Surfside Six, A Race to the Sand

Surfside Six, A Race to the Sand is the dramatic true account of the United States Coast Guard's discovery and apprehension of six illegal Cuban migrants who entered the U.S. territorial waters in June 1999 off the shores of Miami Beach and the politically motivated investigation that followed. Coast Guard federal law enforcement officers face daily challenges and pressures as they carry out the laws and treaties our lawmakers have enacted, such as the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Surfside Six tells the story of these complexities and demands, from the Florida-based micropolitan politicians of the Cuban exile and expatriate communities to the Cuban-born lawmakers of Congress in a politically charged presidential election year to the president of Cuba and the president of the United States.

The Coast Guard is mandated to find and stop illegal immigrants attempting to enter the U.S., whether they are doing so offshore or within our territorial waters. Inevitably, this results in stressful and often dangerous interactions with traffickers that necessitate making decisions that could mean the difference between life and death. This story is about the women and men of the Coast Guard and the pressures and dangers they experience daily as they protect and enforce the applicable laws and treaties of the U.S. It is also about the procedures they are tasked with following to achieve this mission, especially when they find themselves in harm's way. But the real story is a detailed account of the shocking consequences they endured when doing precisely what they were trained to do.

Surfside Six takes you from the busy Coast Guard boat docks on Miami Beach into the Cuban expatriates living rooms, cigar bars, and bodegas of Little Havana, to the command centers and situation rooms of the Coast Guard's leadership in Washington, DC, into the halls of the US Congress, the Office of the Attorney General of the United States, White House and the Presidential Offices of the Republic of Cuba.

The story details how Cuban nationals desperately seeking refuge are met off the shores of Miami. The author shares unique insights into the Coast Guard leadership decision-making, metropolitan and micropolitan political agendas, and Coast Guard procedures as Station Miami Beach enforces our elected leaders' laws and sometimes ambiguous policies.