Published Thursday, March 9, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Fund set up to help pay legal fees in Elian case
A group of Miami business people have established a fund to pay for some of the legal expenses and fees in the Elian Gonzalez case.
The Elian Gonzalez Defense Trust Fund, set up at Ocean Bank, has already drawn more than $10,000 in pledges from donors who support the legal effort to stop the boy's return to his father in Cuba, said Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for the boy's Miami relatives.
Contributors may make donations at any Ocean Bank branch.
Gutierrez said the first major fund-raiser will be sponsored by local Spanish-language radio stations on Friday and Saturday.
Since Elian was rescued at sea in late November, the legal team for his Miami relatives has worked for free, including paying out-of-pocket expenses, Gutierrez said. The new donations will mostly pay for future expenses -- including expert witnesses.
Any legal expenses will be reviewed by the fund's trustees, Eloy Gonzalez, Dulce Cuetara and James Partridge.
The fund's legal advisor is Stan Levin of the Coral Gables law firm Levin & Andress.
Miami family of Elian has day in court
By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com
The lengthy legal odyssey of Cuban rafter Elian Gonzalez may enter its decisive chapter in a crucial hearing today in federal court that will determine whether the 6-year-old gets a chance to stay in the United States.
What is at stake will be the Immigration and Naturalization Service's authority to send Elian back to his father in Cuba, without giving him a political asylum hearing sought by his Miami relatives in a lawsuit.
What is so striking about the boy's highly publicized immigration case is that it got this far.
The INS had the power to carry out its decision in January to reunite Elian with his father. But for political more than legal reasons, the agency chose not to remove the boy immediately because it feared a volatile reaction from Miami's large Cuban exile community, experts say.
On Jan. 5, immigration officials asked the boy's father and Miami relatives to cooperate with the INS on returning Elian to his homeland, without providing a detailed plan. Elian had lost his mother in November on a boat trip from Cuba to Florida.
THE SOFT APPROACH
Many observers of Elian's saga, including federal officials, now concede that the soft approach was wishful thinking because early on, the boy became a poster child in a public-relations battle between Cuban President Fidel Castro and Miami's Cuban exiles.
``It was our hope and belief that this [dispute] be handled in a cooperative way between the families,'' said a Justice Department official, who declined to be identified. ``In hindsight, it was too much for us to hope for. But that doesn't mean we didn't have the resolve to do this [return the
boy].
``We also wanted the results to be fair, so people [in Miami] would believe they were treated fairly and equitably,'' the official said. ``We don't think that would have been the case if the courts did not have the opportunity to hear this [suit].''
But some legal experts contend that U.S. officials -- including Attorney General Janet Reno, who encouraged the Miami relatives to sue in federal court -- allowed the dispute to boil for too long because they did not want to look like bullies carrying out their responsibility.
``They have known the law all along and have lacked the backbone to implement it,'' said David Abraham, a law professor at the University of Miami. ``Instead of making things easier, they have allowed them to become harder. . . . They let this drag on because they knew their decision would be
unpopular in Miami.''
A DIPLOMATIC MOVE
Another expert, Michael Ray, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in South Florida, said immigration officials were trying to be diplomatic in dealing with an impossible dilemma.
``They could have sent Elian back earlier, but I think INS [officials] just wanted to appear fair and let these people go to court,'' Ray said. ``They were probably concerned about causing trauma to the child and about reaction from the community.''
The immigration case itself also got bogged down partly because Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, first sought temporary custody of the boy in Miami family court before heading to federal court. And two federal judges had to step aside -- one because of a potential conflict of interest and
another because of a stroke -- before the case was assigned permanently to U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore.
Castro, in comments published in the Communist Party daily Granma, ridiculed the whole judicial process. ``Anarchy rules over there. Florida judges do as they wish,'' he said. ``It's disorder, chaos, a lack of prestige that isn't found in any civilized nation in the world.''
RELATIVES CHALLENGED
While Elian's Miami relatives will present their case in court this morning, Justice Department lawyers will argue that they have no business being there.
The government's basic argument is that the INS ruled that only the boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, can speak for Elian. And the father, who withdrew asylum applications made on the boy's behalf by his Miami relatives, has insisted that Elian be returned to Cuba.
Justice Department lawyers will assert that the boy's Miami relatives have no right to sue the government and that the federal judge has no jurisdiction to decide the case. They also will contend the relatives have no grounds to ask for an asylum hearing for Elian based on their claim that the
boy faces a well-founded fear of persecution in Cuba.
But the Miami relatives' lawyers, citing a landmark Haitian refugee case in the early 1980s, will counter that Elian has a constitutional right to an asylum hearing. They also have filed sworn statements by witnesses who say that Elian's father does not want his son returned to Cuba because they
heard Juan Miguel Gonzalez express a desire to come to the United States himself.
INS MAY PREVAIL
Several independent legal experts say the INS will probably prevail because of the agency's near-absolute power on immigration matters.
University of Virginia law professor David Martin, a former INS general counsel, said that even if the Justice Department succeeds in getting the judge to toss out Lazaro Gonzalez's suit, his attorneys will probably appeal.
And if that fails, the INS will have to demand that the great-uncle turn over the boy.
``It's in everybody's interest to avoid a physical confrontation,'' Martin said. ``It may take the aid of the court to accomplish that.''
Herald staff translator Renato Perez and Herald wire services contributed to this story.
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