U.S. Deports 1st Planeload of 23 Undesirable Cubans : 2,677 More to Go Under Agreement

Twenty-three Cubans who fled to the United States by boat five years ago were deported as undesirable aliens today as the government began sending back 2,700 Cubans under an agreement with Premier Fidel Castro.

A civilian charter plane carrying the Cubans, a Boeing 727, took off for Cuba about 12:12 p.m. PST from Dobbins Air Force Base.

Earlier, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that had blocked the deportation of 16 of the 23 Cubans scheduled for the first flight.

About 1 1/2 hours later, two buses carrying all 23 Cubans left the Atlanta federal penitentiary for the air base northwest of the city, where a Boeing 727 charter airplane was waiting to take them to Cuba.

Deportation Blocked

A U.S. District Court order Tuesday had blocked the deportation of the 16, ruling they should be given hearings on their requests for political asylum. According to court documents, 12 of them admitted committing crimes in Cuba and the other four were arrested on criminal charges after their arrival in the United States.

The appeals court ruled, however, that federal law “provides that excludable aliens who have committed serious crimes or are threats to the security of the United States may be returned notwithstanding their claims for asylum. . . . Each of these (Cubans) has committed serious crimes in Cuba, in this country, or while being held in detention.”

No Appeal Planned

An attorney for the Cubans said he planned no appeal of the ruling. “I think that would be futile,” attorney Dale Schwartz said. “The Supreme Court two weeks ago told us that it would not intervene from the decision that it made.”

Maj. Roland Reed, an Air Force spokesman, said earlier that, even if the 16 Cubans protected by the lower court order had been kept off the Atlanta-to-Havana flight, the government was prepared to send the seven others back today.

“They (Justice Department officials) did say that whether it’s one person or 50, the plane will go,” Reed said. “It’s kind of like the first flight across country. The plane may not be full, but you go anyway and hope it will balance out in the long run.”

The 2,700 Cubans the government wants to deport were among the 125,000 who came to this country in 1980 in the “Freedom Flotilla” boat lift from the Cuban port of Mariel. The government contends the 2,700 either admitted to criminal convictions in Cuba or are mentally ill.