WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday that politics played no role in the U.S. government decision to reunite a 6-year-old boy with his father in Cuba after the boy survived an immigrant-smuggling boat trip to Florida.
``I told you when we started this that I would do my best to keep this decision out of politics. We have done that, we have not been involved in it,'' Clinton told reporters at the White House.
Clinton spoke after the U.S. Immigration and Natural Service ruled that the boy, Elian Gonzalez, should be returned to Cuba to live with his father.
INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said ``family reunification'' should take priority in such cases.
Gonzalez was rescued on Nov. 25 in the Atlantic, where he had clung to an inner tube for two days after a boat smuggling Cubans to Florida capsized, drowning his mother and 10 others.
``The INS followed the law, and the procedures and made the decision that they made after an exhaustive review of the facts,'' Clinton said.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart acknowledged that political passions surrounding the case made it difficult. Relatives of the boy in Miami and Cuban exiles opposed to Cuban President Fidel's Castro's communist regime have urged that the boy be allowed to stay in the United States. Castro
demanded his return.
``It was a difficult case first off because it involved a 6-year-old boy. There were certainly people who injected themselves into this on both sides politically that brought a lot of attention to it and brought a certain politically charged atmosphere,'' Lockhart said.
``There are many people around the world who envy the culture and society in which we all live here. But I think there are also many who understand the sanctity of family bonds and how important those are,'' he said.
``But I think ultimately those who enjoy the freedom and democracy here understand that we are a country of laws, we are a country that follows them and applies them fairly in a way that reinforces our democracy and our freedom, and that's what INS has done in this case,'' he said.
17:11 01-05-00
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