5 Cuban Migrants Arrive in Florida

MIAMI _ Five Cuban men came ashore on Hollywood beach Thursday morning and have been detained by U.S. Border Patrol, officials said.

The men, between the ages of 20 and 40, came ashore about 7 a.m. in a johnboat with a small outboard engine, a Hollywood police spokesman said.

A johnboat is flat-bottomed, typically with one to three benches, and is usually used in calm waters for fishing or hunting.

The men told police they had been out at sea for several days. They told a bystander they were from a coastal community in Cuba. All were dressed casually.

A U.S. Border Patrol official said the men have been picked up and will be processed at the agency’s Pembroke Pines office and then released.

Under the United States’ wet-foot, dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants who make it to shore are generally allowed to stay, while those interdicted at sea are generally sent back.

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