MSNBC
January 24, 2000
Elian’s grandmas head to Miami
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
NEW YORK, Jan. 24 — The grandmothers of Elian
Gonzalez changed their minds about going to
Miami and flew there Monday to meet with their
grandson before they return to Cuba. A family
spokesman in Miami welcomed their visit, but it
appeared the two sides had not agreed on where
the meeting would be held.
“The doors are open and we will make the visit as
a family visit, like we have stated in the past, and we hope
that they come,” said family spokesman Armando Gutierrez.
A letter to the INS from an attorney for the Miami
relatives invited Elian’s maternal grandmother, Raquel
Rodriguez, and paternal grandmother, Mariela Quintana, to
the home of Lazaro Gonzalez for dinner Monday night at 6
p.m. ET. Gonzalez is Quintana’s brother and Elian’s
great-uncle.
The letter said the meeting would let the grandmothers
“see and feel for themselves how well Elian is doing and
how much he wishes to remain in the United States.”
The boy has been at the center of a custody battle
since he was found on Thanksgiving day clinging to an inner
tube off the Florida coast. His mother, her boyfriend and
nine others perished after the boat they left Cuba in
capsized.
The letter said it was “most important that the visit take
place at the Gonzalez’s home in Miami, because the
grandmothers really should see where Elian sleeps, what he
eats, who he plays with and how much love and caring he
receives in the home.”
The grandmothers said on the “Today” show Monday
that they had asked Attorney General Janet Reno to arrange
a meeting.
In Washington, Justice Department spokesman Carole
Florman acknowledged that Reno and Justice and INS
lawyers had been working quietly behind the scenes to help
negotiate a meeting.
However, there was “absolutely no agreement” yet,
Florman said in the early afternoon. “We are trying to
arrange a meeting at a neutral location,” she said.
“The grandmothers were not comfortable with a
meeting at Lazaro’s house. They want a private meeting
with the boy,” Florman said.
A spokesman for the grandmothers said they were “very
frightened” to go to Miami because of the demonstrations
there in favor of Elian remaining in the United States. But
with time running out to see him, the grandmothers decided
to take that chance, NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell reported.
They women flew to Miami on a Lear jet with several
members of the National Council of Churches, which is
sponsoring the grandmothers’ visit.
The grandmothers arrived in New York on Friday and
met with Reno in Washington on Saturday.
THE PUSH IN CONGRESS
Elian’s great-uncle in Miami has filed suit to stop the
INS, and lawmakers in Congress plan an attempt this week
to declare Elian a U.S. citizen. If such legislation becomes
law, the boy no longer would be under INS jurisdiction.
Senate Republican leader Trent Lott said Congress
would go ahead on Monday with the legislation, using
expedited procedures that could allow it to be passed by
the end of the week.
“All that bill would have the effect of doing is just to say
that he has citizenship and therefore how he is dealt with
would be a custody issue rather than an immigration issue,”
Lott told NBC’s “One on One.”
The legislation is being sponsored by two Florida
Republican lawmakers, Sen. Connie Mack and Rep. Bill
McCollum.
GRANDMOTHERS MAKE PLEAS
Rodriguez asked members of Congress not to give the
boy U.S. citizenship and to let him return to Cuba.
“It will be more painful if he gets the citizenship,” she
said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. “I’m asking
the Congress and people of the United States that have
supported us to stop all this. Please, don’t make us suffer
any longer.”
Although they said they have not spoken to the boy in
five days, Quintana said the child told her over the
telephone that “he’s crazy to go back to Cuba.”
“He misses everything there. His school, his classmates,
everybody — his father’s love. To be able to hug and kiss
his father. He tells us every day,” she said.
Rodriguez denied that her daughter wanted to come to
the United States and have Elian live here. She said she was
pressured to get on the raft by her boyfriend, “a very violent
person.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.