Up to 40,000 Cubans Will ‘Overstay’ Their Visas : Immigration: Florida officials have gone to Washington to press their case for more federal assistance to handle the latest influx.

When Juana left for Miami to visit relatives she hadn’t seen in more than 25 years, she thought seriously of not returning to Cuba.

“It was like living in a prison. I couldn’t stand the repression any more,” said the retired professor of literature. But leaving her husband of 35 years, 11 grown children and eight grandchildren was another matter.

On the day Juana was to return to Havana after a 40-day U.S. visit, the 59-year-old woman went to church and prayed.

And, like thousands of other Cubans who arrive in the United States with hard-to-get tourist visas, Juana decided to stay.

“I thought if I go, what could I bring back to my children? Clothes, a gift? Not for all of them. If I stayed I would at least represent a hope for them, a chance for a way out,” said Juana, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her family still in Cuba.

Many Cubans are looking for a way out these days.

More than 1,400 Cubans have made the risky, 90-mile crossing between Cuba and Florida on inner tubes, makeshift rafts and rickety vessels. That’s nearly three times as many as those who came in all of 1990.

But a substantially larger migration has been quietly under way since last year--chartered flights bring hundreds of Cuban tourists to Miami daily. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials estimate 30% to 40% of all those who come, mainly to visit relatives, are here to stay.

The number of “overstays” could reach 30,000 to 40,000 this year, compared to about 14,000 in 1990, Dade County officials say. The number of tourist visa applications taken by U.S. consular officials in Havana is also up sharply to 70,000 since Oct. 1, well over twice the rate of the previous year.

As a result, U.S. officials have stopped taking any new applications for travel to the United States to work on the backlog. And concerned Florida officials have gone to Washington to press their case for more federal assistance to handle the latest influx.

“These overstays are accessing our social service system. Whether INS chooses to minimize the problem, that is their business,” said Andres Menendez, a Metro-Dade official. “But from a local government perspective, we have to deal with the realities that the people are here.”

But INS officials in Washington have said the surge in Cubans settling in Miami poses no crisis and there is no indication of a mass exodus.

“We’re not talking about an impact on schools or services for minor children,” said INS spokesman Duke Austin in Washington. “Most of the people are visiting existing relatives, so when they come here there’s some sort of support mechanism if they stay.”

The escalating number of Cuban emigres can be traced in part to Cuba’s worst economic crisis since Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

Perhaps to lessen the internal pressure that has resulted, Castro decided to lower the minimum age for travel. Since last year, the age has been gradually lowered from 65 for men and 60 for women; in early August, the Cuban government announced the minimum age would drop to 20.

In an interview at her two-bedroom apartment in suburban Kendall, Juana spoke of the despair that drove her to leave her homeland.

“The problem is not just economic,” Juana said, recalling like many recent Cuban immigrants the empty store shelves and lack of clothing, shoes and basics such as toothpaste and toilet paper. “If it weren’t for the repression, you could work hard and live.

“People saw Fidel as a romantic figure, a legendary figure. He said all the right things. But now everyone knows it was all lies.”

Juana’s family in Miami paid the Cuban government $730 for her round-trip air fare. Before leaving Havana, she told her husband she couldn’t guarantee she’d be back. Her husband, a staunch communist and retired doctor, didn’t believe she would stay.

Less than five months later, three of her sons fled Havana on a makeshift raft with five others. About two weeks later, a fourth, 26-year-old Ruben, survived the perilous journey across shark-infested waters with three friends. He left behind a wife and two young daughters.

Ruben said he grew to despise the system and was sick of widespread corruption and the constant vigilance by members of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, who are found in every neighborhood. “We talked a lot at home about wanting to leave.”

Despite careful screening by the U.S. Interest Section in Havana to ensure that Cubans will return home, about 14,000 of 34,000 did not go back last year. And, unlike other foreign tourists who overstay their visas, Cubans can’t be deported.

Under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, the Cubans can automatically apply for permanent residency after one year in this country.

A Cuban government official described the issue of illegal Cuban immigration as a propaganda ploy by the U.S. government.

“They (United States) want to present an image of Cuba that the situation is so deteriorated that people will risk their lives to come to the United States,” said Ariel Ricardo, a spokesman for the Cuban Interest Section in Washington.

On visa overstays, he noted, “The media don’t mention that the vast majority are returning to Cuba, and others who remain after their visas expire ask for permission from Cuban authorities to go back.”

Ricardo could not recall any specific cases of people who have asked for permission to return.

Juana says she misses the rest of her family in Cuba and dreams of the day when she can be reunited with all of her children. But for now she’s staying put and enjoying the intoxicating taste of freedom.

“I’ll go back--when Fidel falls.”