MIAMI -- A Cuban activist is continuing a hunger strike at Miami's Freedom Tower, even though 15 refugees for whom he hoped to win freedom have been sent back to Cuba.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the Movimiento Democracia, asked that the refugees who touched the old Seven Mile Bridge south of Marathon Key on Wednesday be allowed to stay. Sanchez, has been on a hunger strike since noon Saturday on behalf of the Cubans.

Sanchez, along with about 35 others from Movimiento Democracia, has made his cause visible to the public, displaying signs that read, "Hunger strike for freedom. Mr. President, respectfully, immigrants have rights too," and refusing food and water from those concerned by his actions.

The migrants were repatriated late Monday morning, Coast Guard officials said. The group included a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old. They left Matanzas Province in Cuba late on the night of Jan. 2 aboard a small, homemade boat.

Their case drew attention after the U.S. Coast Guard decided that the piling they landed on did not constitute dry land.

Under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those intercepted at sea are generally repatriated.

But the part of the old bridge piling that the Cubans touched is no longer connected to land -- a gray area in the law that Sanchez and his supporters believe is unfair.

"The particular structure that they were found upon is not connected to land. The 'bridge' is kind of a misnomer," said Coast Guard Lt. Commander Chris O'Neil, spokesman for the department's Southeast region.

O'Neil said officials in Washington determined the Cubans should be considered "feet wet," because they were not able to walk to land from where they landed.

"We recognize that the old Key West bridge is part of the United States, as much as the Statue of Liberty, and (that the government should) allow the Cubans that were found there, as the law says, to remain in freedom in the United States," Sanchez said.

Sanchez believes if the Statue of Liberty is considered "dry foot" but is not connected to land -- although arguably the nation's most-symbolic monument rests on Liberty Island -- that the same rules should apply in this case.

An attorney for the families of the migrants says he plans to file a lawsuit today asking a federal judge to allow the group to return.