Senate Bill sb2196

    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2196

    By Senator Geller





    31-1746-06

  1                        Senate Resolution

  2         A resolution recognizing that the 15 Cuban

  3         refugees who landed on the old Seven Mile

  4         Bridge in Key West on January 5, 2006, should

  5         not have been repatriated under current laws of

  6         the United States.

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  8         WHEREAS, on January 5, 2006, 15 Cuban refugees,

  9  including women and children, fleeing on a small, homemade

10  boat, landed on a piling of the old Seven Mile Bridge in the

11  Florida Keys, and

12         WHEREAS, the United States government swiftly

13  repatriated the 15 Cuban refugees by January 9, 2006, pursuant

14  to the "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy based on a factual

15  determination that the refugees did not touch land but landed

16  on an "abandoned bridge piling" that was not connected to

17  United States land, and

18         WHEREAS, these refugees most likely will face political

19  repression and punishment upon their return to Cuba, and

20         WHEREAS, this body acknowledges that the 15 Cuban

21  refugees did in fact touch United States land, and

22         WHEREAS, the government of the United States wrongly

23  declared that the refugees did not reach the United States and

24  the refugees should not have been repatriated pursuant to the

25  "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, NOW, THEREFORE,

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27  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

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29         That the Senate recognizes that the 15 Cuban refugees

30  who landed on the old Seven Mile Bridge in Key West on January

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    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2196
    31-1746-06




 1  5, 2006, reached land of the United States and were wrongfully

 2  repatriated.

 3         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate urges the United

 4  States government to take all legal and appropriate measures

 5  to return the refugees to the United States.

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