Florida Law Enforcement Practice For Mass Migration

Thursday, March 8th 2007, 10:42 am

By: News On 6

OFF THE SOUTH FLORIDA COAST (AP) _ A law-enforcement exercise to prepare for a possible mass migration as that could occur following a Cuban leadership change coincided Thursday with the arrival of real migrants.

The 41 immigrants arrived at Miami Beach and Haulover Beach in Miami-Dade County and were taken into custody by authorities not involved in the simulation, officials said. It was not clear if they were Cuban.

Concerns about mass migration center on what might happen upon the death of Cuban leader Fidel Catstro or a significant leadership change.

Such arrivals occur frequently in South Florida, and the simulation of intercepting thousands of migrants at sea went on with more than 85 federal and local law enforcement agencies participating on the second day of the two-day exercise.

Officials have revealed few details, citing security concerns. But they said the training would test how well the agencies can coordinate responses.

The Coast Guard let reporters ride along early Thursday during a staged interdiction of a mock smuggling boat. Other exercises would simply simulate the use of boats and other vehicles.

The morning exercise began with a mock 911 call to the Broward County Sheriff's Office that said boaters were headed south to Cuba to pick up migrants, Coast Guard Capt. Joe Matheu said. Sheriff's officials were to alert federal, state and other local officials who could respond.

``We're exercising the plan just like you exercise your muscles, so you don't get weak and flabby,'' Customs and Border Protection spokesman Zachary Mann said Wednesday.

The simulation covered more than 2,000 immigrants headed to the U.S., though only about a dozen actors posing as migrants or smugglers were actually expected to participate in the training.

It was the largest such exercise since a 2003 presidential directive created the Homeland Security Task Force Southeast to better police the nation's southeastern borders.

``The exercise will show our unity, and it demonstrates our federal government's resolve to protect our borders,'' said the task force director, Coast Guard Rear Adm. David W. Kunkel.

Kunkel said the goal of the exercise was to stop 95 percent of the simulated migrants at sea.

Cuba experts have voiced concern that Fidel Castro's death or other significant change in the island's leadership could spark migrations similar to the Mariel boat crisis in 1980, when Castro temporarily opened the island's borders. More than 125,000 Cubans fled the country then, surprising U.S. officials, and many who reached the U.S. were held for months in makeshift camps.