WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuban American leaders gathered at a press conference at The National Press Club in Washington today to call upon US Attorney General Janet Reno to uphold the INS decision to return little Elian Gonzalez to Cuba and to decry the death threats and violence
meant to silence what they called "the average Cuban-American" who believes the little boy should go home.
"I came today to support the Cuban Americans in this room and around the nation who want the INS' to uphold its decision to return Elian to what is quite clearly a loving family in Cuba who miss this boy very much," said Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, outgoing General Secretary of the
National Council of Churches, who recently interviewed Elian's father and grandparents in Cuba.
"I am here to tell you that the carefully choreographed demonstrations you see in Miami do not represent the views of the average Cuban-American living in the US. Those who have tried to organize peaceful demonstrations to support the INS have received death threats and been otherwise
intimidated for simply trying to say the obvious, that Elian must go home to heal his wounds, not go to Congress to testify or be paraded around as a symbol for an anachronistic, angry mob in Miami," Delvis Fernandez Levy, President of the Cuban American Alliance, an umbrella group of 36
Cuban-American organizations nationwide, said. A member of the group who had been a target of such attacks in Miami was present to describe the harassment that had been directed toward her.
Cuban-American leaders and legal experts described what would happen if an expected Federal Court decision was not made by next Tuesday, January 24, when the US Congress reconvenes. Representative Dan Burton (R-Ind) subpoenaed Elian to appear before the Government Oversight and Reform Committee
that he chairs. Rep. Burton and two Cuban-American Representatives from Florida are expected to push for a vote to make Elian a US citizen as soon as Congress reconvenes. Experts at the press conference said conferring citizenship on Elian could potentially delay the boy's return to Cuba by
embroiling the boy's family in lengthy court proceedings.
"It would be unconscionable for the US Congress to come between this father and son," Jose Pertiera, Cuban American leader and immigration and human rights attorney, said. "Politics should play no role here. The law is crystal clear in this case: Since there is no evidence
Elian's father is unfit, his rights trump those of any distant relative."
"The INS made a ruling with respect to the status of this boy, and it is up to Attorney General Janet Reno to uphold the laws of the United States," Michael McCormick, Director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, said.
A press conference organized by the Chicago Cuba Coalition with representatives of several Midwest Cuban American groups, legal experts and US Representatives Jan Schakofsky and Danny K. Davis, members of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. Dan Burton was held
simultaneously with today's Washington event.
SOURCE Cuban American Alliance
CO: Cuban American Alliance
ST: District of Columbia
IN:
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01/18/2000 06:00 EST http://www.prnewswire.com |