Dershowitz on Gonzalez Raid

Though couched in higher concerns, legal pundit Alan Dershowitz parrots the bad legal advice given to the Miami family by the exile community lawyers (Commentary, April 25). The INS was well within its lawful authority to revoke its decision provisionally vesting custody of Elian Gonzalez with the Miami relatives. Once the INS did so, the publicity-hungry relatives illegally retained custody of Elian and held him hostage to arcane, politically motivated demands regarding the process of reunification and 6-year-old Elian’s (absurd) alleged right to autonomously file an asylum application. The INS then acted decisively, pursuant to a duly authorized search warrant, to seize Elian and return him to his father, his lawful custodian. And did so without inflicting bodily harm to anyone. As someone who completely shares his concerns for civil liberties, the word for Dershowitz’s faux-progressive argument is “pettifogging.”

ERIC C. JACOBSON

Culver City

*

Dershowitz never addresses the emotional abuse Elian was subjected to by his Miami relatives. He was treated like a political trophy rather than a little boy, paraded before an emotional mob that reached out to touch him as if he were a religious icon. He did not attend school and apparently was allowed to stay up long past a child’s bedtime. Worst of all was that appalling video, obviously coached by callous adults. Elian obviously loves his father and we can only imagine the emotional price he paid to wag his finger at and defy his father in order to mollify his Miami relatives. This at a time when his greatest need was to maintain the bond he had with his sole surviving parent.

Would Dershowitz have recommended the same time-consuming procedures had Elian been daily televised being physically abused?

NORMA FITTON

San Luis Obispo

*

Isn’t it amazing how the Clinton administration has taken an issue in the Elian case from one in which it would probably prevail, i.e. custody of the child, and turned it into an issue about the administration’s behavior? Is this the group that just can’t seem to get it right?

JIM WALTON

Mission Viejo

*

Little Elian needs his privacy with his loving father. Uncle Lazaro needs to get a job--after first removing those Christmas icicles from his house. Marisleysis Gonzalez needs to get a life. The U.S. needs to stop caving in to the Cuban exile lobby, lift the ridiculous Helms-Burton embargo against Cuba and normalize diplomatic relations forthwith.

HARRIETT BLEDSOE

Oceanside