Elian’s Grandmothers Make Plea to Reno for His Return

The grandmothers of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez made a personal appeal to U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno on Saturday to return their grandson to Cuba but gained little besides a sympathetic hearing as they continued their send-Elian-home campaign on U.S. soil.

The two women met privately with Reno and Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for about 45 minutes, handing the attorney general a letter expressing frustration over the delay in resolving the case. But Reno, who already has endorsed Meissner’s recommendation that Elian be returned to Cuba, had little to offer beyond an explanation that the dispute will have to be played out in the courts and possibly in Congress.

After the meeting, Reno issued a statement saying that, while the case is now in court, she will “seek resolution as expeditiously as possible.” She reaffirmed her view that returning a child to a surviving parent in such cases is a “cornerstone” of U.S. immigration law.

The brief trip to Washington marked another event in the campaign by the two grandmothers, Mariela Quintana and Raquel Rodriguez, to intensify pressure on the Clinton administration to speed up Elian’s return and spark public sentiment in the U.S. for sending him home.

The two grandmothers flew back to New York late Saturday, apparently planning to make one final attempt to meet with Elian in New York or Miami. But prospects for a get-together appeared slim, since Gonzalez family relatives in Miami strongly oppose such a visit.

Meissner ruled Jan. 4 that Elian should be reunited with his father, who has asked that the boy be sent back to Cuba. The Gonzalez family members living in Miami have refused, setting off an international custody battle that is being fought in federal court.

Leaders of the Miami-based Cuban American community have vowed never to return Elian to Cuba, contending that he would be better off remaining in the U.S., where he would have a brighter future.

With such pressures intensifying, the case has become a political football in the growing dispute over U.S. relations with Cuba, with Cuban American groups and conservative lawmakers battling the Clinton administration, and human rights activists.

Elian was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida on Nov. 25 after the boat carrying him to the U.S. capsized, killing his mother, Elizabet, her boyfriend and nine other people. The party clearly had been fleeing to the U.S. for sanctuary.

Saturday’s meeting with Reno and Meissner was arranged by officials of the National Council of Churches, who had hoped to serve as intermediaries between the U.S. and Cuban governments. But their effort has been caught up in the political wrangling over the case.

Bob Edgar, the council’s general secretary, told reporters later that the session was intended to “open the dialogue and the conversation” with Reno and said the attorney general “showed enormous compassion” for the two grandmothers.

“There was a long opportunity where they simply talked back and forth with each other,” Edgar said in an impromptu news conference with Oden Marichal, general secretary of the Cuban Council of Churches, a counterpart group. “It was a very personal meeting.”

There was no indication of how the two grandmothers would be spending their day today. The two women arrived in New York on Friday to tell their story at a news conference there.

Saturday’s session was relatively low-key. The car carrying the two grandmothers drove into the Justice Department’s courtyard a few minutes before the meeting was to begin. Neither woman appeared at the post-session news conference.

Apart from a gaggle of reporters and TV cameras, the only people watching their entry in the Washington chill were a handful of picketers from the liberal-oriented International Action Center, who carried placards reading: “Clinton, Reno: Let Elian go back to Cuba.”

The case is expected to become even more complex Monday, when Congress returns, with several Florida lawmakers preparing to introduce legislation to make Elian a U.S. citizen, which would take him out of the jurisdiction of the INS and allow him to remain in Miami.

A Dade County, Fla., judge has indicated she will order Elian placed in the custody of a Miami uncle if federal authorities are not given jurisdiction.