By Eric Pianin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday , April 13, 2000 ; A13

While many Florida politicians are championing legislation to keep Elian Gonzalez from being returned to Cuba, Rep. Alcee L.
Hastings (D-Fla.) says he has a better idea: helping someone who really needs assistance by conferring permanent residency on
a motherless Haitian girl who lives in his district.

Hastings does not have high hopes that his bill will pass any time soon. But like the vast majority of African Americans in
Congress, Hastings is angered and perplexed by what he considers the special treatment the government affords Cuban
refugees and Cuban American leaders.

"I have a long list of children in my district in similar or worse situations than Elian," Hastings, whose district is in South Florida,
said this week. "Why should he receive preferential treatment?"

Hastings's view reflects the strong feelings among the nearly 40 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Given the deep
divisions in Congress over Elian's fate, the almost unanimous view among African American lawmakers that the child belongs
with his father back in Cuba is striking.

"More than anything else, there is a strong value in the African American community that parents have the right to raise, protect
and make decisions for and about their children," said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a former chairman of the Black Caucus.
"We do not believe that any argument other than abuse by parents supersedes the rights of parents to raise their children."

Waters met with Elian's father in Havana in January and appeared with the boy's two grandmothers during their visit to
Washington to urge the return of their grandson. Waters, Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the current chairman of the
Congressional Black Caucus, and nearly a dozen other black lawmakers have signed a letter urging the administration to
expedite Elian's return to his father.

Vice President Gore's decision last month to break with the administration and endorse special legislation granting permanent
resident status to the boy has strained his relations with some black lawmakers.

"To attempt to amend the law, change the law, create an 'Elian exception,' does injustice to the very fabric of law we consider
the foundation of a free government and civilized society," said Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.).

Both Monica Dixon, Gore's deputy chief of staff, and Tony Coelho, campaign chairman, have been to Capitol Hill in recent
days to attempt to smooth relations. Several sources familiar with Coelho's visit said he stressed that the vice president remains
a staunch ally of black lawmakers on other issues such as racial profiling, hate crimes and AIDS drugs for Africa.

Elian was found off the South Florida coast last Thanksgiving, one of three survivors of a failed journey from Cuba to America
in which his mother died. When his father and the government of Fidel Castro demanded his return, Elian's relatives in Miami
launched a fight to defy immigration and Justice Department officials and a court ruling that the boy should be returned to Cuba.

However, as the government began pressing this week for the transfer of the boy from his relatives to his father, the idea of
legislative intervention has receded. While a few House and Senate members have decried the administration's decision to
return Elian to a communist dictatorship his mother fled, many others are ambivalent or agree that the boy should be reunited
with his father.

For African American members of Congress, the case is a vivid reminder of what they consider a double standard in U.S.
immigration policy toward Cuban refugees, on the one hand, and refugees with darker skin colors from Haiti, the Dominican
Republic and elsewhere.

Many blacks have sharply criticized the "wet foot/dry foot" immigration policy, which allows most Cubans to remain in the
United States if they manage to reach land, while Haitians and others usually are returned to their homelands regardless of
whether they touch shore or are captured at sea.

"They wouldn't think about it if it were 20 black kids from Haiti," said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), a sharp critic of U.S.
policies toward Cuba. "There would be no voice coming from Miami to put them in the custody of relatives or elsewhere or to
change the laws . . . to make them citizens."

Hastings, who represents nearly 40,000 Haitians in his district, complained that Haitian refugees are routinely deported, while
those from Cuba get special consideration. As a way of protesting the disparate treatment, Hastings introduced a bill last week
focusing attention on the plight of 6-year-old Sophonie Telcy, a Haitian girl who was left in the care of a family friend in Lake
Park, Fla., when her mother died last year.

"We have a child who is really floating," Hastings said yesterday. "No one in Haiti wants her . . . and the family here is strained
to keep her since she has no benefits. If that isn't a worse situation than Elian's, I don't know what is."

Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a Cuban American who grew up in Union City, said he understands "the frustration" of
African Americans who perceive racial overtones to U.S. immigration policies.

"But the law of the land of the United States is based upon the view that Cubans are fleeing oppression and not some economic
circumstance . . . and that someone who reaches this shore within a year and a day is eligible for permanent residency," he
added. "So until that law is changed, I'm for continuing to enforce that law."

Staff writer Ceci Connolly contributed to this report.

                                 © 2000 The Washington Post Company