Recently released from prison, Cuban refugees who came to the United States in the 1980 Mariel boatlift are left to fend for themselves
In recent days, Cuban refugees from Alabama prisons have been turning up at the Salvation Army on Claiborne Avenue with little more than the clothes on their backs and immigration cards that read simply, "paroled for humanitarian reasons." As the men tell it, they were left there with no money and nowhere else to go, dropped off on the street by immigration officials who, for years, kept them locked up in prisons. Once watched over, guarded day and night, these men, who first came to the United States in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, are now free, the first of nearly 200 Cuban prisoners to be quietly released since last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision, immigration officials said Tuesday. But freedom, for these four men, has meant homeless shelters. And there are nearly 700 more Cubans on the way to communities across the country -- including about 70 still being held in Louisiana prisons, a local immigration official said. These prisoners will be released in the days and weeks ahead on a case-by-case basis, said Manny Van Pelt, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E., in Washington, D.C. In some cases, he said, they will be given transportation, clothes and a chance to reconnect with long-lost loved ones. But, Van Pelt said, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is not running a "chauffeur service" or offering rehabilitation to "alien criminals," who in some cases have been incarcerated for two decades. And for those released locally, there has been little joy. [more]