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4.24.00 4.21.00 4.20.00 4.20.00 4.20.00 4.20.00 4.19.00 4.19.00 4.18.00 4.18.00 4.17.00 4.14.00 4.14.00 4.14.00 4.14.00 4.14.00 4.13.00 4.12.00 4.10.00 4.06.00 4.06.00 4.04.00 4.04.00 4.03.00 4.03.00
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4/24/00
10:50 a.m. |
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"Although INS has no role in the family custody decision process, we have discussed this case with State of Florida officials who have confirmed that the issue of legal custody must be decided by its state court. However, Elian will remain in the U.S. until the issues surrounding his custody are resolved. If Elian's family is unable to resolve the question of his custody, it is our understanding that the involved parties will have to file in Florida family court. Either Elian's father in Cuba or his U.S.-based family members may initiate proceedings. Once proceedings have been initiated, it is likely that the court will appoint a guardian ad litem, i.e., someone who will specifically represent Elian's interests in the custody determination process." Less than one week later, the State Department, which has no role in custody or immigration issues, suddenly announced that Elian belonged with his father. From that point forward, the Clinton administration has done everything possible to reunite Elian not with his father, but with Fidel Castro. And when you cut through all the Clinton administration's propaganda, that's what this is all about. Mr. Clinton wants improved relations with Cuba, and Elian's return is the price demanded by Castro — and the price Mr. Clinton is more than willing to pay. The Gonzalez family in Miami did, in fact, initiate custody proceedings in Florida family court, as the INS proposed. But Attorney General Janet Reno, to whom the INS reports, quickly killed that process by asserting her authority under federal law to determine Elian's immigration status. A federal district court upheld her authority, and the state court proceedings were over before they started. Consequently, the standard custody hearing process, where evidence and testimony about the best interests of the child are presented to a tribunal, was thwarted by Ms. Reno. Remarkably, Ms. Reno now claims to know what's in Elian's best interests, as does the President of the United States. So, in lieu of a family court hearing, they used overwhelming military force to seize Elian from his Miami relatives and deliver him to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. They did so despite a federal court's offer to make available its mediation services to help resolve the dispute. Moreover, it's clear the the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution required the government to secure a warrant before breaking into the Gonzalez family home and seizing Elian. Yet, on NBC's Meet the Press, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder seemed to suggest that a warrant wasn't required to seize Elian, which is breathtakingly absurd. However, on CBS's Face the Nation, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner claimed that a warrant had been issued. The contradiction between Mr. Holder and Ms. Meissner, both of whom were intimately involved in seizing Elian, is perplexing. Last night the Justice Department released a copy of the warrant to the media. It was signed by the magistrate at 7:20 p.m., the evening before the pre-dawn raid. The time is significant as it provides further evidence that Ms. Reno was not negotiating with the Gonzalez family lawyers in good faith, and she was hellbent on taking Elian by force. In any event, neither Ms. Reno nor Mr. Clinton have any idea whether Juan Miguel is a loving father who should have custody of his son, and they obviously don't care to know. They don't know whether sworn allegations of abuse by Juan Miguel against Elian's now-deceased mother and Elian are truthful or not, and they don't care to know. Elian has never lived with his father, and he was born two years after Juan Miguel had divorced Elian's mother. Moreover, despite the press conferences defending their military raid on the Gonzalez home, Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton have never discussed the whereabouts or safety of Juan Miguel's family members while Elian's future is being decided in the U.S., i.e., do they know or care whether Juan Miguel is acting of his own free will or being blackmailed? Nevertheless, Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton continue to justify their actions to the American people by asserting that they are acting in Elian's best interests. But a federal appeals court recently exposed what's really going on here. Remember, Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton are exercising their federal power under the immigration laws, not the state custody laws. And they have decided that Elian is to be sent back to Cuba. And we know this because last week a three-judge panel from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton to keep Elian in this country while the issue of his political asylum is litigated. In other words, eleven days ago — when Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton ordered Elian's family in Miami to relinquish control over Elian, and before the appeals court prevented the removal of Elian from the U.S. — Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton knew full well that Elian's father intended to leave the U.S. with Elian before Elian's political asylum application was even considered. In its decision, the Court informed the public that the INS violated its own rules and guidelines, and probably the clear wording of the asylum statute itself, in refusing to even consider Elian's asylum application. Notice, too, that in their constant effort to manipulate public opinion, neither Ms. Reno nor Mr. Clinton had ever informed the public that Elian had actually sought political asylum. The INS, with no legal authority whatsoever, concluded that Elian's age precluded him from applying for asylum. The Service further concluded that Elian was not competent to apply for asylum, although it never took the time to either meet with him or interview him as required by its own guidelines. In short, Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton, to whom the INS reports, asked the U.S. appeals court to deny Elian his day in federal court — just as they had denied him his day in state court — to clear the way for his return to Cuba. Let me put it this way: if the Court had ruled for the Clinton administration, nothing would have stopped Juan Miguel from returning to Cuba with Elian regardless of whether he's a fit father or whether it would be in Elian's best interest. In addition, it's clear that Elian does not want to return to Cuba. During her press conference, INS Commissioner Meissner said that the female INS agent who snatched Elian from his relatives' home assured him that they were not returning him to Cuba. Is that not a recognition by the Clinton administration that Elian fears returning to Cuba and wants to stay here? Will the INS still insist that Elian is not competent to know what he wants? And if Elian is ultimately granted political asylum, will Castro honor such a ruling now that Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton have placed Elian under the control of one of his subjects? And finally, there's the matter of Greg Craig. Mr. Craig once served in the Clinton State Department. He was counsel to Mr. Clinton during the impeachment trial. He's said to be an advisor to Vice President Al Gore in his presidential campaign. Mr. Craig is a well-connected Clinton insider to whom the president owes a great deal. Yet, Mr. Craig now appears on the public scene as Juan Miguel's purported lawyer who's paid by a left-wing church group. He has limited Juan Miguel's access to only those Americans who are either Castro sympathizers or misguided parental rights advocates (Cuba does not recognize parental rights). Mr. Craig has even kept Juan Miguel from meeting with his Miami relatives. Mr. Craig, like Ms. Reno and Mr. Clinton, claims to be concerned about the best interests of Elian, but is doing all he can as Juan Miguel's purported lawyer to ensure Elian's return to the gulag that is Castro's Cuba. Keep in mind that Mr. Craig is not Elian's lawyer. My greatest fear is that while Juan Miguel and Elian are getting their "space and privacy" at Andrews Air Force Base — under the watchful eyes of Mr. Craig and the Clinton administration, and away from the media — we will soon be told that Elian's true desire is to return to Cuba with his beloved father, and Elian's asylum petition will be withdrawn. One can only wonder what Elian's poor mother — who unquestionably had Elian's best interests at heart when she died bringing him to our shores — would think of all of this, and what she would think of Mr. Clinton, Ms. Reno, Mr. Craig, the INS and especially her ex-husband. |
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n December 1, 1999,
the Immigration and Naturalization Service issued its first public statement
on Elian Gonzalez. It said, in part: 