Temporary stay issued blocking Elian's removal from U.S.

INS says it now has legal, but not physical, custody

April 13, 2000
Web posted at: 10:59 p.m. EDT (0259 GMT)

In this story: Deadline passes; Elian stays in Miami Miami kin lose state court fight 'I don't want to go to Cuba' Father says he got $2 million offer 'We will not turn this child over' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

MIAMI -- A federal appeals court judge issued a temporary stay blocking anyone from removing 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the United States until at least Friday morning.

The federal court stay came shortly after the boy's Miami relatives Thursday afternoon defied the Justice Department's order to hand Elian over to federal officials.

VIDEO CNN Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman speaks to experts about the videotape. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Elian addresses his father on video, saying he does not want to go to Cuba. (Spanish) (April 13) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Video transcipt (English) Joan Brown Campbell speaks with CNN on Thursday about Elian's father and her efforts to mediate on his behalf. (April 13) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin speaks with CNN about the meeting she hosted Wednesday between Elian's Miami family and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. (April 13) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     RESOURCES Who's who in the Elian Gonzalez case     CHAT TRANSCRIPTS Psychologist discusses the tape Elian made and how the deadline situation will effect the boy John Zarrella discusses the INS decision on Elian Gonzalez     MESSAGE BOARD US/Cuba relations

However, late Thursday, the Justice Department said that the Immigration and Naturalization Service now has legal custody of Elian even though he remains in the home of his great-uncle.

When parole in the care of Lazaro Gonzalez was revoked Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT, legal custody reverted to the INS. "At the appropriate time, we will transfer it to the father," an INS official said.

The temporary stay order issued by U.S. Judge J.L. Edmondson of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta applies not only to federal immigration officials but to the boy himself and to "any and all persons acting for, on behalf of, or in concert with Elian Gonzalez."

The government was given until 9:30 a.m. Friday to respond in court. Until then, the order blocks anyone from taking Elian out of the United States.

That same court is considering a petition from Elian's Miami relatives for an injunction blocking any government attempt to take the boy away from his U.S. relatives until the family's appeal -- arguing that Elian should be given an asylum hearing -- is settled.

Earlier, the U.S. Justice Department, at the court's request, agreed not to remove Elian from the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives until the court rules on the U.S. relatives' petition for an injunction.

Carol Florman, spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the ruling from Edmondson renders the earlier agreement moot, meaning federal authorities could now take custody of Elian if directed to do so.

But she indicated such action is not likely before the three-judge panel rules on the family's request for an injunction.

Florman said she believes the Miami family's motion was on a "fast-track" for action by the appeals court and said the Justice Department would meet its 9:30 a.m. Friday deadline to respond.

Justice officials said no matter which way the appeals court rules on an injunction pending the appeal, the losing side has the option of going immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an emergency injunction.

Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez defied a 2 p.m. Thursday deadline from the Justice Department to surrender Elian at the Opa-locka Airport near Miami so the boy could be taken to his father.

Lazaro Gonzalez met with some of the thousands of his supporters outside his home, shaking hands like a politician at a campaign stop. His daughter, Marisleysis, gave protesters cups of water.

Shortly after the deadline passed, 200 Miami-Dade police officers who had taken up positions to guard the general aviation airport disbanded.

About two hours before the deadline, Attorney General Janet Reno had said defiance by Elian's U.S. relatives would be met in a "reasonable, measured way."

"We have the authority to take action," Reno said. "But responsible authority means not only being able to take action, but knowing when and how to take that action."

After Reno and the relatives failed Wednesday to reach a handover agreement, the attorney general ordered them to deliver Elian to the airport or to turn over the boy to federal officials at their home for delivery to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is in the Washington area.

Reno has returned to Washington.

Supporters of Elian's Miami relatives continued to gather outside the Little Havana home Thursday night

In a separate development, a Florida family court judge rejected the Miami relatives' request filed earlier this week to intercede and prevent the INS from taking the boy. Judge Jennifer Bailey said she had no jurisdiction.

In Washington, U.S. President Bill Clinton said he supported Reno's position. "This case is about the rule of law," Clinton said. "It is our responsibility to uphold the law."

Reno, who has met Elian, said that no matter how the case turns out, she would like the opportunity to see him again.

"I would like to see the day ... where I can meet Elian, wherever he is, and sit down and talk to him, not about the tragedy and trauma that he has been through, but about himself and what his interests are," Reno said. "He is obviously a wonderful little boy."

Meanwhile, a home video released by the U.S. relatives shows Elian addressing his father in Spanish, saying: "Dad, I do not want to go to Cuba. If you like, stay here. But I do not want to go to Cuba."

Sitting on a bed, Elian holds up an index finger, as if to make a point.

It is not clear who was in the room with Elian or if he was being coached on what to say. The Miami relatives said the tape was made after the collapse of Reno's talks with the family and that the words were his own.

Also Thursday, Gregory Craig, the U.S. lawyer for Elian's father, Juan Gonzalez, told reporters that his client is having "to live the nightmare that he most dreaded."

Craig said, "While waiting here for his son to be returned to him, he has been forced to watch Elian exploited by those who have him in their care. On the morning shows on national television, in the streets of Miami and now most recently in a videotape taken of Elian in his own bedroom."

Craig said the U.S. relatives have "emotionally damaged and exploited this most wonderful little boy."

Craig accused Lazaro Gonzalez of breaking the law by defying the handover deadline, and the lawyer insisted that the attorney general enforce the law.

Juan Gonzalez, who arrived in the United States a week ago to get his son and return him to Cuba, has been staying at the home of a Cuban diplomat in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland.

Juan Gonzalez said Thursday he has been offered $2 million, a house, car and job to remain in the United States and not return to Cuba, a former U.S. senator told reporters outside the suburban house.

Dennis DeConcini, former Democratic senator from Arizona, paid a visit to Elian's father and said he asked Juan Gonzalez if he had been offered money to remain in the United States. "He said, 'Yeah, a couple million.'"

"He said he was offered by the great-uncle down there -- he left me with the impression that the money came from other sources, besides the uncle -- and that it would be a house and a car and a job and $2 million if he would stay here in the United States."

Asked by reporters how the father was able to turn down such an offer, DeConcini said, "He said, 'I have only one objective, and that is my son. There is no price for my son.'"

"He said, 'I have no reason that I would want to leave Cuba. I love Cuba, my family is there, I have a job there,'" said DeConcini, who works with the Alliance for a Responsible Cuba, an organization pushing for the easing of sanctions against Communist Cuba.

DeConcini said he was convinced the father was speaking from his heart and deeply wants to be reunited with his son after more than four months apart.

Lazaro Gonzalez has defiantly insisted that he would not relinquish custody of the boy he has cared for since Elian's mother drowned off the Florida coast more than four months ago.

"We will not turn this child over, not in Opa-locka, not in any 'locka,'" he said in Spanish after Wednesday night's 2 1/2-hour meeting with Reno and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Director Doris Meissner. "They will have to take this child from me by force."

Moments later, however, Manny Diaz, an attorney for the family, took a less defiant tone, saying, "If there is a legal mandate, they will follow the law."

Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said that if authorities show up, "Lazaro will open the door and say, 'Come on in.'"

First, though, they would have to get past protesters who threaten to link arms and form a human chain around the house, using passive resistance in an attempt to block any attempts to remove Elian.

Gutierrez said the family will allow a TV pool camera inside the home to record the arrival of plainclothes U.S. marshals and INS agents should they come to the house.

"We want to prove to the world this family will not defy authorities," the spokesman said.

Reno's meeting Wednesday with Lazaro Gonzalez, his daughter, Marisleysis Gonzalez, and other relatives -- including Elian himself -- was held at the gated Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, the nun who was host of a January meeting between Elian and his grandmothers from Cuba.

O'Laughlin told CNN that Lazaro Gonzalez won't take the boy to a transfer point because he feels it would be a betrayal of a child who already lost his mother and now stands to be separated from Marisleysis, the 21-year-old cousin who regards herself as a mother figure to Elian.

O'Laughlin, who had been neutral in the case but now sides with the Miami relatives, also said Elian "is afraid to see his father and that has been said (under circumstances that indicate) we know it was not coached."

But it was not clear if that meant Elian feared physical harm or just that he didn't want to be separated from the Miami relatives.

O'Laughlin said Elian is petrified of travel, thinking it means he'll have to get on a raft and ride on water. The child spent 50 hours floating on an inner tube off the Florida coast before his rescue last November.

"He knows that something very serious is happening and when he hears about anything that looks like he might have to go away, he becomes very sad," O'Laughlin said.

Elian was rescued by two fishermen while clinging to an inner tube in the Atlantic Ocean on Thanksgiving Day. His mother and 10 other people fleeing Cuba drowned when their boat sank. Elian was one of three survivors.

Since then, his Miami relatives have been caring for him while fighting in court for Elian to have an asylum hearing. The Clinton administration has ordered Elian back to his Cuban father, saying only Juan Gonzalez can speak for the boy on immigration matters.

A federal judge affirmed that decision, and the family has appealed.

Justice Department Correspondent Pierre Thomas; National Correspondent Martin Savidge; Correspondents Mark Potter, Susan Candiotti, Gary Tuchman and Bob Franken; The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Reno asks Miami family to deliver Elian today
April 13, 2000
Transfer of Elian tentatively set for Thursday, official says
April 11, 2000
Mental health meeting today in Elian case
April 10, 2000
Elian expected to be transferred to father this week
April 9, 2000
Medical panel to meet Elian's father
April 8, 2000
Elian's father: 'Soon I'll have my son'
April 7, 2000
Officials drafting letter ordering transfer of Elian to father
April 6, 2000
Elian's father to arrive in U.S. Thursday, lawyer says
April 5, 2000

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
U.S. Department of Justice
LibertyForElian.org - Foundation to Help Save Elian
Granma Internacional Digital, Cuba
  • Kidnap in Miami
Cubaweb
Cuban American National Foundation

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.