By Alex Veiga, .c The Associated Press
MIAMI, 20 (AP) - The custody fight over Elian Gonzalez has spilled into federal court, but some legal experts doubt the gambit by the 6-year-old Cuban's Miami relatives will succeed.
Attorneys for Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's great-uncle, went to federal court Wednesday to challenge the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service's ruling that Elian must to be returned to his father in Cuba.
The legal team filed a lawsuit accusing the INS of violating Elian's due process rights and asked the judge to prevent the agency from returning the boy before it gives him an asylum hearing.
``It is about protecting Elian's civil and constitutional rights, the same as if he was any other child,'' said Spencer Eig, a lawyer for the great-uncle.
Many legal experts insist that Elian's U.S. relatives have no legal standing because their rights do not trump those of his father, his closest next-of-kin.
``All along, the legal issue has been who speaks for a 6-year-old boy, and the answer is the closest surviving relative,'' said David Abraham, an immigration law professor at the University of Miami. ``That is the father.
Elian has been living with his Miami relatives since he was rescued in November by the Coast Guard while clinging to an inner tube in the Atlantic off the Florida coast. His mother and stepfather were among 11 people who drowned fleeing Cuba.
The legal fate of the boy has drawn international attention and strained U.S.-Cuban relations. Congress has considered intervening and the topic has become fodder for White House candidates.
No hearing date was immediately set on Wednesday's motion. The Justice Department and the INS said in a statement they would ask the court ``to expeditiously address this matter.''
``It is important for the well-being of Elian Gonzalez that the status of this 6-year-old boy be resolved as quickly as possible,'' the statement said.
Attorney General Janet Reno has postponed an INS deadline to return the boy in order to give Elian's U.S. relatives time to challenge the INS decision in federal court. The INS also has rejected a second asylum petition filed last week on behalf of Elian by Lazaro Gonzalez.
Eig said Lazaro Gonzalez now was asking the court ``not to decide the issues in the case, not to take custody away from Elian's father, not to decide whether or not Elian should go back to Cuba, simply to compel the U.S. government to give Elian a fair hearing and his day in court.''
In Cuba, Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the National Assembly, called Elian's Miami relatives ``a bunch of kidnappers'' Wednesday and said their attempt to keep the boy in the United States ``ignores the American government, showing disrespect for its institutions.''
AP-NY-01-20-00 0252EST
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