Send Elian Back Home to His Father

Last week, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials handed down the only reasonable decision they could possibly have in the case of Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy who, on Nov. 25, was rescued from a tragic shipwreck in the sea.

Acknowledging the illegality of Gonzalez’s mother’s abortive escape to freedom and recognizing that little Elian had a competent and devoted father back in Cuba, the INS resolved to return him to his birthplace.

Since the announcement of that decision, Elian’s situation has been meanly exploited, first by Miami’s Cuban American community, then by the Miami-Dade County Family Court and members of Congress. Even some of the presidential candidates have joined in.

All seem determined to brandish the boy as this year’s poster child for the American Way of Life. Their battle cry harks back to a very unattractive era in American history. In a nutshell, it’s “don’t send Elian back to the commies.”

The passionate refusal of Cuban Americans to assent to the INS decision--if not their noxious parade of the boy through Disney World--can be forgiven. After, all, many Cuban Americans personally have suffered the repression of Fidel Castro’s regime. But what about the decision of the Florida family court to retain the boy for a custody hearing on the basis that his return home would subject him to “imminent and irreparable harm?” That decision is inexcusable.

Admittedly, American family courts routinely remove children from loving parents, for reasons far more trivial than political ones--usually for the sole reason that the parental home is poor. Yet do we really want to put ourselves in a position of having to explain to a scoundrel like Fidel Castro that in our great land of freedom and democracy, judges have precious little respect for the profound bonds between parents and their children? Can we not keep that dirty little secret out of the international arena?

And what of the involvement of Congress in this mess? Have its members considered the implications for American immigration and foreign policy should Congress grant Elian political asylum? Where would it all end? In massive airlifts of children from oppressive nations around the world?

Let’s say our honorable legislators grant Elian’s father and his paternal grandparents resident status. Now that would be an international embarrassment, since they undoubtedly would refuse that status.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno is showing signs that she may feel the untoward political pressure of men and women who are only too happy to declare their own selfish interests as the “best interests” of a child to whom they have no emotional ties whatsoever. Should Reno allow this case to be brought into the federal court system, it could be months before Elian sees his father once more.

Yes, if Elian is sent home now, he likely won’t be visiting Disney World again. He won’t get his fill of Beanie Babies, Power Rangers or Pokemon. He may not even get a decent chance at Internet chats or a pair of Nikes. He won’t grow up to live the American Dream. And he is unlikely to know political freedom any time soon.

But think of this: He’ll hold a trump card millions of American boys would die for: He’ll grow up in the presence of a loving dad.