At Home at Last

He’s home. Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban kid whose resilience was tested time and again, is back in Cuba with his father and immediate family, where he belongs. His departure from the United States followed this week’s Supreme Court rejection of the final appeal of his Miami relatives. It took seven months of legal battles before justice finally and fully prevailed.

The high court decision confirms the ruling of the Immigration and Naturalization Service last January and the actions of Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who, faced with the Miami relatives’ intransigence, took all the right steps, finally resorting to an armed intrusion by federal agents to secure the boy and hand him over to his father.

The controversy began when a refugee boat ran the Coast Guard blockade off the Florida coast but capsized within sight of the shore. Elian’s mother and others drowned. The survival of the 6-year-old and the ensuing developments gave us all a lesson about family and the law. It also shed light on Washington’s present attitude toward Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Clearly there’s now some leeway for a new relationship. Congress must move to seize the moment and engage in a debate about America’s policy toward the island neighbor.

A bill that would allow direct sales of U.S. food and medicine to Cuba for the first time in 40 years is moving through Congress and ought to win passage. Trade promotes open contacts and is the right start toward bridging old antipathies.