Elian’s Miami Relatives Appeal Asylum Hearing Ruling

The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez returned to a federal appeals court Thursday and asked the judges to reconsider their refusal to grant the 6-year-old Cuban boy an asylum hearing.

The latest attempt to block Elian’s return to Cuba came in a motion for a rehearing filed just hours before a deadline set by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Two weeks ago, those judges ruled that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service had acted reasonably when it decided that Juan Miguel Gonzalez alone had the legal right to speak for his son.

And Juan Miguel Gonzalez--who remains in Washington with Elian while his relatives’ legal case plays out--insists that he wants to return to his hometown of Cardenas, Cuba, as soon as possible.

Circuit Judge J. L. Edmondson on Thursday ordered the government and lawyers for Elian’s father to file a joint response to the Miami relatives’ latest petition by 11 a.m. Tuesday.

When Elian might be allowed to leave the United States remains uncertain.

Had his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, not asked his attorneys to seek a rehearing--either by the same three judges or the full 12-member appellate court--Elian and his family could have returned to Cuba next week. That’s when an injunction now barring Elian’s departure was set to expire.

But Lazaro Gonzalez and his daughter, Marisleysis, still hope that Elian will remain in the United States, according to their attorneys. “They think it would be a tragedy to take Elian from freedom,” Linda Osberg-Braun said.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, speaking in Washington, D.C., said that she hoped “the matter could be considered and ruled upon promptly.”

Reno has backed immigration officials in the controversial case and ordered the April 22 seizure of Elian that returned him to his father’s custody.

In Havana, a Cuban foreign ministry official labeled Thursday’s appeal “just another example of the maneuvering by these relatives . . . aimed at making the boy lose his identity.” Added Aymee Hernandez: “We are not going to give up demanding that this boy return here to our country.”

Lazaro Gonzalez, Juan Miguel’s uncle, was granted temporary custody of Elian after the child was pulled from the sea near Miami last November. Elian was one of three survivors of a disastrous attempt to enter the United States by boat. When the boat was swamped, Elian’s mother and 10 others drowned.

During his five-month stay in Miami, Elian became a cherished symbol for many Cuban exiles who oppose the regime of Fidel Castro, ruler of the communist island. Castro had made Elian’s return a national cause, while many Miami Cubans have demonstrated with equal passion a desire that he stay in the U.S.

After Lazaro Gonzalez refused to turn the child over to immigration authorities, armed federal agents seized Elian from his Little Havana home in a predawn raid. The child was then reunited with his father, and they have been in the Washington area ever since, awaiting the end of legal wrangling.

In the 16-page petition filed Thursday, lawyers for the Miami relatives argued that the appeals court erred in saying that a child has no constitutional right to an asylum hearing. The lawyers further contended that the court was wrong in saying it was obliged to defer to the authority of immigration officials, citing a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court issued just last month.

“It’s obviously uphill, but there are significant new elements that give possible cause for hope,” said lawyer Kendall Coffey, speaking at an early-morning news conference.

Another of the Miami relatives’ attorneys, Spencer Eig, used the news conference to urge Juan Miguel Gonzalez to defect. “Maybe he can find a place in this beautiful land where he would like to live, instead of returning Elian to Fidel Castro,” Eig said.

Neither Gonzalez nor his Washington lawyer, Gregory B. Craig, offered comment. If the appeals court refuses to grant a rehearing, lawyers for Lazaro Gonzalez said they would have seven days to make a final appeal to the Supreme Court.

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Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson in Washington contributed to this story.