By Tom Raum, .c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress bestowed American citizenship on Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa, and awarded it posthumously to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in World War II. But the extraordinary power has been used rarely - and never for a
minor child against a parent's wishes.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and a group of Florida lawmakers put in motion a process to give citizenship to 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez, without his father's consent.
Meanwhile the boy's two grandmothers arrived in Washington late Monday from Miami where they had waited five hours, but were unsuccessful in their quest to meeting with their grandson.
The boy's maternal grandmother, Raquel Rodriquez, and paternal grandmother, Mariela Quintana, were to meet with several members of Congress on Tuesday. A number of the boy's Miami relatives also planned to travel to Washington on Tuesday to present their side of the story.
The two grandmothers arrived in a private Lear jet late Monday night and were quickly rushed from the airport in cars.
Lott, R-Miss., told the Senate the bill ``to grant citizenship to this young boy'' could come up for debate as soon as Wednesday.
Sponsors hoped to whisk it through Congress quickly, largely to remove the case from the jurisdiction of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which has ruled that the boy should be returned to his father in Cuba. Passage would also render moot a federal court appeal of the INS ruling by
Elian's great-uncle, sponsors said.
``This moves the decision-making out of the hands of the INS and into the hands of the (state) courts,'' Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., the chief Senate sponsor, told a news conference.
Late Monday, Mack formally introduced the measure in the Senate, and Lott invoked a parliamentary procedure designed to bring it before the chamber as early as Wednesday for debate. A vote Wednesday was possible, but both sides said they doubted final action would occur until next week at the
earliest.
At the White House, spokesman Joe Lockhart declined to say what President Clinton would do if Congress passed the bill - sign it or veto it - but said the White House would consider the matter after Congress acts. The president has indicated he does not believe Congress should get involved.
``There is a real danger here that this can become a political issue, that this young boy will be a political football,'' Lockhart said. ``And I think the president has made it very clear to everyone that they ought to stay away from politics here and stick to what the facts and the law
dictate.''
But Mack said, ``There has been political influence even from the beginning in the case,'' including rallies in Havana that Mack said were orchestrated by Fidel Castro.
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, denounced the legislation.
``For the Congress to grant citizenship to a young boy over the father's objection makes a mockery of family values, and it hands Castro yet another reason to portray the United States as the enemy,'' Leahy said.
Meanwhile, Elian's grandmothers, who flew Monday from New York to Miami in hopes of seeing their 6-year-old grandson, planned to meet Tuesday afternoon in Washington with Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the senator's aides announced. Dodd is a sponsor of legislation introduced every year to ease
the trade embargo with Cuba in effect for four decades.
They also were scheduled to meet with Rep. Joseph Moakley, D-Mass., according to the congressman's office.
Despite the high-profile examples of Churchill, Mother Teresa and Wallenberg, Congress has used this power rarely and selectively. Its involvement in individual immigration cases has declined sharply over the past decade.
Only about half a dozen private immigration bills are introduced each year, but most of them deal with advancing a pending case, trying to prevent a deportation or helping an American employed overseas retain citizenship. Some examples:
In July 1997, Swiss bank guard Christoph Meili won permanent residency status. He had lost his job after saving Holocaust-era bank documents from a shredder.
In 1968, three men - from Italy, Ireland and Germany - who died while fighting with American units in Vietnam, posthumously received U.S. citizenship.
In December 1975, Mrika Mrnacaj, a 111-year-old Albanian immigrant who wanted to vote in a U.S. election before she died, won citizenship.
In 1988, Michael Wilding, the son of actress Elizabeth Taylor and a former stepson of Sen. John Warner, R-Va., won citizenship. The British subject had renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1971, and the bill blocked a possible deportation on a marijuana possession conviction.
In that same year, 1988, Congress rejected legislation that would have let tennis star Ivan Lendl bypass the five-year waiting period for American citizenship.
Joining Mack and Lott in sponsoring the bill for Elian Gonzalez were Sens. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., and Bob Graham, D-Fla.
In the House, Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas; and several Florida lawmakers co-sponsored a similar bill.
Separately, Reps. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Peter Deutsch, D-Fla, introduced a rival bill to grant Elian permanent residency status.
And Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution - co-sponsored by nine Democrats and one Republican - urging that Elian be reunited with his father.
AP-NY-01-24-00 2336EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |