WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A narrow majority of Americans endorses the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service's decision to send 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba, according to an ABC News poll released Monday.
Fifty-two percent of the 1,016 adults polled Jan. 9 said the boy should go home to his father, compared to 46 percent who held that view last month, before the INS decision was announced, ABC said.
A Florida family court judge ruled Monday that Gonzalez, who is at the heart of an international custody battle, should stay in Miami until a hearing to determine whether he would be harmed by being returned to communist Cuba.
The ruling by Miami-Dade Judge Rosa Rodriguez gave interim custody to his Miami relatives until a March 6 hearing. Her decision contradicted a U.S. government ruling that his father in Cuba had custody and only he could speak for the boy.
Thirty-six percent of those polled said the boy should be allowed to remain in the United States, up slightly from 33 percent in the earlier poll, according to the poll.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Elian has been the subject of an international tug-of-war between Castro and his exiled enemies in Miami since he survived the sinking of a small boat on which 14 Cubans left the communist-ruled island.
The boy was rescued by fishermen on Nov. 25 after two days adrift on an inner tube in the Atlantic Ocean. His mother and 10 others died in the accident.
22:29 01-10-00
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