The Coast Guard on Tuesday returned 98 Cubans to their homeland, including eight of the 11 migrants caught trying to make their way to the
Florida Keys in a floating Buick.

Officials also said 90 of the 98 migrants seized were on three go-fast boats headed for Florida. Five people were arrested on federal smuggling
charges.

A Cuban family of three remains on a Coast Guard cutter at sea while a federal judge in Miami decides whether they have any right to enter the
United States. A judge in Miami on Monday ruled that the three other people in the 1959 Buick seized at sea will be safe from return to Cuba
until at least Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno extended an order while attorneys for the federal government and the family continue to examine
immigration law and policies. They were expected to file papers Tuesday and Moreno hopes to rule Wednesday.

Luis Grass Rodriguez, his wife and 4-year-old son were among 11 people found on the Buick off the Florida Keys last week. Grass Rodriguez
and his family are exempt from repatriation -- for now -- because he had started a process in the hopes of emigrating legally to the United States
after a similar vehicle-to-boat conversion failed last summer.

In that case his floating 1951 pickup came within 40 miles of the U.S. coast in July. The vehicle was spotted, however, and the group seized and
sent home and the pickup sunk.

U.S. policy normally allows Cubans to stay only if they reach U.S. soil. Others intercepted at sea are sent back to Cuba by the U.S. Coast
Guard. In a Key West case that drew a fine line, the difference was between being on a docked boat and standing on the dock.

Moreno asked for a copy of a 1995 migration accord adopted by the United States and Cuba and the current state of the law on aliens arriving
on dry land or reaching territorial waters.

Lee argued that a federal appeals court and another federal judge in Miami have concluded legal entry for immigration purposes requires
reaching dry land.

In the floating Buick's case, the bizarre vessel was seized about 10 miles from the Florida Keys. After the 11 migrants were safely aboard a
Coast Guard vessel, the Buick was sunk as a hazard to navigation.

The 90 other people returned to their homeland at Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba, on Tuesday were seized from three speedy smuggling boats.

The first group of 29 was intercepted in a 30-foot go-fast boat at 6:19 p.m. on Feb. 2, about 50 miles north of La Isabela, Cuba.. The cutter Pea Island said one
suspected smuggler was in the group.

On Wednesday, 32 migrants were found on another boat 42 miles south of Marathon. Two suspected smugglers were taken into custody.

The last case was on Wednesday when a Coast Guard cutter spotted a go-fast 28 miles southeast of Marathon. An immigration department vessel was able to intercept
and stop the boat until the cutter arrived. Thirty migrants and two suspected smugglers were taken aboard.

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