Fla. lawmakers to Mexico: Don’t deport escaped Cubans

Florida Republican Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen urged the Mexican government not to deport 13 Cubans trying to escape the Castro regime.

In a letter to Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen asked that the Mexican government not force the 13 Cubans found near Puerto Progreso on Sept. 1 to return to Cuba. The lawmakers, who both represent the heavily Cuban-American Miami area, said the Cubans fleeing the Castro regime would face persecution if they are sent back.

{mosads}”Forcibly repatriated Cuban nationals are often subjected to particularly vicious and punitive abuse upon their return. Yet despite the monumental risks, many Cubans choose to brave the hazards of the sea rather than suffer another day under the Castros’ oppression,” Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen wrote.

“Accordingly, and in memory of the precious lives lost, we respectfully request that the Cuban refugees currently within Mexican custody not be forcibly repatriated to the country that they risked their lives to escape,” the lawmakers added.