"It is the thing we have prayed for but never thought would happen
It began with a couple of lobster boats—the Dos Hermanos and the Blanchie III—chugging from Key West and returning with 48 refugees. Then a hulking shrimper named Big Baby made the 110-mile trip, coming back with 200 people; it was quickly followed by Lucy, a creaky lobster boat that carried 70 people huddled on its deck. Suddenly last week, the Straits of Florida were filled with a huge makeshift flotilla, ranging from leaky skiffs to sleek schooners, that sailed from south Florida to the Cuban port of Mariel and returned home crammed with jubilant Cuban exiles. "I never, never thought we'd make it!" exclaimed Pedro Diaz, 25, breaking into a wide grin as he stood with his wife and six-month-old daughter on a Key West dock. "Now we start the new beginning."
By week's end more than 2,000 refugees had been brought to U.S. shores. Fidel Castro had unleashed the exodus by opening Mariel to foreign boats and issuing exit visas to those who wanted to leave. The impromptu rescue operation angered and embarrassed the Carter Administration, which held that the sealift was illegal and that the refugees were, at least technically, illegal aliens. To stem the tide, the U.S. Department of State warned that the skippers of the refugee boats could be liable for a $1,000 fine for each exile carried; moreover, their vessels could be seized and held by the Government until the penalties were paid.
The refugees were admitted "conditionally" for 60 days, thus allowing them time to file for political asylum; at the end of that period, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was to decide whether or not to grant it. Though there seemed little doubt last week that the Cuban boat people would eventually be granted permanent residence, Washington was clearly unhappy with their method of arrival. "What you have here is not a rational process," said State Department Spokesman Thomas Reston of the sealift. "What you have is Castro's solution to the problem."
The boatmen paid little heed to the Government's threats, and the rescue navy continued to grow. "They have to say that," shrugged one skipper. Relatives of the refugees were already waiting on Florida's docks with cash in hand, ready to pay the fines in case the boats carrying their kinfolk were seized. Chances are that few if any fines will be imposed or collected. "Look at the dimensions and emotion of all this," said one weary customs officer, waving his hand across the crowded Key West docks. "How could we possibly do anything to stop it?"