Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin is president of
Barry University in Florida.
At Attorney General Janet Reno’s request,
Sr. O’Laughlin was present when Elián Gonzalez’s
grandmothers visited him in the U.S. earlier this year.

National Review: Are you concerned about how the Justice Department and the Clinton administration have been handling Elian’s case?

Sr. Jeanne O’Laughlin: I think that everyone has been confused about this one. There hasn’t been a pattern quite like this, I don’t think — certainly not in my lifetime. There have been similar things, but I think that the political situation has been so unique to this one that it’s very hard to make any judgments about who’s right and who’s wrong. I think we have to stop worrying about that and concentrate now on how we best resolve this matter for the child.

NR: In your opinion, knowing what you know about the family and their situation, do you feel comfortable saying that it is in Elián’s best interest that he stay here?

Sr. O’Laughlin: It is in his best interest to have full legal rights. He should be able to pursue all the legal avenues. It would be fine if his father is there during those hearings. Let him exercise the rights his mother earned for him.

NR: I spoke with Florida Senator Connie Mack last night and one of his big concerns, as you probably know, is that right now Elián’s case is an immigration issue and that it should be looked at as a family issue and be taken into the family courts. Is that where it needs to go?

Sr. O’Laughlin: Well, that’s where I was from the very beginning, concerned that there would be people who have the proper skills looking at both sides and looking at the implications for living either place. The federal courts are concerned, of course, and rightly, about legal asylum and so on, but with this boy I really think that the real issue is what kind of environment will help him grow to be the best person in the world and that the Lord and his mother and father want for him. That then really gets into custody. Right now it’s still a debate on the legal issues relating to asylum.

NR: Are you concerned in particular with him going back to Cuba? Do you think that his father and his grandmothers have been speaking of their own free will? Just yesterday Elián’s paternal grandmother gave quotes to the New York Post that said that “Elián should be taken by force if need be.” Just bring him back on the next plane — to paraphrase the second part of that quote. Do you think that she’s saying that of her own free will?

Sr. O’Laughlin: It’s very difficult to know what people are thinking and cogitating in their own lives, but I feel that there are family situations that will drive people to desperate means. I think on a whole there has not been a freedom for them to respond as most of us would think a normal person would respond. One of things that concerned me at the very beginning was the father. I’m not too sure there has been or there ever can be the kind of freedom to speak the heart. It’s just not an environment where you do that.

NR: About the situation outside the Miami Gonzalez home: the people who are holding vigil out there are saying that they won’t move if INS officials need to go in. How do you see that playing out and what kind of advice can you give to all players involved?

Sr. O’Laughlin: I don’t know how it will play out. I know that the Cuban-American community probably knows first-hand more than any of us the implications of the child’s return to Cuba. I believe that as American citizens they will in the end respect the law. So that is something that I would speak to all of us to remember, that we are a country that is run by law and as painful sometimes as the result of a law can be, in the end the world needs to respect those laws.