A Times Editorial

End the legal delays

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 17, 2000

It isn't enough that Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives defied a Justice Department order and kept him from his father for so long federal agents had to execute a raid to reunite the father and son. Now they're using the slow machinery of the American legal system to delay the inevitable return of the 6-year-old Cuban boy to his homeland.

Does their abuse of this child have no end?

This week, at the last possible moment, lawyers for the Miami relatives filed a request for a rehearing before all 12 judges of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The latest legal maneuver comes after a three-judge panel of that court ruled unanimously two weeks ago that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had the authority to rule that Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was the only one who could act for the boy on a request for political asylum.

It is clear, by dragging out this process, Elian's Miami relatives care less about the well-being of this young boy than about exploiting his case to score political points in Miami's Cuban exile community, where Elian's fate has people so exercised they've made the him an emotional symbol of their hatred for Fidel Castro.

But the appeals court should not encourage continuing this cruel game by agreeing to hear this case en banc. Such a decision would force Elian and his father, who has been in the United States since early April waiting for government permission to take his son home to Cuba, to wait weeks and possibly months before returning home.

Perhaps the Miami relatives believe that if they can keep Elian and his father on American soil long enough, there is a chance Juan Miguel Gonzalez might seek asylum in the United States. He has ample opportunity to do that already, but the only thing he says he is seeking is to go home to Cuba with his family.

Because seven out of the 12 judges have to agree to an en banc hearing, it is rarely granted. There is really nothing left to decide. Granting fit, caring parents the authority to decide whether their 6-year-old children can apply for political asylum is a reasonable position, one that is perfectly in line with the American legal tradition of giving parents control over their children.

If the request for a rehearing is denied, the only avenue left for the Miami relatives will be an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. That court also should let the matter rest.

Young Elian has already survived a shipwreck, his mother's death, brainwashing by his Miami relatives, being made the center of an international furor and being snatched in the night by armed federal agents. It's time for our courts to give this child and his father some peace and let them go home.

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