Sounders interested in Cuban player

Officials of the Seattle Sounders professional soccer team are trying to contact the forward for the Cuban national soccer team, who apparently defected here last week, about trying out for the Sounders.

Sounders representatives attended the Gold Cup soccer tournament at Qwest Field last week and came away impressed with the skills of several Cuban players, a team official said yesterday. Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer and coach Brian Schmetzer said the team needs a forward.

Immigration officials yesterday identified the player as Maikel Galindo. He had traveled with the Cuban team to Seattle to play in Gold Cup games last Thursday and Saturday.

The Associated Press reported a second Cuban team member, backup goalkeeper Odelin Molina, also failed to appear for a game in Massachusetts on Tuesday night.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said immigration officials had not been in contact with Molina, only with Galindo. Sounders officials said they were not trying to contact Molina.

Kice said Galindo will go before an immigration judge to make his case about remaining in the United States. As of yesterday, a court date had not been scheduled.

If a judge decides to deport him, Galindo can go to the board of immigration appeals and, beyond that, to the federal courts.

Immigration officials are not detaining him, Kice said. He is free on his own recognizance.

In general, asylum seekers from Cuba have an easier time legally staying in the U.S. than do those from many other countries. Last year, more than 16,500 Cuban refugees and those seeking asylum were granted permanent resident status, more than those from any other country, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics.

The two soccer teammates may have made their plans separately, suggested a local missionary who spoke with other team members over the telephone Saturday and later that same day at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle.

Brian Stewart, Cuba ministry coordinator for the Mountlake Terrace-based Action International Ministries, visited Cuban evangelical churches 14 times in the past and had mutual friends who'd asked him to be hospitable to the players in Seattle. He said he spoke with players on the team who were Christian.

Stewart said he spoke to a team member by phone around midafternoon Saturday. By then, it was apparent a team member had decided to stay in the U.S., and "the team was restricted to the Westin Hotel," he said.

A couple of hours later, Stewart said, he heard from the team that a second player had gone missing. The team members did not tell Stewart the name of either missing player.

Stewart said that when he visited some team members Saturday night, "everybody seemed to be very calm. They were under the watchful eyes of the coach. It didn't seem they were fearful or stressed."

According to Seattle police, Galindo got onto a Metro bus in North Seattle on Saturday evening and, despite speaking limited English, indicated to the driver that he was seeking political asylum, said police spokeswoman Debra Brown. The bus driver contacted police, and a Spanish-speaking officer confirmed Galindo was indeed asking for asylum, Brown said.

Police contacted federal agencies and Galindo was interviewed by immigration officials Monday in Seattle.

According to the Gold Cup media guide, Galindo, 24, played in Cuba for a club team called Villa Clara. Molina, 40, also played for Villa Clara.

Players play for their club teams until they are called upon by their national teams to compete in international games or tournaments.

In 2002, when the Gold Cup tournament was played in Los Angeles, two players from the Cuban national team defected.

Cubans who reach American soil generally have an easier time staying than those who are stopped at sea.

"Generally, it's the 'dry feet, wet feet' kind of problem," said Lourdes Fuentes, an immigration attorney with Seattle law firm MacDonald Hoague & Bayless. "If you can hit dry land, you're usually able to stay in the United States. But if you're caught out in the water, you're more likely to be returned."

Still, "The U.S. government, as a matter of policy, considers Cuba as a country that persecutes people for political reasons, which is one of the grounds for asylum," said David Leopold, an immigration attorney in Cleveland.

"You can't say everyone from Cuba will be offered asylum, but I think somebody from Cuba is much more likely to get asylum than someone from, say, Haiti."

According to Department of Homeland Security statistics, countries with the highest numbers of refugees allowed to stay in the U.S. last year were, after Cuba, Bosnia-Herzegovina with about 10,000, and Ukraine with about 5,000.

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com