127 of 2,700 Undesirable Refugees Repatriated So Far : Deportation Flight Takes 44 More Back to Cuba

Forty-four Cubans were sent back to their homeland Thursday in the fourth deportation flight under an agreement between the United States and Fidel Castro’s government.

The Cubans, who arrived in this country five years ago among the “Freedom Flotilla” refugees but were deemed undesirable because of criminal records or mental illness, were taken in three buses from the Atlanta federal penitentiary to Dobbins Air Force Base near Marietta, northwest of Atlanta.

It was the second flight this month and brought to 127 the number of Cubans who have been deported since the agreement was reached on Dec. 14. About 2,700 refugees are to be deported under the agreement.

Ira Novie, a deportation officer with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, had little to say about the latest flight. “It’s the same story as last time,” he said.

Most of the 125,000 refugees who arrived in the United States in the boatlift from the Cuban port of Mariel have settled into American communities, but the government contends that the 2,700 Cubans scheduled for deportation would be a threat to society if released.

Lawyers for the Cubans have successfully fought some of the deportations in court. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Charles A. Moye Jr. granted reprieves for 31 refugees scheduled to depart on Thursday’s flight, saying the government had failed to show that they were too dangerous to be allowed to remain in this country.