Published Friday, May 12, 2000, in the Miami Herald

Disturbing and frightening as the early morning seizure of Elian Gonzalez was, the death threats since made on the life and safety of Immigration and Naturalization Service Agent Betty A. Mills are odious, criminal and wholly intolerable.

Ms. Mills is the bilingual agent who carried Elian from his Miami home, quieted his fright and accompanied him to Washington. She was ordered to undertake a difficult assignment and carried it out professionally. Those who disagree with the seizure should focus their anger on the decision makers, not Agent Mills.

The extremists who now threaten her and, presumably, who would threaten other agents involved, do Elian no favor. To the contrary, they erode public support for his cause and the fight for Cuba's freedom by further tainting it as extremist.

To the extent that some leap to the conclusion that the threat-makers are Cuban Americans, it feeds the blind prejudice that has arisen in this case and deflects attention from the true villain here: The Communist despot who started it all.

Copyright 2000 Miami Herald

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