Posted on Wed, Mar. 08, 2006
Cuban Americans, White House to discuss policy
BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com
Cuban-American members of Congress plan to meet with White House officials this afternoon to discuss the controversial wet foot/dry foot policy for Cubans arriving by sea.
Also meeting in Washington today: an umbrella group of Cuban exile organizations called Cuban Consensus. Made up of 18 groups, Consensus members set aside their political differences last year to craft an 18-point blueprint on how best the island should be governed in a democratic transition post Fidel Castro.
Cuban Consensus will be meeting at Georgetown University.
The White House agreed to meet with Cuban-American leaders to discuss U.S.-Cuba migration policy after a well-known Cuban exile activist went on a hunger strike to protest the repatriation of 15 Cuban migrants who had been found by the Coast Guard standing on the pilings of the old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys.
The Coast Guard concluded that because that section of the bridge -- which has missing pieces -- was not connected to land, the migrants were feet-wet'' and sent them back to Cuba. A federal judge has since ruled that the bridge is part of Florida and has asked U.S. officials to expedite travel papers for the 15 Cubans now back on the island.
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