Grrr...why weren't these people immediately made US Citizens?

[DRoseDARs]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030724/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_cubans_1

Cubans make freedom bid in floating Chevy truck
Thu Jul 24,12:23 PM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - The 12 Cubans who tried to sail a 1951 Chevy truck from the communist-ruled island to the United States got no marks from U.S. authorities for their creativity.

The would-be emigrants were sent back home.

Since Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s 1959 revolution, Cubans have tried to leave the Caribbean island on rudimentary rafts, on giant truck inner tubes, in stolen boats and planes, even by windsurfer.

But no one remembers anyone attempting the 90-mile (145-km) crossing of the Florida Straits in a floating flatbed truck with 55-gallon (250-litre) drums strapped to its sides, tires still in place, a propeller attached to its drive shaft and a driver behind the wheel.

"We've seen surfboards, pieces of Styrofoam, bathtubs, refrigerators. But never an automobile," Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss said on Thursday.

A U.S. government plane spotted the bright-green truck chugging through the water at 8 mph (13 kph) on July 16 about 40 miles (64 km) south of Key West, just over halfway from Cuba to Florida. The Cubans had fashioned a makeshift, bright yellow shelter on the truck's bed.

"The truck's engine was actually running, propelling it through the water," Doss said.

The Coast Guard picked up the 12 Cubans from the vintage vehicle and took them back to the island on Sunday.

The truck was deemed a hazard to navigation and was sent to the bottom.

Under the U.S. immigration policy known as "wet foot, dry foot," Cubans who manage to set foot on U.S. soil are usually allowed to stay while those stopped at sea are routinely sent back to Cuba.

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Should we really be turning away people who are clearly made of the right stuff to appear on Monster Garage?



Kudos to the fleeing Cubans for their innovative and apparently functional approach; shame on the Coast Guard for sending them back to their deaths on the island.

[DinoDoc]

That's just too damn creative an approach to a problem not to reward. They should have been let in.

[MrFun]

ditto, DinoDoc

[Cruddy]

I guess the rules weren't aimed at people making their own amphibs.

Credit to the folks - that's determination for you.

[GePap]

Cause them the rules: don;t make it to shore, don;t get a free greencard.

The shame is that only cubans get this treatment: pay $30,000 to some human smuggler to get you to cross and ocean in a crammped cargo hold from China to the US, but if they catch you, even if on shore, first to prison, then back to China (or Haiti, or wherever you left), except Cuba, cause we all know human suffereing in Cuba is so much worse than, say, Angola, or Haiti, or any other state in the world.....

[chequita guevara]

We should be sending back all of them. By allowing them in and automatically making them citizens, we are encouraging people to try and kill themselves in the shark-infested Florida straights. If they need to get out of Cuba so badly, let them go to the Bahamas or Haiti which are both much closer than Florida.

[DRoseDARs]

With the "Wet food, dry feet" policy, would it really have been that difficult to allow them to finish the journey. Hell, once they got to shore they could have driven to the nearest McDonald's ( :Puke: ) and gotten a bite to eat, curtousy(sp?) of the US government.

[Cruddy]

I wonder what the Navy's reaction was...

"Contact, semi submerged object heading Cuba-Miami at 2 knots".

"BATTLE STATIONS!!!"

[yavoon]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
We should be sending back all of them. By allowing them in and automatically making them citizens, we are encouraging people to try and kill themselves in the shark-infested Florida straights. If they need to get out of Cuba so badly, let them go to the Bahamas or Haiti which are both much closer than Florida.

I think america likes immigration. now not everyone does, but we were built on it. especially if its from a relatively small place like cuba that can't flood us like mexico can.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Cruddy
I wonder what the Navy's reaction was...

"Contact, semi submerged object heading Cuba-Miami at 2 knots".

"BATTLE STATIONS!!!"

Navy and Coast Guard are two different entities, and it would be about 8 knots, not 2.

:cutesmileyhere:

ACK!

[CorpusScorpius]

Re: Grrr...why weren't these people immediately made US Citizens?

Originally posted by DRoseDARs

Should we really be turning away people who are clearly made of the right stuff to appear on Monster Garage?

Amen brother! General Motors coud have sponsored this group of people..........Our Vehicles last up to 50 years I would have loved to see the Disclaimer after the Comericial was over: Please do not try this at home Closed Course &(Professional Driver) Political Dissendents

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Tuberski


Navy and Coast Guard are two different entities, and it would be about 8 knots, not 2.

:cutesmileyhere:

ACK!

A U.S. government plane spotted the bright-green truck chugging through the water at 8 mph

Neither of them spotted it first - as for the speed, I find it hard to believe a home built amphib could make 8mph, let alone 8 knots, without a strong tail current or other simutus.

C'mon, where's your sense of humour?

[GePap]

Originally posted by yavoon


I think america likes immigration. now not everyone does, but we were built on it. especially if its from a relatively small place like cuba that can't flood us like mexico can.

You mean like in 1981?

Haiti is smaller, less people..and we give Haitian immigrants hell.

most Cuban immigrants, like most Chinese immigrants, are economic immigrants, not political refugees. It is utterly absurd (except politically) that only people from one country get to have free greencards if they make it illegally unto US shores.

[mrmitchell]

Now THAT'S the kind of people we should be letting in. Maybe we should make a deal with Cuba--we ship out 100 of our idiots for every few of these guys they send over.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Cruddy




Neither of them spotted it first - as for the speed, I find it hard to believe a home built amphib could make 8mph, let alone 8 knots, without a strong tail current or other simutus.

C'mon, where's your sense of humour?

That was suposed to be the orange :Cute: smiley, I'm in a contest to see if I can avoid using smileys, other than ACK! anyway.

So, yes I knew you were joking, so was I.

ACK!