CNN. April 4, 2000. Web posted at: 1:14 a.m. EDT (0514 GMT). From staff and wire reports
MIAMI (CNN)-- The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez are calling on U.S. officials to allow a team of independent psychologists to examine the 6-year-old Cuban immigrant before he is handed over to his father.
The boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, whom the U.S. has ruled as Elian's legal guardian, is poised to travel from Cuba to the United States as early as Tuesday, when negotiations are scheduled to resume between U.S. immigration officials and Elian's Miami relatives, who have been fighting for
legal custody of the boy.
"All we ask is 30 minutes for Elian to meet with psychologists," pleaded a weeping Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian's second cousin, who has been caring for the boy along with his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez .
Elian's Miami relatives maintain that an independent psychological examination of the boy will prove that returning him to Cuba would do more harm than good.
The boy has been in the temporary custody of his Miami relatives since he was found floating alone in an inner tube off the Florida coast last November, one of three survivors of a shipwrecked Cuban immigration voyage to Florida that left 11 people dead, including his mother and step-father.
Focus of talks shifts
Earlier Monday, U.S immigration officials said their focus had shifted from revocation of Elian's parole status allowing him to remain in the United States, to the transfer of that parole to his father.
"But transfer of parole care does not mean that the child will be immediately removed from the home of the great- uncle," said Robert Wallis, director of the Miami office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"It is our hope to begin a smooth and orderly process that will create as little disruption as possible for Elian," Wallis said. "We wish to add no further trauma to that which this innocent child has already endured."
Marisleysis Gonzalez' plea included her hopes about the possible transfer of the boy from the home of his Miami relatives.
'Don't bring marshals to this house'
"Don't bring marshals to this house, where all that we have done is show love. All I ask for is that if his father is going to come to this country, don't put him in Washington, don't put him in New York," Marisleysis Gonzalez said, tears streaming down her face.
"Don't let him be removed from this house in front of 300 cameras and 3,000 people in back of him, where it's going to psychologically hurt him even more," she said. "Let the father come to this house. Talk to his son. Let him understand how he feels."
Six of 28 visas granted
The U.S. State Department said it instructed the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to issue visas to Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his second wife and infant son, a young cousin of Elian, a pediatrician and Elian's kindergarten teacher.
The department said it is reviewing 22 other visa applications submitted Monday morning by the Cuban government. Those include Elian's classmates, Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon and additional medical personnel.
Officials said the U.S. Interests Section will submit questions to the Cuban government concerning those requests for visas to determine the merits of each application.
One Justice Department source said the father and his family are expected to arrive in Washington this week, possibly as early as Tuesday.
"We are still trying to work out the details," the source said. "We are still hoping for a transfer in the most orderly way for this little boy."
Greg Craig, the American attorney representing Elian's father, said he is disappointed the Miami relatives did not reach an agreement with the government in negotiations Monday.
"It means another day of potential damage between father and son," Craig told CNN.
Asked when the father might arrive in the United States, Craig said, "When he receives assurances that he will have custody of his son."
How INS plan would work
Under the general plan presented Monday to the Miami family's attorneys, sources say, the father would agree to remain in the United States during court appeals being pursued by the Miami relatives -- if those relatives agree to voluntarily produce Elian.
If the family agrees, instructions would be given on where and when the transfer would take place.
If the family balks at turning the boy over to his father, the Justice Department would likely go to federal court to seek an order compelling the family to produce the child.
It would then be up to the father to determine whether to stay during the appeals process.
Possibility of confrontation
Meanwhile, 100 protesters outside the relatives' Little Havana home in Miami practiced forming a human chain and vowed they would stop at nothing to keep the boy from returning to Cuba.
"They would have to go over the bodies of all of us Cubans who are here," said Maria Gonzalez, 70, who is not related to the boy. "They would have to kill us all."
Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the Miami-based anti-Castro group Democracy Movement, used a bull horn to call for the city's nearly 800,000 Cuban-Americans to come to the house to protect the boy.
Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said his police department will comply with all federal, state and local laws.
"But what (we're) not going to do is to allow city of Miami police officers to be the ones that are going to be shown worldwide taking out a little boy to be sent to a Communist dictatorship while he is crying and screaming that he wants to stay in Miami," said Carollo. "That is
the responsibility of the federal government."
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has met with public safety officials to determine how to respond to possible unrest if Elian is removed from the Little Havana home.
In their refusal to sign a pledge to surrender the boy should they lose their appeal in federal court, Elian's U.S. relatives want to preserve their option to sustain the legal fight. They also want a family court - - which is to consider a child's best interests -- to hear the case.
The next scheduled hearing in the case is May 8 before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
The Miami relatives have said they will obey the law and surrender the boy if immigration agents show up at their door and demand him. Federal officials hope to avoid that.
"Our goal is to reunite Elian and his father," said Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for the INS. "Suffice it to say, the issue is not whether we will transfer Elian to his father, but when and how."
Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas, Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman, Senior White House Correspondent John King and Correspondent Susan Candiotti and The Associated Presscontributed to this report.
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