5 Cubans With Crime Records Are Deported : U.S. Deports First 5 Boat Lift Cubans

Five Cubans with criminal records left the United States today for their homeland in the first deportation of Mariel boat people since Cuban prisoners rioted last year to protest an agreement to return them to Cuba.

A U.S. Marshal’s Service airplane, carrying about 50 people, took off from the Birmingham airport at 10:55 a.m. Security was tight, with the five Cubans, handcuffed and guarded by armed agents, being led one by one to the plane.

They earlier had been taken to the airport from the federal prison at Talladega, where they had been held pending a final ruling on deportation.

The flight had been scheduled for Thursday but was delayed when Cuba asked for more time to prepare to receive the five, three of whom lost a series of court fights in their effort to avoid going home.

The Supreme Court, by a vote of 8 to 1, today cleared the way for the deportations. Justice Thurgood Marshall was the lone vote to grant an emergency request by the three to remain in America. There was no other comment by the justices.

On Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy denied without comment an emergency application from the three for a stay of repatriation. The day before, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta also rejected their plea.

The two other Cubans ticketed for the return flight did not oppose deportation.

Last year’s uprising by Cuban prisoners at federal lockups in Atlanta and Oakdale, La., was sparked by an agreement for some of the 1980 Mariel boat lift people to be returned to Cuba.