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HUNGER STRIKERS PROTEST DETENTION LAWS 
Since late March three women and one man have been on a hunger strike, protesting the INS’s continued custody of their children. Their children are all young Cuban men who have been convicted of crimes and face detention for an indeterminate time because they cannot be deported to Cuba. The strikers have been camped outside the entrance to Krome Detention Center in Miami, Florida.
The strike has created a good deal of public awareness of the issue in South Florida. Each of the protestors’ sons have been criminally convicted and served their full sentences. Instead of being released after serving their time, they have been taken into INS custody to be deported to a country they left as small children. But Cuba won’t take them, so they face detention. There are over 1200 Cubans in the U.S. in essentially permanent INS custody. 
The situation differs even among Cubans. Mariel Cubans who arrived in the U.S. in 1980 have their cases reviewed every year. There is no similar provision for the review of cases of Cubans who have arrived since then. This makes the cases of some of the detainees very sympathetic. While some are dangerous and violent criminals, many are first offenders, and many had been out of prison and improving their lives when the INS summoned them for deportation.