By The Associated Press. The New York Times. January 6, 2000
MIAMI (AP) -- The U.S. government's decision to send 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba sparked angry protests in Miami, a rally in Cuba attended by Fidel Castro and comment from the White House.
Elian simply went to school on Wednesday, spending the day in first grade as reporters staked out his location and the international tug-of-war over his future raged on. Protests continued today with a traffic tieup on a major highway.
``He doesn't know what is going on,'' said Marisleysis Gonzalez, a cousin. ``We don't want to make him feel bad.''
On NBC's ``Today'' show this morning, she said the boy hasn't been told of the decision because it may not prove final. Referring to his survival two days at sea, she said, ``There's been a miracle. I still have hope there will be another one.''
``It's very hard for us to tell him he has to go back,'' she said.
Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner announced the government's decision Wednesday, saying the boy and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, had a ``close and continuous relationship'' even though the boy's parents were divorced.
Meissner said the elder Gonzalez ``made it very clear that he wants Elian returned to him as soon as possible.'' She said the child must be back in Cuba by Jan. 14.
The decision was denounced by lawyers for the boy's U.S. relatives, who asked Attorney General Janet Reno to reverse the decision and planned to ask a federal judge for a restraining order. They contend the INS is violating its own rules by not allowing the boy to apply for asylum.
``I always thought this was a place of liberty, and they are not letting him keep that liberty,'' Ms. Gonzalez said. ``It's always about the father. What about the mother? That was his mother's will.''
David Abraham, an immigration law professor at the University of Miami, said the family won't have much of a case.
``There is no legal basis'' to block Elian's return, Abraham said. ``If this child came from anywhere else, he would have been home within 48 hours.''
The boy was found Thanksgiving Day clinging to an inner tube at sea after his mother, stepfather and nine others died while trying to reach Florida. He has since lived with relatives in Miami, who say they could give him a better life.
The issue has led to huge protests in Cuba, where Castro and others have demanded the boy's return. On Wednesday, the Cuban government warned against ``excessive optimism'' about the decision.
President Clinton said he had honored a pledge to keep politics from the issue, and said the INS decided ``after an exhaustive review of the facts.''
Meissner said reuniting families ``has long been a cornerstone of both American immigration law and U.S. practice.'' The boy, ``who has been through so much, belongs with his father,'' she said.
In protest, some drivers slowed or stopped cars near Miami's airport Wednesday, waving Cuban flags, while hundreds demonstrated outside the INS building as well as the home of the boy's Miami relatives. Some chanted: ``If Elian goes back, Miami will burn.''
Today, two dump trucks and a pickup truck slowed all three lanes of downtown-bound traffic on the Dolphin Expressway, backing up traffic on the major east-west route in Miami. A tent where one man was starting a hunger strike was erected outside a federal building where demonstrators planned to
rally later.
Still, some Cubans in Florida said they agreed with Elian's return.
``I think the boy belongs with his father,'' said Carlos Hernandez, 24, speaking outside the relatives' home. ``The INS made the right decision.''
``I'm sure they took into consideration the bad conditions in Cuba, but love is stronger,'' he said. ``The father wants his boy back, you can't deny him of that.''
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company |