By Tracy Grant. The Washington Post Staff Writer. Wednesday, June 28, 2000; 12:39 PM .
Elian Gonzalez is going home.
The Supreme Court cleared the way this afternoon for the 6-year-old boy who has been at the center of an international custody dispute to return to his native Cuba today.
The court rejected an appeal by the boy's Miami relatives with an order that read: "The application for stay presented to Justice [Anthony] Kennedy and by him referred to the court is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari [the appeal] is denied."
That ruling means the boy's seven-month odyssey – which began as a flight from Cuba with his mother and a dozen others and has been marked by legal infighting, an early-morning raid by the FBI and a reunion with his father – will in all likelihood end this evening with his return to
his native land.
Outside the Rosedale estate in Northwest Washington where Elian and his family have been staying for the last several weeks, there was a crowd of reporters and photographers but little other activity.
But behind the scenes, preparations for a departure as soon as the order requiring the boy to stay in the United States expires at 4 p.m. ET today, were underway. A plane is apparently waiting at Dulles International Airport and members of the news media have been told that Juan Miguel Gonzalez,
Elian's father, will make a statement at the airport before leaving today.
Gregory Craig, the attorney who has been handling Juan Miguel Gonzalez's quest to bring his son home, is coordinating arrangements, Cuban officials told the Associated Press this morning.
The Gonzalez case began last Thanksgiving Day, when the Cuban boy was found at sea by two Florida fishermen. He was one of three survivors – the others were unrelated adults – of a shipwreck in which 10 people drowned, including his mother. INS initially turned him over to the
temporary care of relatives in Miami. After his father in Cuba claimed custody, the relatives, all Cuban exiles, refused to relinquish him.
On Jan. 5, after interviewing both the relatives and the father, and reviewing applicable law, the INS ruled that only Elian's father could decide where he would live.
The INS refused to consider the relatives' petition to give Elian political asylum, citing its ruling that only the father could make legal application on the boy's behalf. The relatives asked a federal court to overturn the asylum rejection, arguing that a life in communist Cuba was tantamount
to child abuse.
When the court sided with the INS, the relatives appealed.
In April, Juan Miguel Gonzalez flew to the United States in hopes of being reunited with his son. That reunion came on April 22 after federal agents staged an early-morning raid on the Miami home where the boy had been staying.
Since then the case has wound its way through the court system, with the Miami relatives on Monday asking Kennedy to delay the boy's departure until the full Supreme Court could consider the case. Kennedy is responsible for dealing with cases from the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court, which
ruled last week that Elian should be allowed to leave today.
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