Associated Press

MIAMI -- About 200 refugees, many of them from the 1980 Mariel boatlift, have been released since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that found the indefinite detention of illegal immigrants convicted of crimes is unconstitutional, officials said Tuesday.

Department of Homeland Security officials said they have identified 747 Cubans and 173 non-Cubans affected by the court's ruling and who have been denied re-entry to their home countries.

An exact count of those released since the Jan. 12 ruling is not available, said Manny Van Pelt, an agency spokesman. He estimated the number at between 175 to 200 migrants, including Cubans and non-Cubans.

Van Pelt estimated that about 600 Mariel convicts who fall under the ruling remain in prisons and jails nationwide, along with more than 100 non-Cuban detainees. Most are expected to be released over the next few months.

``We're trying to work with the advocacy groups and the community groups to help these criminals transition to the community,'' Van Pelt said. ``We're hoping that the people in groups that champion the release of these criminals, we're hoping that they step forward.''

Under most circumstances, illegal immigrants who commit crimes are deported to their home countries upon their release from prison. But because the United States doesn't have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba's communist government, the federal government had been holding the illegal immigrants even after they completed their prison sentences.

The Supreme Court case involved two men who were part of the Mariel exodus, in which Cuban President Fidel Castro sent criminals and psychiatric patients to U.S. shores, along with thousands of other fleeing Cubans. Some of them were convicted of crimes in the United States.

In 2001, the high court ruled that it was unconstitutional to detain legal immigrants who had completed their criminal sentences for more than a ``reasonable period,'' generally six months.

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 last month that the same standard should apply to illegal immigrants.

Van Pelt said of the Cubans still in detention, 20 are in the Miami area and 74 are in the Orlando-Tampa area.

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