Two Cuban migrants landed in the Florida Keys on a powered hang glider on Saturday, officials said.
David Lopez Alfonso and Ismael Hernandez Chirino were taken into U.S. Border Patrol custody after landing at Key West International Airport. No injuries were reported.
Family members of both men say they were shocked to hear the news and had no clue they were planning to leave.
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Family tells NBC 6 that in Cuba, the two were pilots and part of an Aviation Club that took tourists on gliding tours.
As Lopez Alfonso is currently at an ICE detention facility in Pompano Beach awaiting his fate, his wife says she is relieved that she was finally able to speak to him Monday morning.
She says she thinks her husband risked his life to make the journey because they have two children and the lack of food in Cuba made him reach that level of desperation.
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"They want to work. They want to be able to fly. They want to fulfill their dreams," Hernandez Chirino's sister said.
She is asking the U.S. government to please support the pilots and begging for them not to be deported.
Immigration attorney Eduardo Soto says the two will need to show that they are not a danger to the community and that they have ties to the community and have family here.
“One of the things that would establish a non-return of these individuals besides a grant of asylum would be to establish protection under the convention against torture," Soto said. "The convention against torture states that if the government they are seeking refuge from cannot protect them — and in this case, if they were to be returned, they would be subjected to the death penalty — then they cannot be returned.”
Check back with NBC 6 for updates.
