INS will honor Elián raid team
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
Immigration agents who took part in Operation Reunion, the raid
to remove Elián González from
the home of his Miami relatives, are converging in Georgia next
week for a special awards ceremony.
Commissioner Doris Meissner has summoned them to an awards ceremony
''for a job well done,''
said spokeswoman Maria Cardona of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service in Washington.
''We are having an awards ceremony for the people who participated
in Operation Reunion -- and
rightly so,'' Cardona said. ''They were people who did an extraordinary
job under extraordinary
circumstances.''
As many as 131 agents took part in the pre-dawn operation on April
22 to seize the 6-year-old from
the Little Havana rental home of Lázaro, Angela and Marisleysis
González.
Only a few actually stepped inside the home. Most were in support
roles in the
mission to spirit Elián, the subject of an international
child custody dispute, to a
suburban Washington reunion with his father, Juan Miguel.
All of the agents being recognized will receive plaques, she said.
A few will also
get bonus vacation days, at the suggestion of Miami District
director Bob Wallis.
The ceremony -- with Wallis in attendance -- is part of the commissioner's
routine
practice of periodically issuing awards to people who stand out
among the
thousands of INS employees, Cardona said.
The Herald learned of the ceremony early Tuesday evening. It was
not
immediately known how many INS agents would be honored.
Because it was after working hours, Cardona was also not able
to say how many
employees would be traveling to the Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center in
Glynco, Georgia, how much it would cost and from where they would
be traveling.
Some of the agents involved in the raid were from Miami. Others
were from a
special Texas-based tactical unit.
Aside from commanders, the only agent who was identified by name
as part of
the raid was Betty Ann Mills, a Spanish speaker who carried the
boy from the
home, wrapped in a white blanket. Based in South Florida, Mills
became the
target of threats after the raid and for a time required special
security measures.
Cardona defended the choice of Georgia -- a campus-like training
center built at a
former Naval Air Station -- ''as a central location'' for the
award ceremony. ''Not
everyone that participated in this [raid] was from Miami. It
didn't make sense to
trot the people down there when people were coming from different
places.''
She said the event -- scheduled for Aug. 14-15 -- was a special
ceremony but that
Meissner ''recognizes somebody or a group of people'' every time
she travels.
Meissner was already scheduled to be there on other business and
most INS
employees have been there for training on how to be an immigration
officer,
Border Patrol agent or public affairs officer, she added.
Asked whether the ceremony was a ''normal'' INS event, she replied:
''Nothing
about Elián was normal, but it is not out of the ordinary
that Commissioner
Meissner would recognize a group of employees.''