By Luisa Yanez, Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 12:53 a.m. Mar. 28, 2000
The U.S. relatives of Elian Gonzalez lashed out at immigration authorities today, saying they had not signed an agreement demanded by the government to promise to surrender the 6-year-old if they lose their court fight to keep him out of Cuba.
Lawyers and a spokesman for the family were clearly frustrated when they emerged Tuesday from a 9 a.m. meeting with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and said no agreement had been signed.
"I don't know what else they want from the Lazaro Gonzalez family," spokesman Armando Gutierrez said. "They (the INS) are following orders either from Clinton's lawyers or Fidel, and they need to answer to the community and to the world. They are the ones who put this kid in
Lazaro's home and they just want him to sign a blanket statement, which is not the American way."
The INS, which had said Elian's parole would end at 9 a.m. Thursday unless the family provides a written guarantee to give him up, was expected to comment later in morning.'
ABC defends Elian interview from Castro, other critics
MIAMI -- The war of wills between Attorney General Janet Reno and the Miami relatives of Elián Gonzalez escalated late Monday when the government told family members that, as of Thursday, they no longer will have the right to care for the 6-year-old boy.
"It means that Elián will no longer have legal status in the United States, and that the family will have to quickly start making plans to reunite him with his father as soon as possible," said Maria Cardona, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The move appears to be a legal maneuver aimed at pressuring Lazaro Gonzalez to promise that he will turn over the boy to INS as soon as his appeals are exhausted, something Cardona said he so far has refused to do.
INS's tough stance, delivered in a two-page letter to the family Monday night, came a few hours after the Miami relatives seemed to trump federal officials by winning an appeals court ruling that would allow them to make arguments in the case in early May -- far later than the Justice
Department wanted.
Monday's developments set up a showdown between Attorney General Janet Reno and attorneys for the boy's Miami relatives, who are sure to fire back with another legal volley.
Cardona acknowledged that the relatives could block the INS from taking action if they can convince the appeals court to grant an injunction.
While the agency plans to revoke the family's legal right to care for the boy, and his temporary legal status in the United States, it does not plan to try to remove him from the Little Havana home on Thursday, Cardona said.
Details of the next steps to be taken will be discussed at a meeting with INS District Director Robert Wallis and federal attorneys at 9 a.m. this morning, Cardona said.
INS gave Lazaro Gonzalez, Elián's uncle, the option of meeting with them on Wednesday, instead.
"Lazaro doesn't need to be there, but we're saying it's preferable that he be there," Cardona said.
"In the meeting, if there still can be an agreement that they are willing to hand over Elián when requesteed by INS, there still can be a reconsideration of the revocation" of Elián's temporary status in the United States, called "parole."
"What would be the point of revoking Elián's parole?" said Spencer Eig, one of the attorneys fighting to keep Elián here. "To send him back before his appeal can be heard? That wouldn't be fair."
Armando Gutierrez, spokesman for the boy's Miami family said, "They have put a gun to our head."
The decision is sure to cause an uproar in Miami's Cuban exile community today.
"This community's reaction is in Janet Reno's hands," said Jorge Mas Santos, head of the Cuban American National Foundation. "If she allows the court to run its course this community will respect that. It's her decision. Hopefully we don't have to mobilize people."
How the INS action will coincide with the pending appeal remains to be seen.
"The appeals court only set out a timetable," Cardona said. "We have never taken the position we would wait out a full appeals process before reuniting Elián and his father."
While the pending appeal does not prevent Reno from pressing forward, political considerations may.
To not let court case play out would certainly spark an angry backlash from Miami's Cuban-American community.
"Nobody wants a brouhaha," said University of Florida law professor Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol, an expert in international and human rights law.
The relatives also could specifically request that the appeals court grant a stay of the lower court ruling or an injunction preventing Reno from taking action until the appeal is heard.
"Generally injunctions from action are allowed pending appeal. It's pretty commonplace," Hernandez-Truyol said.
In Miami's exile community, the push to keep Elián grew louder. News that Elián's days in Miami may be numbered sparked a flurry of activity and heightened tension in the community.
Members of the Cuban American National Foundation rushed to the house to meet and with the family.
The foundation also dispatched a letter to Reno.
Supporters, kept back by barricades, held a day-long vigil, chanting and expressing their opinion on the boy's plight into a bullhorn they passed around.
Some carried giant signs. One, etched with Elián's profile, said, "Elián wants to live in freedom."
At a nearby bank, Elián supporters said an apparition of the Virgin Mary had appeared on a window, offered proof, supporters said, that Elian is blessed and should not be forced by U.S. immigration officials to return to his father in Cuba.
Josefina Mora, 70, who came from Cuba in 1960 was among the believers.
"She saved him in the ocean," Mora said. "There is no other explanation. He was healthy when he arrived, not even sunburned. The Virgin watched over him. "I think God is above Clinton and Fidel Castro and He will decide what will happen. I think that child is a special
gift from God."
Lazaro Gonzalez said Monday that Elián too saw an apparition in an oval mirror in his room, and invited photographers in to capture the image. To many, it looked like a smudge.
At nightfall, a religious service was held outside the boy's home, where small statues of Catholic saints were placed by its front gate.
Whatever the outcome of the legal wrangling, Elián's routine is changing.
The boy will no longer attend Lincoln-Marti School in Little Havana. For now, a teacher will now come to the house to teach him.
The move was prompted by the family's concern over a statement by Cuban President Fidel Castro during a speech Sunday night when he hinted that he would send commandos to take Elián back to Cuba.
On Monday, Castro said he had been misunderstood.
Mas Santos said relatives also feared that U.S. Marshals might remove Elián from the school. "We are concerned for Elián's safety and those of the other children at his school," Gutierrez said, adding that the family fears there are Castro agents outside their home.
Castro also said Miami exiles were so desperate to keep the boy that they would likely kill him before sending him back to Cuba.
At the house, security concerns were so high that an abandoned briefcase outside the house brought the Miami Police bomb squad to the scene.
When no one claimed it, it was detonated.
The briefcase contained religious pamphlets.
It was later determined it belonged to a Hindu priest who had held a press conference there and left it behind. It's the second time suspicious packages have been blown up outside the house.
Staff Writers David Cazares, Ellis Berger, Vanessa Bauza, and Maya Bell of the Orlando Sentinel, contributed to this report.
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