.

“The only reason (not to release the 34) that has been advanced today is that they are likely to abscond,” Shoob said sternly. “I do not want anybody connected with this case to announce to the news media that these are dangerous people who are likely to hurt somebody.

“These people have been determined not to be dangerous.”

Shoob said he wanted the 34 released “immediately,” but gave the government four working days to get them physical examinations and civilian clothes and arrange for their transportation away from the prison.

Shoob also asked the government to make “a good faith effort” to find sponsors for the remaining approved-for-release refugees, and to “continue to make judgment calls” on whether to approve hundreds of others.

If Shoob’s order stands, the 34 Cubans will go into halfway house programs in Seattle, Los Angeles and Kansas City to learn English, get counseling and eventually get jobs and move out on their own, said Richard Guiterrez, coordinator of immigration and refugee affairs for the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service.

They will be under “conditional parole,” which means they can be returned to prison if they get into trouble of any sort, Guiterrez said.