The Washington Post, April 13, 2000
Black Caucus Sees Double Standard
Lawmakers Decry Refugee Policy That Favors Cubans Over Haitians, Others
By Eric Pianin. Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, April 13, 2000; Page A13
While many Florida politicians are championing legislation to keep Elian Gonzalez from being returned to Cuba, Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.) says he has a better idea: helping someone who really needs assistance by conferring permanent residency on a motherless Haitian girl who lives in his
district.
Hastings does not have high hopes that his bill will pass any time soon. But like the vast majority of African Americans in Congress, Hastings is angered and perplexed by what he considers the special treatment the government affords Cuban refugees and Cuban American leaders.
"I have a long list of children in my district in similar or worse situations than Elian," Hastings, whose district is in South Florida, said this week. "Why should he receive preferential treatment?"
Hastings's view reflects the strong feelings among the nearly 40 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Given the deep divisions in Congress over Elian's fate, the almost unanimous view among African American lawmakers that the child belongs with his father back in Cuba is striking.
"More than anything else, there is a strong value in the African American community that parents have the right to raise, protect and make decisions for and about their children," said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a former chairman of the Black Caucus. "We do not believe that
any argument other than abuse by parents supersedes the rights of parents to raise their children."
Waters met with Elian's father in Havana in January and appeared with the boy's two grandmothers during their visit to Washington to urge the return of their grandson. Waters, Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the current chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and nearly a dozen other black
lawmakers have signed a letter urging the administration to expedite Elian's return to his father.
Vice President Gore's decision last month to break with the administration and endorse special legislation granting permanent resident status to the boy has strained his relations with some black lawmakers.
"To attempt to amend the law, change the law, create an 'Elian exception,' does injustice to the very fabric of law we consider the foundation of a free government and civilized society," said Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.).
Both Monica Dixon, Gore's deputy chief of staff, and Tony Coelho, campaign chairman, have been to Capitol Hill in recent days to attempt to smooth relations. Several sources familiar with Coelho's visit said he stressed that the vice president remains a staunch ally of black lawmakers on other
issues such as racial profiling, hate crimes and AIDS drugs for Africa.
Elian was found off the South Florida coast last Thanksgiving, one of three survivors of a failed journey from Cuba to America in which his mother died. When his father and the government of Fidel Castro demanded his return, Elian's relatives in Miami launched a fight to defy immigration and
Justice Department officials and a court ruling that the boy should be returned to Cuba.
However, as the government began pressing this week for the transfer of the boy from his relatives to his father, the idea of legislative intervention has receded. While a few House and Senate members have decried the administration's decision to return Elian to a communist dictatorship his
mother fled, many others are ambivalent or agree that the boy should be reunited with his father.
For African American members of Congress, the case is a vivid reminder of what they consider a double standard in U.S. immigration policy toward Cuban refugees, on the one hand, and refugees with darker skin colors from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.
Many blacks have sharply criticized the "wet foot/dry foot" immigration policy, which allows most Cubans to remain in the United States if they manage to reach land, while Haitians and others usually are returned to their homelands regardless of whether they touch shore or are captured
at sea.
"They wouldn't think about it if it were 20 black kids from Haiti," said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), a sharp critic of U.S. policies toward Cuba. "There would be no voice coming from Miami to put them in the custody of relatives or elsewhere or to change the laws . . . to
make them citizens."
Hastings, who represents nearly 40,000 Haitians in his district, complained that Haitian refugees are routinely deported, while those from Cuba get special consideration. As a way of protesting the disparate treatment, Hastings introduced a bill last week focusing attention on the plight of
6-year-old Sophonie Telcy, a Haitian girl who was left in the care of a family friend in Lake Park, Fla., when her mother died last year.
"We have a child who is really floating," Hastings said yesterday. "No one in Haiti wants her . . . and the family here is strained to keep her since she has no benefits. If that isn't a worse situation than Elian's, I don't know what is."
Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a Cuban American who grew up in Union City, said he understands "the frustration" of African Americans who perceive racial overtones to U.S. immigration policies.
"But the law of the land of the United States is based upon the view that Cubans are fleeing oppression and not some economic circumstance . . . and that someone who reaches this shore within a year and a day is eligible for permanent residency," he added. "So until that law is
changed, I'm for continuing to enforce that law."
Staff writer Ceci Connolly contributed to this report.
Gore Says He's Been Consistent On Elian
By Ceci Connolly. Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, April 13, 2000; Page A04
Vice President Gore reasserted yesterday that his position on the fate of Elian Gonzalez has not changed, prolonging a controversy that has knocked the presumptive Democratic nominee off his campaign agenda.
In a brief question and answer session with newspaper editors, Gore said he has maintained for several months that the Cuban boy's case should be resolved by a family court. More recently, however, he endorsed legislation granting the boy and family members permanent legal resident status.
Yesterday, he added that perhaps the extended Gonzalez family could reach an agreement on whether the child remains here or returns to his native Cuba.
"If the family members can get together without any people from either the United States government or the Cuban government or even the lawyers from either side and just talk among themselves, then it looks to me like both sides are trying to resolve this," Gore said.
The vice president also deflected a question on whether he would be willing to pardon private citizen Bill Clinton if he faced criminal charges regarding the Monica S. Lewinsky or Whitewater cases after leaving office.
"President Clinton is way ahead of you on this," Gore replied. "He said publicly some time ago that he would neither request nor accept a pardon, so that's the answer to that question."
Gore spokeswoman Laura Quinn said he was referring to comments by then-White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff in December 1998.
The vice president crammed a lot into one of his rare days in Washington. After a morning speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Gore spent about an hour at his White House office. He attended two lunches, first with top Democratic fund-raisers at his childhood home (the former
Fairfax Hotel), then at lobbyist/friend Tom Downey's house to collect $500,000 for the Democratic National Committee.
Although he supports broad campaign finance reform, Gore assured donors that with their help the party would not be left defenseless. "We will fight fire with fire," he said.
After tending to his money-raising duties, Gore went home for a photo session with his wife and Annie Leibovitz for Vogue magazine followed by a private dinner with Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.
In his morning address, Gore described what he sees as sharp contrasts with GOP rival George W. Bush. But the newspaper editors were more interested in Cuba, China, Columbine and Clinton.
Nearly two weeks ago, Gore perplexed and infuriated many supporters with his announcement that he supported the federal legislation granting permanent legal resident status to Elian Gonzalez and his family. New polls suggest many white voters saw Gore's declaration as an attempt to pander to
Florida's Cuban American population while black leaders complain he is neglecting tragedies of other immigrants such as Haitians.
But Gore said his support for the bill is the logical extension of his earlier position to leave the matter up to a family court.
During a debate in January, Gore said he wanted Juan Miguel Gonzalez to come to America and decide Elian's fate and if that were not possible, he would leave it to "domestic relations courts."
Throng Is Defiant in Miami as Reno's Gestures Fail
By Sue Anne Pressley and April Witt. Washington Post Staff Writers. Thursday, April 13, 2000; 12:52 PM
MIAMI, April 13 – An uneasy crowd of more than a thousand protesters waited at midday outside the modest white house in Little Havana where six-year-old Elian Gonzalez has spent the past 4 1/2 months – and where, it was feared, federal marshals were coming within hours to get the boy.
The city was tensed, and law enforcement officers were out in full, visible force, as a 2 p.m. deadline neared for Elian's Miami relatives to deliver him to the Opa Locka airport, on orders of Attorney General Janet Reno. As lawyers for the family prepared to go to federal court to seek an
emergency injunction against the government, Cuban-American leaders urged calm – but an air of defiance, and anti-government fervor, seemed to suffuse the crowd.
"It is very obvious for quite some time that today was going to be D-Day," said Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, as he gave another round of media interviews just beyond the reinforced police barricades holding the protesters back. He added, however, "We are a nonviolent community. I'm
more concerned how we are bending freedom and liberty."
There was a sense of barely contained chaos around the house and in the surrounding blocks of Little Havana: Helicopters buzzed overhead, a small plane flew back and forth trailing the banner, "Elian, Miami and God Love You." Demonstrators clogged major intersections nearby; drivers
blasted car horns; and grandmothers banged on pots and pans, ringing cowbells.
The stage seemed set for the dramatic showdown everyone had hoped to avoid. Elian's Miami great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, continued to declare that under no circumstances would he surrender the boy, challenging federal authorities to come to the home to get him for the return to his Cuban father
waiting in Washington. Federal officials seemed equally determined to bring the long-running and complex saga to a close.
At a noontime news conference here, hours after her own last-ditch efforts to negotiate a settlement of the dispute failed, Reno said that an offer still was on the table for the Miami relatives to fly to Washington to meet with the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, privately before the custody of
Elian was transferred from the Miami family to Juan Miguel. The father had agreed to the meeting, she said; but Lazaro Gonzalez did not. For his part, Juan Miguel Gonzalez left the Bethesda home where he had been staying this morning for a meeting at the Cuban Interests Section on 16th Street NW in
the District.
"I also want to assure the public that they will not see marshals at 2:01 today, attempting to remove the child by force," Reno said. "I am prepared to enforce the law, but I want to be clear – that if we are compelled to enforce our order, we intend to do so in a reasonable,
measured way, the approach we have always taken in this matter."
Reno dismissed a rumor – rampant among reporters and protesters at so-called Camp Elian – that the government was "federalizing" the streets around Lazaro Gonzalez's home and ejecting the media and the crowds. "These rumors are wrong, flat-out wrong," she said.
Elian, whose antics on the front lawn have become a staple of television news, was not seen this morning. He and his cousin, Marisleysis, 21, who has assumed the role of substitute mother for the child, reportedly were resting inside. But an eleventh-hour effort involving the boy received full
exposure on television.
In a home video made late Wednesday night and initially released to Univision, the Spanish-language network, Elian was shown sitting cross-legged on a bed, jabbing his finger at the camera emphatically, and saying, according to one network translation, "Dad, I do not want to go to Cuba!"
Hundreds outside the home gathered, cheering, as loud-speakers blasted the boy's speech over and over. "Elian! Elian!" they cried.
Special correspondent Catharine Skipp in Miami contributed to this report.
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