AP News, March 7th, 2007
More than 85 federal and local law enforcement agencies kicked off a two-day exercise Wednesday to prepare for a possible mass migration from the Caribbean, such as might occur following a change in government in Cuba.
Officials declined to provide details about the exercises, citing security concerns. But they said the training would test how well the agencies can coordinate responses.
The Coast Guard planned to allow reporters to ride along Thursday during a staged interdiction of a mock smuggling boat, but other exercises would simply simulate the use of boats and other vehicles.
"We're exercising the plan just like you exercise your muscles, so you don't get weak and flabby," said Zachary Mann, a customs and border protection spokesman.
It is 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.
Cuba experts have voiced concern that Castro's death or a significant change in the island's leadership could spark migrations similar to the Mariel boat crisis in 1980, when Castro temporarily opened up the island's borders. More than 125,000 Cubans fled the country then, taking U.S. officials by surprise, and many who reached the U.S. were held in makeshift camps for months.
Kunkel said the goal of the exercise was to stop 95 percent of the simulated migrants at sea. Although officials were attempting to respond to a situation in which more than 2,000 immigrants were headed to the U.S., only about a dozen actors posing as migrants or smugglers were expected to take part in the training.
