Dual-track Effort To Stop Repatriation
Judicial Watch. June 26, 2000
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch has been enlisted by the Lazaro Gonzalez family to help pursue a "dual track" legal effort to prevent six-year-old Elian from being returned to Cuba without a proper INS asylum hearing.
The 11th-hour move, taken over the weekend, teams Judicial Watch as co-counsel with Kendall Coffey and Manny Diaz, the family's Miami attorneys, who had previously filed appeals concerning a federal court decision that the boy was not entitled to a hearing, despite his previously stated wishes
to remain in the United States and his signature on an asylum petition filed after he was rescued at sea when the boat carrying his mother sank, killing most of the others on board.
"We plan to go into the lower court and seek to set aside the lower court's judgment on the basis of fraud," said Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel. Coffey, Diaz and their team will also pursue the case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Smoking gun" Immigration and Naturalization Service documents obtained by Judicial Watch were not considered by the lower court. They show collusion between the Clinton-Gore Administration and the Fidel Castro regime in the Elian affair, so "therefore the judgment against Elian's
petition for asylum was procured by fraud and should be set aside," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
Elian Legal Team Should Go Back To Lower Court And Ask That Original Judgment Be Vacated For Fraud
Motion To Enjoin Elian's Departure Should Be Simultaneously Filed
Judicial Watch. June 24, 2000
(Washington, DC) Conventional wisdom has the Elian legal team taking an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of the incorrect legal decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which was reaffirmed yesterday. Judicial Watch will file another amicus curiae brief in support of the
Elian legal team. While this avenue should be pursued, there is another, alternative option as well.
Since the lower court's decision refusing to grant Elian an asylum hearing was procured through fraud – as key documents discovered by Judicial Watch showing Clinton-Gore Administration collusion with the Castro regime were not provided by the Immigration and Naturalization Service –
the Elian legal team should petition the lower court to vacate its judgment, since it was obtained fraudulently. As the same time, the Elian legal team should move the lower court to enjoin Elian from leaving the United States, as the lower court reconsiders the issues based on the newly discovered
evidence. See www.JudicialWatch.org
Judicial Watch will offer its assistance to the Elian legal team if it decides it needs help to wage an aggressive fight to save the life of the little boy.
Judicial Watch is also prosecuting civil rights lawsuits on behalf of Donato Dalrymple and the Miami "Little Havana" community for the illegal raid masterminded and implemented by Janet Reno and other Clinton-Gore Administration officials.
Miscarriage Of Justice!
Eleventh Circuit Lacks Courage To Review Its Prior Decision
Unfortunately, Gonzalez family lawyers had not presented key documents to the court
Judicial Watch. June 23, 2000
(Washington, DC) Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit refused to review its prior petition upholding Attorney General Janet Reno's decision not to provide an asylum hearing to Elian Gonzalez. A lawsuit by Judicial Watch recently uncovered INS documents showing that the
Clinton-Gore Administration and Castro had predetermined Elian's fate without regard for the rule of law. These documents had been provided to the lawyers of the Gonzalez family before their latest brief was filed with the appeals court. Inexplicably, little of the documentation was mentioned, much
less used as evidence for the record. As a result, Judicial Watch attempted an emergency effort to submit the documents to the appeals court through an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief. Apparently, these documents were not considered by the appeals court -- perhaps because they were not
substantially provided by the lawyers for the Gonzalez family themselves -- who had legal standing to do so.
"Judicial Watch will continue to be supportive of the lawyers for the Gonzalez family with regard to their "hoped-for" appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, this time the public-interest watchdog hopes that they will use all available means to win the case, and save little
Elian from a future of despair in Cuba's Communist cesspool," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
"Today was truly a dark day in American legal history, since it appears that the court followed the polls, not the law," added Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
© 2000, Judicial Watch, Inc. ® All rights reserved.
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