Elian Gonzalez's case in flux

Christian Century, Jan 26, 2000

The evolving ease of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy whose Florida relatives want him to remain in the U.S., appears for the moment to be suspended between state and federal authorities. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez on January 10 granted emergency custody to Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and said Elian should remain with his U.S. relatives until a March 6 court date. Attorney General Janet Reno, however, said on January 12 that authority over the boy's ease resides in the federal courts. She also reaffirmed her belief that the law requires that Elian be returned to his father in Cuba.

According to Reno, the Florida court ruling "has no force of effect" on the Immigration and Naturalization Department's January 6 decision to return the boy to Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his father. In a letter to those who are acting as Elian Gonzalez's attorneys in the U.S. Reno wrote, "The question of who may speak for a six-year-old child in applying for admission or asylum is a matter of federal immigration law."

In response to Rodriguez's decision, the INS had announced January 11 that it would not force the child's immediate return to Cuba. "We have no plans to take charge of him, and we have no plans to forcibly remove him from the home," said spokesman Mike Gilhooly. In her letter to the attorneys, Reno also said that a January 14 INS deadline for Elian's return had been lifted.

Meanwhile, some members of Congress were seeking to block efforts to return Elian to his father in Cuba. Representative Dan Burton (R., Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, issued a subpoena for Elian to testify before a House committee in February, but Burton's spokesman said the congressman did not expect to compel the boy to testify.

Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, which has supported the return of Elian to his father, opposed the "delaying tactics" of Burton. "Little Elian Gonzalez deserves to be reunited immediately with his biological father and closest family members in Cuba," Edgar said in a statement released January 8. "The longer this whole process drags on, the more disconnected this small child becomes from those who have raised him and who love him."

Elian's case has prompted international debate since U.S. officials gave his great-uncle in Miami custody of the boy in late November after he was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida. The boy's mother and nine others died in an apparent attempt to immigrate illegally to the U.S.--RNS