By YVES COLON
Herald Staff Writer
Once the airplane takes off, they head for the restroom.
The passengers being smuggled into Miami shut the lavatory door behind
them and
start shredding their travel documents -- passports, visas and airline
tickets. Then
they flush them down the toilet.
Cubans know the routine by heart, immigration officials say. They show
up before
immigration inspectors at Miami International Airport without any documents.
That
way, investigators for the Immigration and Naturalization Service can't
trace the
smugglers. All that's left for the Cubans to do is express credible fear
of persecution,
get processed and wait for parole.
``This stems from the fact that we cannot remove them,'' said Mark Briesemeister,
INS supervisor of special agents for the district's anti-smuggling unit.
``There is
nothing in place to remove Cuban nationals.''
Smuggling through the back door -- Miami International Airport -- occurs
quietly but
steadily while South Florida remains riveted to images of Cubans and Haitians
dropped off by boats on Key Biscayne and Miami Beach. Entry by air is no
cheaper
for the illegal immigrants, but it's safer than risking the ocean.
It isn't only Cubans and Haitians who arrive at MIA. Airlines have contended
with
Chinese using phony passports on flights from Brazil; undocumented Africans
hopping across the Atlantic from London; Dominicans boarding airliners
in Santo
Domingo with counterfeit U.S. visas.
Many learn the tricks
In one recent case, eight Guyanese presented eight phony Canadian passports
to
inspectors. Investigators identified one as the smuggler. The others said
they paid
him thousands of dollars for the trip. He subsequently pleaded guilty and
will be
sentenced this week.
The Cubans who arrive at the airport get to stay in the United States.
Most of those
from other countries are deported right after they're caught.
Cubans, for example, are spending as much as $10,000 for smuggling packages
that
involve flying to a third country, buying false passports, then boarding
planes to
Miami. They may come alone or in a group, ``any number of different ways,''
Briesemeister said.
``They know exactly what the procedures are and what will happen to them
because
information is shared,'' Briesemeister said. ``It's getting to be more
and more of a
problem.''
The potential profits draw a large pool of smuggling talent from throughout
Latin
America, he said. Several years ago, Panama was the preferred transit country,
but
as investigators focused their energies there, the smugglers have switched
to other
countries, including Costa Rica and Venezuela.
``You start banging too hard, the smugglers change route, going to large
airports in
large cities where there is a large amount of traffic,'' Briesemeister
said. ``They go
where they have the best chances of getting through. Sometimes there's
safety in
numbers.''
Using forged papers
Once they're in a third country, the immigrants find it relatively easy
to hook up with
a smuggler, who buys a passport and substitutes the clients' photos. The
client needs
the passport and a ticket to get on the plane. Sometimes, instead of throwing
away
the documents, the immigrant hands them to a third person with connections
to the
smuggler. Cubans don't need those documents anymore because they know they're
not going home again.
``It's well known they get coached,'' Briesemeister said. ``They know what
to do,
what not to do.''
Briesemeister has eight agents in his unit, compared with three in 1993.
In the past
year, the unit has referred 36 cases to the U.S. Attorney's Office involving
smuggling through ports of entry. Fifty percent of those cases involve
Cubans, he
said.
The Guyanese case occurred in August, when Phillip Persaud arrived at Miami
International Airport on Surinam Airways Flight 2463. Persaud, also known
as
Parmanand Persaud and Paul Singh, was accompanied by seven other Guyanese
citizens.
He handed the inspectors eight Canadian passports -- all fakes. His group
told
investigators they got their Canadian passports in Scarborough, Ontario,
for $60.
They claimed they were a family returning from a funeral in Guyana.
They were lying.
And, the agents figured out, Persaud was feeding them those lies. Three
members
of the ``family'' later told investigators they paid Persaud between $5,000
and
$15,000 to obtain the passports and smuggle them into the United States
through
Miami.
Persaud later told investigators he paid $10,000 to someone he identified
as ``Mr.
Jim'' in Guyana. He denied smuggling the group, but nonetheless was charged
with
smuggling aliens. In December, Persaud changed his plea to guilty on four
counts.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.
U.S. countermeasures
As the problem grows, INS is responding. The assistant district director
in charge of
inspections, Jack Garofano, said he has stepped up training and detection
of
fraudulent documents for his 325 inspectors at MIA. Garofano is in charge
of 17
ports of entry in Florida and the Bahamas.
His department, he added, has increased cooperation and training with the
airlines to
help them fight smuggling.
For instance, INS inspectors look for suspicious passengers who carry too
much
luggage or who have incongruous information on their passport or green
card.
Briesemeister said smugglers are getting to be much more efficient than
they used to
be. Knowing that law enforcement agents can't be everywhere, they're now
slipping
migrants through the area's sea ports, he said.
``They come on boats, too, day cruisers out of the Bahamas,'' he said.
``We suspect
complicity between crew members or passengers that were on the ship to
begin
with.''
His agents can't let up the pressure, Briesemeister said. Although it's
inevitable that
smugglers will get some migrants through, 90 percent of the cases sent
to the U.S.
Attorney's Office have ended in conviction.
``Fraud happens a lot,'' he said. ``But if we can prosecute enough of these
people,
we can deter somebody else from coming in.''
Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald