Want to have your own country? I know how and where and it's in Florida.

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Want to have your own country? I know how and where and it's in Florida.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:14:19 PM EDT

Remember the Cubans who got sent back a few weeks ago? Well, they reached an unused bridge down in the Keys.

A US court ruled they had not reached dry land in the US and must be sent back to Cuba because the section of bridge they landed on was no longer attached. Ergo, the section of bridge is no longer US territory.

Claim it.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:18:40 PM EDT

[#1]

Lets go, Im game

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:22:19 PM EDT

[#2]

So it's it'swithin territorial waters it's not claimed by the US?

Sweet

-DMPWI

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:23:05 PM EDT

[#3]

Can I be president?

I need to find a sexy intern who likes pizza and cigars.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:28:08 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
So it's it'swithin territorial waters it's not claimed by the US?

Sweet

-DMPWI

A Federal court ruled it was not "dry land", the requirement for Cubans to stay in the US. It's in the Florida Keys, it's not much but it could be your own country.

If I was a US citizen, I would drive down and claim it tomorrow but I'm not so I cant. It would go to court and maybe lose and if I lost...I may have some problems with my green card or citizenship app.

As it sits right now, that piece of bridge is free land according to a US federal court.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:30:27 PM EDT

[#5]

wonder if I can see it from google earth?

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:30:47 PM EDT

[#6]

Does the National Firearms Act apply there?

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:32:06 PM EDT

[#7]

nope, low resolution shots.

I wonder if this is part of the bridge that was blown up in 'true lies'.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:33:48 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Does the National Firearms Act apply there?

If it isnt US property...no and a federal court said it wasnt. I t might be someones property, but the court said it wasnt United States or else they would have had to let the Cubans stay.

I believe the court was wrong in its initial decision but that is what they said.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:40:23 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Does the National Firearms Act apply there?

The BATF does not have jurisdiction outside the United States.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:41:07 PM EDT

[#10]

MIAMI (AP) -- A federal judge suggested Thursday that the U.S. government acted illogically this week when it sent back 15 Cubans who had landed on an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys.

U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said he would not rule immediately on the emergency lawsuit filed on the Cubans' behalf by an advocacy group that is seeking to bring them back to this country, but he questioned the government's reasoning.

Under the government's long-standing "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those stopped at sea are returned to the communist island. In this case, the government said it sent the Cubans back to their homeland because the bridge no longer connects to land.

Moreno said even those who disagreed with giving Cubans special protections under U.S. immigration law would have a hard time seeing the logic of the government's decision.

"So the question is whether this bridge is U.S. territory," Moreno told Assistant U.S. Attorney Dexter Lee. "I'll follow the law, whatever it is. I guess the law is very technical, but the average person would say that's a ridiculous distinction" of whether the bridge was U.S. land.

Moreno called the abandoned bridge, built by railroad magnate Henry Flagler in 1912 and used until 1982, "as American as apple pie."

Lee said that the government would respond to the lawsuit by Jan. 26 and would ask the judge to dismiss the case. Even if it were ruled that the 15 Cubans could return, it is highly unlikely Cuba's Fidel Castro would permit it.

The attorneys representing the Cubans, as well as the Cuban advocacy group Democracy Movement, also urged the judge to clarify U.S. policy as to what constitutes U.S. territory under the wet-foot, dry-foot policy.

The Cubans set out from their homeland in a small boat and thought they were safe when they reached the bridge Jan. 4 after more than a day at sea. But the bridge, which runs side by side with a newer bridge, is missing several chunks, and the group had the misfortune of reaching a section that no longer touches land.

Earlier this week, members of Florida's congressional delegation called for a review of the wet-foot, dry-foot policy.

The rule was established in 1995 to stem a wave of Haitians and Cuban immigrants arriving on U.S. shores.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:43:22 PM EDT

[#11]

great. The Bush administration won't do squat do secure our borders, but when cubans make it here to escape a communist dictator, they'll fight in court to keep them out.

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:45:42 PM EDT

[#12]

I dont think I'd want to live on a bridge.......

Posted: 2/5/2006 6:53:27 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
I dont think I'd want to live on a bridge.......

Not even if you could be King?

Posted: 2/5/2006 7:09:00 PM EDT

[#14]

Guys the bridge isnt connected to LAND and it isn't LAND. it is an OBJECT made by man and sitting in USA waters. The cubans didn't make it to land. End of story. If they sat down on a US Buoy in the middle of the keys it still wouldn't be LAND.

Posted: 2/5/2006 7:12:36 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Guys the bridge isnt connected to LAND and it isn't LAND. it is an OBJECT made by man and sitting in USA waters. The cubans didn't make it to land. End of story. If they sat down on a US Buoy in the middle of the keys it still wouldn't be LAND.

This thread isnt about the Cubans nor is it about ''land''. It's about territory.

Posted: 2/5/2006 7:14:23 PM EDT

[#16]

I'm in... our own version of Sealand, we can call it "Keyland".

Someone with a legal background should look up the sequence of events for Sealand. Seriously.

Posted: 2/5/2006 7:18:37 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Guys the bridge isnt connected to LAND and it isn't LAND. it is an OBJECT made by man and sitting in USA waters. The cubans didn't make it to land. End of story. If they sat down on a US Buoy in the middle of the keys it still wouldn't be LAND.

That does not mean that it cannot be a nation.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand