MANCHESTER, N.H. 6 (AP) - On the politically sticky question of sending 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba, Vice President Al Gore sided Thursday with the boy's U.S. relatives who now want his fate decided in federal court.
Gore, with an eye on Florida voters, said the family's appeal of an Immigration and Naturalization Service decision to return the boy should be moved out of the administrative law process and handled under ``the due process normally followed for determining child custody cases.''
``What are the best interests of the child? When that question is posed in other cases, courts competent to make that determination are given the responsibility for the decision,'' Gore said. ``That's what I think should be done.''
Reporters pressed, but Gore refused three opportunities to state his opinion of the INS ruling that touched off demonstrations in Miami after it was announced Wednesday. ``Let's see how it plays out,'' Gore said.
By looking to the courts, however, Gore appeared to be at odds with his boss. President Clinton said he had honored a pledge to keep politics out of the decision over the boy. ``The INS followed the law and the procedure and made the decision that they made after an exhaustive review of the
facts,'' he said Wednesday.
Using language that would appeal to Cuban-American voters in Florida who are determined to win this tug-of-war with Cuban President Fidel Castro, Gore reiterated that the question would best be resolved with testimony on American soil from Elian's father.
``If the father comes to free soil and says - without fear of intimidation, without the paid demonstrators hired by Castro chanting outside his window, without the full control of a dictator hanging over his head, but really in freedom without that intimidation - and says, 'This is what I think
is in the best interests of the child,' then that settles the case,'' Gore said.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez already has told U.S. officials he wants his son back.
Asked for his personal opinion on whether the boy would be better off here or in communist Cuba, Gore replied: ``That should be determined not in the political process, but according to due process.''
The vice president is in a fierce battle with former Sen. Bill Bradley for the Democratic presidential nomination. The winner may very well be clear after the cluster of state primaries - including the electorally important Florida ballot - on March 14.
In his 1996 re-election, Clinton won 35 percent of the Cuban-American vote, up from 20 percent in 1992.
Gore tried to keep the campaign focused on education Thursday. He aired a new TV ad calling him ``the only Democratic candidate to make education a priority'' and staged an event at Manchester City Hall to accept the endorsement of Mayor Bob Baines, a school principal.
The political minefield that Gore is trying to navigate over Elian's case was evident by the hundreds of Cuban exiles in Florida who demonstrated Wednesday in protest of the INS decision.
Ever since Elian was rescued from Florida waters on Thanksgiving Day as he and his mother, who drowned, fled Cuba, Floridians have been bombarded by television and newspaper pictures of the smiling little boy at school and at play with relatives.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain, the two leading Republican presidential contenders, who also must court Florida's influential Cuban-American community, were quick to denounce the ruling.
Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson also called Thursday on Bradley and Gore to say whether the INS should return Elian to Cuba.
``Leadership requires making tough calls,'' he said. ``America's voters deserve to know where you stand on this vital humanitarian issue.''
Bradley said he would not second-guess the INS but added that he thought from the beginning that Elian should stay in the United States.
Meanwhile, Gore hinted to a radio interviewer that Clinton will propose big increases for medical research when he unveils his fiscal 2001 budget later this month.
``I fought within the administration for a substantial increase in these categories but it's not ready to be formally announced,'' Gore told WKBK-AM.
AP-NY-01-06-00 1847EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |