Reno Overrules Judge on Fate of Cuban Boy

The legal tangle over Elian Gonzalez’s future became more snarled Wednesday when Atty. Gen. Janet Reno reaffirmed a decision to send the 6-year-old child home to his father in Cuba, despite a state judge’s ruling to the contrary. But Reno did announce that the deadline for sending the boy back has been extended indefinitely.

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials ruled last week that Elian was to be repatriated by Friday. But on Monday, Miami-Dade County Family Court Judge Rosa Rodriguez ordered that the child must remain here until a March 6 custody hearing.

In a letter to lawyers representing the boy’s Miami relatives--who are fighting to keep Elian in the United States--Reno on Wednesday dismissed Rodriguez’s ruling as having “no force or effect.”

The family’s attorneys immediately responded by saying that they would go to federal court next week to ask that Elian be granted political asylum. “We’re not going to turn over the boy,” vowed lawyer Jose Garcia-Pedrosa.

But in her letter, Reno also asserted that only Elian’s father has the authority to ask that he remain in the U.S., “and his father has stated, in no uncertain terms, that he does not wish for Elian to make an asylum claim.”

Since being rescued at sea Thanksgiving morning--two days after his mother and 10 others drowned in an attempt to flee Cuba--Elian has been staying at his great-uncle’s home in Little Havana.

Legal experts said they doubt that the latest wrangling in Elian’s case would lead to a showdown in federal court.

David Abraham, a professor of immigration law at the University of Miami, said that, since Elian’s Miami relatives have no standing in federal court, “all this talk about the boy’s day in court is a smoke screen to seize custody from the father.” Abraham said that the INS “continues to show a weakness of backbone” in allowing the case to drag on.

And prominent Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban speculated that Reno simply is stalling the case until the Jan. 24 resumption of Congress; several lawmakers have vowed they would back a bill granting Elian either U.S. citizenship or residency.

“I think all this is being done with a wink and a nod,” Kurzban said. “When Congress takes over, then everyone is off the hook politically--Elian becomes a resident, and Reno can say, ‘I have no authority.’ ”

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged Reno in a letter not to take action until the family court hearing on Elian’s relatives’ claim that sending him back to Cuba would subject him “to imminent and irreparable harm.”

But federal officials appear to have no intention of backing down from their belief that the boy should be reunited with his father.

In her letter, Reno said she saw no basis for reversing INS Commissioner Doris Meissner’s decision on the matter.

Rejecting legal custody arguments by the family’s attorneys, Reno wrote: “Elian Gonzalez is a 6-year-old child who has lost his mother. As a general matter, when dealing with a child this young, the immigration law, like other areas of law, looks to the wishes of the surviving parent.”

That parent, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has asked for the child to be returned. In two interviews last month in his hometown of Cardenas, Cuba, Gonzalez impressed INS interviewers with his sincerity and the strength of his ties to his son. Although he and the boy’s mother were divorced, the father had daily contact with Elian until the child left the island Nov. 21 in a smuggler’s boat.

Many members of Miami’s ardently anti-Castro exile community believe that as long as Juan Miguel Gonzalez remains in Cuba, he cannot speak freely. Reno addressed that sentiment in her letter.

The father does not appear to have been coerced into seeking custody of Elian, Reno said. Interviews and evidence in the case make clear that the father has “a very close relationship with Elian” and that he “has expressed his true wishes in asking that his son be returned to him,” Reno wrote.

The attorney general also reiterated Meissner’s hopes that Elian’s relatives in Miami would cooperate with the father to bring about the child’s repatriation. “This little boy has been through so much, and it is therefore imperative that all of us do what we can to resolve this case as soon as possible,” Reno wrote.

Just how long that will take--and under whose authority--remains unclear.

“The attorney general wants to decide this as soon as she can,” said a Justice Department official who asked not to be identified. “We’re not going to let this run on and on. Maybe it’ll be a month, maybe more, but we’re not putting a date on it.”

One option under consideration, the official said, would be for the Justice Department to take the matter to federal court. And the State Department is still willing to allow the father into the United States to help resolve the controversy.

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Clary reported from Miami and Lichtblau from Washington.