Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-19
BY NORMAN KLEIN.

series on The border jumping con-
SpirGcp.
BY NORMAN KLEIN.
Cuba is the springboard from which
European emigrants, estimated to num-
Der between 10000 and $4,000, expect
to jump over the immigration quota
fence into the United States.
Hundreds of thousands of Europeans
arrive in Cuba yearly. but not so many
debark officially What becomes of
these thousands swallowed up in the
port of Havana statistics?
Many are struggled across the Carb-
bean to the Florida keys. paying SNUG
glers' syndicateS $500 a head or more.
The price has gone up today because
of the disturbing vigilance of the
United States border patrol.
Not all the Poles, Greeks, ArmenianS,
Italians and Germans who leave Cuba
clandestinely aboard smugglers' motor
boats and two-masters ever reach the
American mainland. There are har-
rowing tales that smugglers sometimes
destroy the evidence" when American
Coast Guard boats pursue them.
Terrified aliens. starving, dangerously
i'll and burned from days under the
blistering Gulf sun. have been found
on lonely coral reefs off Florida. They
had been deserted by the smugglers.
who had robbed them of their life's
savings.
Severe Penalties Imposed.
Cuban authorities recently checked
up on 800 aliens who left for the main
land and discovered that $50 never
reached their destinations.
Because of the severe prison penalties
imposed nowadays on smugglers, the
crooked shippers of the "hunkie schoon-
erS"-the furtive ships engaged in the
Cuba-to- Florida alien traffic-tell their
peasant passengers, as soon as they are
cleared of Havana, that they must hide
them in gunny sacks when the lookouts
sight patrol boats.
Fearful of capture, pitifully anxious
to reach the United States after months
of tribulations, the ignorant Europeans
do as they are told Cuban secret
operatives charge that alien-burdened
sacks. weighted with iron, have been
thrown into the sea.
The number of aliens in Cuba willing
to take any risks so that they may be-
come unWelcome protegeS of Uncle Sam
is not fixed, although Assistant United
States District Attorney Franklin j.
Graham, prosecuting the steward of a
British tramp steamship in Philadelphia
two years ago, asserted there were be-
tween $4,000 and 10000 Russians in
Cuba awaiting an opportunity to sneak
into the United States.
W. W. Husband, commissioner gen.
eral of immigration, estimated there
were $4,000 Chinese and Europeans in
Cuba bent on slipping into this country.
Official reports compiled by the Mi
IF "a Tn
ternational Labor Office at Geneva.
Switzerland, revealed that in the four
years between 1920 and 1924 more than
100000 aliens entered Cuba and
promptly disappeared" Since then the
quota has tempted many more thou
sands to leave Europe to crash Ameri-
cas- back gate" via Cuba.
Rings Maintain Offices.
There are Offices maintained by the
smugglerS' rings in Havana. The secret
police repeatedly break up these con-
spiraces, but with no hope of stopping
the lucrative traffic.
Two Rumanians who were doing
Ponzi business from an Office in Ha-
vana, shipping hundreds of aliens at
$500 to $3.50 apiece to Florida, We're
arrested. Fake passports, counterfeit
Government seals and stamps were
seized and the Rumanians were de-
ported to Europe with 16 other aliec
smugglers lately melted.
Some of the more enlightened aliens
buy passage to the United States aboard
rum snugglers or in the crews quar-
tiers of passenger steamships, or pose
as Americans and buy tickets on the
Channel ferries.
AS soon as the horde of Italians,
Greeks, Syrians, Russians and Lithua-
mans land in Cuba, they begin heated
business dickering with the syndicates'
solicitors. The aliens weep and protest
their poverty; the smugglers shrue
shoulders. At last they come to terms
Then begins the wait until the