The ruling leaves the immediate question of Elian's custody back in the hands of the Justice Department. Reno is free to send marshals in to get the boy and reunite him with his father, but the court's decision may make it politically harder for her to order action because the Little Havana community believes it has won a big victory, and could become even more volatile if the feds try to remove Elian from Miami.
Quotes about elian (16 Quotes)
The father made it very clear that he wants Elian returned to him as soon as possible.
The generosity of the Aspen Institute has enabled him and the members of his family to begin to recover from the tragedy and trauma of recent months, ... Juan Miguel is very grateful for this time of peace and privacy with Elian.
If you believe Elian and his family deserve special treatment, do you also advocate giving the same status to the nearly seven million other undocumented aliens in this country.
Even for the Clinton Administration, the ends do not justify the means, ... As pleased as most of us are that Elian is reunited with his father ... our oversight responsibilities compel us to examine whether the conduct of the attorney general and the Department of Justice are in accord with federal law, effective law-enforcement procedures, and the Constitution.
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,
It's a calumny. It's a lie, ... They're trying to mount a campaign against Cuba, use a smoke screen to try to jeopardize Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba. It's incredible.
I saw Juan Miguel and Elian within minutes afterward as they got out of the car and came to the location where they're going to be staying for the next couple of days on the air force base, ... It was clear that there was huge relief on Juan Miguel's face and a wonderful smile and ... comfortable physical contact between Elian and his father.
It is our hope to begin a smooth and orderly process that will create as little disruption as possible for Elian, ... We wish to add no further trauma to that which this innocent child has already endured.
That ruling may bode well for Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has petitioned the court to recognize his exclusive right to speak for Elian in legal matters, and to be left to raise his child in peace. It would certainly have been very unusual for the court to rule against the father because the law presumes that a person's parent is their guardian, and doesn't appoint outside guardians in the normal course of events, ... For the court to appoint a third-party guardian it would usually need an indication that something was badly wrong in the parent-child relationship, such as abuse.
It is bitterly ironic that the Clinton administration is rushing to send Elian Gonzalez back to a country that has just been singled out by the U. N. for its systematic violation of human rights.
In response to the request of the speaker of the House, I have directed the House Judiciary Committee staff to begin a preliminary inquiry into the tactics employed in the seizure of Elian Gonzalez by federal authorities,
Next week I expect us to take steps to transfer the custody and the parole and care (of Elian),
The Miami relatives also failed to persuade the court that no Cuban medical or mental health personnel should have access to the child, an attempt to counteract the father's efforts to create a Cuban environment by bringing in Elian's former kindergarten teacher and a 10-year-old cousin. They will be arriving shortly and joining the boy and his family and four more playmates a parent for each and a pediatrician are expected to follow soon. The court would have found it difficult to rule that Elian could not be examined by mental health professionals from his own country, ... While the Miami relatives are strongly anti-Cuba, Elian's father is not, and in the end it's likely that the court will give him the ultimate say in what happens to his son.
The court's order does not preclude me from putting Elian in his father's care while he is in the United States,
The boy wanted to be here in Miami, but he's obliged to live in an absurd system, ... Fidel doesn't let us communicate with him. Neither Elian nor his father agrees with the regime. He went back to Cuba only because the Clinton administration pressured him to.