Wise Ruling on Boy’s Return

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has decided the fate of Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day. He will be returned to his father in Cuba within a week, ending a drama heightened by politics on both sides of the Florida Straits.

The boy became a symbol of a conflict that he could not understand, an icon for both Fidel Castro’s government in Havana and Florida’s expatriate Cubans, whose influence on Washington is greater than their numbers.

INS officials should be commended for bringing the impasse to solution under political heat. It was not easy to thread the legal needle in a case like this, but the INS procedures produced a wise, compassionate and legally impeccable decision.

The most significant aspect of the ruling was to establish who could speak for the boy. His Miami relatives insisted he belonged with them, noting that his mother drowned when their boat capsized as they fled Cuba. The relatives have argued that Elian could have a better life in the United States. But the INS ruling, announced by Commissioner Doris Meissner, held that Elian’s father has the sole authority to speak for his son.

Although it would be difficult to overturn the INS decision, the Miami relatives have said they will try to delay Elian’s departure through legal maneuvers. Instead, they should agree to a quick and comfortable return. A third party, rather than the father or Miami relatives, could take the boy back to Cuba. That would fulfill the legal order and be a proper choice for all concerned.