MICHES, Dominican Republic -- The fragile wooden boat carrying 56 Dominicans hoping to slip into Puerto Rico illegally was only a couple of hours into a two-day voyage when it was ripped apart by the towering waves of the open sea. Terrified migrants tumbled into the water -- screaming, flailing at the swells -- and more than 30 drowned immediately. The survivors clung to the partially submerged boat, praying, crying, begging for life. Over the next two days, Epifania de los Santos recalls, people quietly drifted off in ones and twos, never to reappear. "They began going crazy. They got...