SUGARLOAF KEY, Fla. (WSVN) – The group of Cuban migrants found on a lighthouse near Sugarloaf Key plan to appeal a federal judge’s decision to send them back to Cuba.
The group of 24, dubbed the “Lighthouse Cubans,” were hoping to stay in Miami based on the “wet foot, dry foot” policy after they made a swim to the American Shoal Lighthouse when they came in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard. Twenty-one of the migrants made it to the lighthouse, just seven miles off Sugarloaf Key.
On Tuesday, the judge ruled the that the lighthouse did not constitute as U.S. land. Therefore, they must return to Cuba.
Had the judge determined that the lighthouse constituted land, it would have allowed the group to stay.
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