Furtive Florida Trip Proves Deadly for Some Illegal Immigrants : Smuggling: U.S. authorities believe scores of Haitians, Cubans and others have drowned trying to reach safe haven and a chance at the American dream.

Edmonde Jean-Baptiste was desperate to get her family ashore, to a better life. But it was dark and the alien smuggler’s boat remained in deep water off Hutchinson Island.

The Haitian mother feared for her 7-year-old son, Justin. He couldn’t swim. But the smuggler who had brought the 27 Haitian refugees from the Bahamas in the black of night motioned for his “passengers” to climb overboard.

“In God’s hands,” Jean-Baptiste said, drawing her son and two daughters to her. “In God’s hands.” One of the other Haitian refugees, a man, took Justin on his back, so the mother let him go.

Several hours later, after sunup on Feb. 7, U.S. Border Patrol agents found the boy’s small body rolling in the surf on the beach. Three others, 6-year-old Kenol Louis and two adults, also drowned that morning before dawn trying to swim to shore--and freedom--without getting caught or swallowed up by the dark Atlantic.

They all became victims in the grim, growing business of smuggling aliens into the United States along Florida’s hundreds of miles of coastline. Less than two weeks later, for instance, as many as 34 Haitians were believed to have drowned when their 23-foot boat capsized in rough seas off the Bahamian island of Abaco.

U.S. authorities believe scores of other illegal immigrants also have drowned trying to reach Florida and a chance at the American dream.

“It’s already fairly well publicized, the dangers involved in maritime smuggling of human beings, especially drowning,” said Mike Sheehy, assistant chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s regional office in Pembroke Pines. “There’ve been a number of reported cases where as many as two to 30 people may have died when their boat went down. And who knows how many others have perished in cases that have never been made public.

“This is a serious problem,” he said, “and, unfortunately, someone has to die before the magnitude of the problem is fully realized.”

During the last year, Sheehy says the Border Patrol has seen a sharp rise in the number of would-be immigrants caught coming into Florida--most recently, thousands of Cubans despite the Clinton Administration’s vow to confine them to Guantanamo Bay naval base or some other country.

It’s difficult to estimate how much money smugglers make, though investigators have evidence they charge as much as $3,500 per person from Haiti, Sheehy said. Earlier this year, federal authorities busted a Cuban-smuggling ring in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami that charged Cuban immigrants $5,000 each for transportation here, said U.S. Atty. Kendall Coffey, whose office is trying to crack down on alien smugglers.

Sheehy says illegal immigrants also are smuggled from India, throughout Asia, Central and South America and Europe.

In Jean-Baptiste’s case, she wanted out of Haiti, where jobs are scarce and international economic sanctions against the military-ruled government have made life harder still.

She and others on the boat also feared the military regime that ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide nearly three years ago.

“I left Haiti because Haiti doesn’t have a president, and because they are killing people,” Jean-Baptiste, 25, said in a recent interview at the Lauderdale Lakes home she and her two daughters now share with relatives.

“My husband arranged the trip for me, because I wasn’t working and I had no money,” she said. “My husband paid, but it wasn’t easy finding someone to smuggle us out of Haiti.”

She said the refugees’ trip began in the hold of a larger boat from Haiti to the Bahamas, and ended with a silent dash to Florida in an open boat, speeding over the waves without running lights.

Pastor Jean Georges, the evangelical minister at the Haitian Pastor Coalition in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, said Jean-Baptiste’s case is common.

“Lots of people are coming illegally, but they don’t want to speak to protect themselves and their families,” the minister said. “But they are right to come. Things are bad (in Haiti). The people don’t have food; the people don’t have their own government.”

Coffey, the U.S. attorney, said that so far this year his office has brought five indictments in alien smuggling cases and obtained indictments in two dozen other cases involving passport fraud and illegal entry by deported aliens.

He said the increased prosecution resulted from a task force his office set up in February with the Border Patrol, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Coast Guard, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and sheriff’s offices in counties along Florida’s coast.

Last week, West Palm Beach boat captain Richard Barker was convicted of four counts of negligent homicide--including the death of Jean-Baptiste’s son--three counts of alien smuggling and one count of conspiracy to smuggle aliens.

Barker, 43, whose nickname was said to be “Captain Jump Off,” is to be sentenced Oct. 25. He faces up to 58 years in prison and a $2 million fine.

“This sends a powerful message to those involved in alien smuggling and also serves as a tragic reminder of the terrible risk people face when they attempt to be illegally smuggled into this country,” Coffey said after the conviction.

Jean-Baptiste needs no reminder. Tears welled in her eyes as she recalled the night her son died. But she paused only a moment when asked if she’d do it all over again, knowing what she now knows of the dangers of the journey.

“Yes,” she said, looking at her daughters. “I would still do it.”