Federal authorities brought a dead 6-year-old boy to shore with his parents as prosecutors debate whether to pursue a criminal case against smuggling suspects.

BY ELAINE DE VALLE AND JENNIFER BABSON

KEY WEST - As federal authorities weighed possible criminal prosecution against migrant-smuggling suspects whose boat capsized early Thursday in the Florida Straits, the parents of a 6-year old boy who died in the ordeal were on their way to Key West late Friday.

The parents, among more than two dozen survivors of the failed smuggling trip, were allowed to enter the United States in a departure from normal procedure under the wet-foot/dry-foot immigration policy.

Generally, Cubans apprehended at sea are returned to Cuba; those who reach the United States typically can remain here.

Acting U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said he asked officials in Washington to permit Julian Villasuso's parents to enter the United States.

The couple, Julian Villasuso, 49, and Maizy Hurtado, 32, along with the other survivors could become key witnesses in a federal case against the alleged smugglers. The others remained aboard the Coast Guard cutter on Friday night.

''The United States Attorney's Office is in the process of reviewing the evidence to determine whether prosecution is appropriate,'' Acosta said in a statement.

In the past, the U.S. Attorney's Office, in consultation with the State Department, has pressed to bring some Cuban migrants into the United States to assist in prosecutions.

In this case, the smugglers could face a federal charge of attempted alien smuggling resulting in death, an offense that can carry the death penalty.

CASE DEBATED

Federal investigators and prosecutors spent Friday debating whether to mount a criminal case against the smuggling suspects, who were rescued along with their passengers by the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection some 52 miles south of Key West. The vessel toppled with 31 people aboard, including young Julian, who died when he became trapped beneath the 33-foot boat.

PRELIMINARY AUTOPSY

His body was turned over late Thursday to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office, which said preliminary results of an autopsy indicate he drowned.

The rest of the passengers were rescued after the vessel began taking on water and capsized at 1:24 a.m. Thursday following a nearly 30-minute chase by the Coast Guard.

Julian was not discovered until hours later, floating underneath the vessel as it was righted.

On Friday afternoon, the Coast Guard also brought a female passenger ashore after she showed signs of appendicitis. She was not identified. The child is related to former Miami Commissioner Willy Gort's nephew, Alex. News of the boy's death stunned his relatives.

Mari Villasuso, the boy's aunt, described her nephew as a ``joyful, happy kid.''

''He was always smiling. He would just giggle and it made you laugh,'' she said.

Relatives in Miami first heard of the incident from family in Cuba, Villasuso said.

''They heard the news that a boat had capsized, and my brother was missing from home,'' she said. ``So they called me, and I started calling the Coast Guard. Late at night, they confirmed that the three names I gave them were involved.''

PLANS NOT KNOWN

She said she had no idea of her brother's plans to come to Miami.

''I knew he wanted to come here and he had applied for a visa,'' she said. ``But I never would have expected this.''

She said other relatives, including her parents and two brothers, were aware of the Villasuso family's decision to slip out of Cuba.

`I DON'T UNDERSTAND'

''My mom and dad, it's very hard on them,'' she said. ``I don't know how they got out there. I don't understand how this happened.''

Coast Guard officials said one of the reasons they brought Julian's body to the Keys late Thursday -- before his parents -- was because there is no morgue aboard the 210-foot cutter.

''We don't have really any facilities aboard a cutter to store a deceased body,'' said Ryan Doss, a Miami-based Coast Guard spokesman.

The legal particulars looming for federal authorities were not on the minds of many in Miami's Cuban-American community Friday.

On WAQI (710 AM), a popular Spanish-language talk radio station, Cuban commentator Ninoska Pérez Castellón said the community needed to stop turning to smugglers -- referred to as lancheros or contrabandistas in Spanish -- to solve their immigration woes.

''We have to finish with these smugglers,'' she said. ``This is not the first time someone is killed on the voyage.

''And God knows the ones we don't know about,'' said Armando Gutiérrez, a political consultant who became a spokesman for Elián González's Miami family.

He appeared on the same radio program on Friday.

Gutiérrez also had a message for Cubans on the island who want to employ smugglers to get into the United States.

`FOR MONEY'

''The most important thing is to say that these trips are very dangerous,'' Gutiérrez said. ``The people who bring Cubans here do it for money, not patriotism.''