JOHN PAIN
  Associated Press

  MIAMI - The U.S. Coast Guard stopped six illegal Cuban migrants who tried to enter the Florida Keys on a small boat Thursday, including two who tread water for more than two hours, authorities said.

  Meanwhile, two of three Cuban migrants who swam ashore on live television earlier this month were charged Thursday in Key West with assaulting Coast Guard members who were trying to rescue them.

  The six migrants who attempted to reach the United States on Thursday were taken aboard a Coast Guard boat off Tavernier, about 75 miles south of Miami, and then transferred to a cutter, Petty Officer Anastasia Burns said.

  After receiving medical treatment, the migrants will be questioned by a U.S. Border Patrol agent involved in the rescue to decide whether to send them back to Cuba or bring them ashore, Border Patrol spokesman Keith Roberts said.

  Under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are generally permitted to stay, while those caught at sea are taken back.

  The Coast Guard learned of the migrants about 8:45 a.m. Thursday and reached them 35 minutes later, said Lt. Robert Beaton of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

  Four of the migrants were trying to swim ashore and two were still in the boat. The two then jumped into the water. The stalemate between the two who refused to quickly surrender and the Coast Guard was shown live on national television.

  Coast Guard officials explained to them that it would be safer to get on the Coast Guard boats, Burns said. They eventually tired and surrendered, she said.

  In the earlier case, the two Cubans arrested after swimming ashore near Key Largo on May 6 appeared Thursday before a federal magistrate judge in Key West.

  Javier Morales Molina, 27, and Reinaldo Molina Morales, 29, both of Remedios, Cuba, are charged with threatening Coast Guard members with a knife and part of their boat's mast. They each face possible 20-year prison sentences.

  Bond was set for each of the men at $70,000, but immigration officials must decide whether they can be released pending trial.

  "The issue isn't the policy or the wet-dry foot issue. It's really what these two did. They used weapons and they were interfering with the (Coast Guard) officers out there protecting our borders," said Matt Dates, spokesman for U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami.

  But one of the migrants' attorneys, Ed Farres, said there was no evidence that his clients did so.

  "Obviously it was somewhat of a hectic situation," Farres said. "We believe that any actions that these guys may have taken were misinterpreted by Coast Guard officials."

  The third man, Alfredo Morales Molina, 29, was not charged and is en route to Krome Detention Center in west Miami-Dade County for processing, officials said. Most Cubans are released a few days after reaching Krome. He and Javier Morales Molina are brothers.

  A fourth man, who became tired in the water and climbed onto a government boat, is still being detained on a Coast Guard cutter, officials said. No decision has been made on whether to return him to Cuba or bring him to Florida, officials said.