MSNBC
January 25, 2000
 
 
Elian’s grandmas arrive for reunion
 
Miami relatives to be in same home, but not same room


                                                    MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
  
                         MIAMI, Jan. 26 —  Elian Gonzalez’s grandmothers
                         arrived in Miami Wednesday for a long-awaited
                         reunion with the 6-year-old at a neutral site.
                         Elian is supposed to see his grandmothers at 4
                         p.m. ET at the home of the president of Barry
                         University, in what is sure to be an emotional
                                 Under Justice Department pressure, the
                         boy’s Miami relatives on Tuesday agreed to the meeting at
                         a neutral site. The grandmothers will see Elian privately, but
                         the boy’s Florida relatives will be nearby in the house at the
                         time, a Justice Department spokesman said.
                                The Miami relatives had been insisting that any meeting
                         take place at their home and in their presence.
 
                         JUSTICE MIGHT FILE PAPERS
                                In related action, the Justice Department hopes to file
                         its brief Wednesday in the federal court case involving Elian.
                                Elian’s Miami relatives have asked a federal judge for
                         help in filing an asylum claim for the boy, and they want the
                         court to block any attempt to return Elian to Cuba in the
                         meantime.
                                Justice lawyers are expected to ask the judge for an
                         expedited ruling, which means that it’s possible he could
                         rule by Friday.
                                If the judge rules against the Miami relatives, they could
                         go to an appeals court. And if they lose there, they could file
                         an emergency application with the Supreme Court. If the
                         case continued on a fast track, a final ruling could be three
                         weeks out.
 
                         BACK AND FORTH
                                The grandmothers arrived in Miami from Washington,
                         where they spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill, pleading with
                         U.S. lawmakers not to make the boy a citizen of the United
                         States.
                                “How should I continue living. I have no one else,” said
                         Raquel Rodriguez, Elian’s maternal grandmother. Her
                         daughter and 10 others drowned trying to get to the United
                         States when the boat in which they fled Cuba capsized.
                         Elian, one of three survivors, was found on Thanksgiving
                         Day in an inner tube off the Florida coast — sparking an
                         international tug of war.
                                The Miami relatives are fighting to keep the child in
                         Florida, arguing he would be better off with him than with
                         his father in communist Cuba.
                                U.S. immigration officials ordered the Miami relatives
                         on Tuesday to bring Elian to meet his grandmothers at the
                         Miami Beach home of Jeanne O’Laughlin, a Catholic nun
                         who is president of Barry University.
                                When told the news, Mariela Quintana, Elian’s paternal
                         grandmother, said she had a message for her grandson.
                         “We send you our kisses and our love and we want to see
                         you real soon and we want to take you back home,” she
                         said.
                                 The women, who arrived in New York on Friday,
                         first flew to Miami on Monday, but were unable to resolve
                         a feud over location for a meeting with Elian.
                                 The Miami relatives had refused to allow the meeting
                         anywhere except their home, but the grandmothers declined
                         and after a five-hour standoff, flew to Washington.
                                Elian himself was reported by family friends to be
                         disappointed he did not see his grandmothers on Monday.
                         He had a day off school on Tuesday as he did not feel well.
 
                         MEETING ORDERED
                                Joan Brown Campbell of the U.S. National Council of
                         Churches, which is sponsoring the women’s trip to the
                         United States, told reporters that the Immigration and
                         Naturalization Service order for a meeting on neutral ground
                         was “absolutely” what they wanted.
                                 Justice spokeswoman Carole Florman said Tuesday
                         that the government had reassured the Florida relatives that
                         Wednesday’s session would be just a visit and would not
                         result in his being taken back to Cuba.
                               The INS has ruled that Elian be reunited with his father,
                         who had joint custody of the boy with his late ex-wife. But
                         Elian’s relatives in Miami have filed a suit in federal court
                         demanding a political asylum hearing, saying the boy should
                         not be returned to grow up in a communist country.
                                In a letter Tuesday to lawyers for Lazaro Gonzalez, the
                         boy’s great-uncle who has temporary custody of him, the
                         INS said: “To ensure that Elian has the chance to spend
                         time alone with his grandmothers, the INS is obliged to
                         direct Lazaro Gonzalez to make Elian available for a visit
                         with his grandmothers on Wednesday at 4 p.m.”
                                It blamed Lazaro Gonzalez for the fact that a meeting
                         could not take place on Monday. It said that if he did not
                         comply with the order, it would be considered a breach of
                         the conditions under which Elian is allowed to stay with
                         Gonzalez while his status is decided.
                                A spokeswoman for Barry University said Attorney
                         General Janet Reno had called O’Laughlin, a sister in the
                         Dominican Order, to ask if she would host the meeting.
                         “They’re friends,” said spokeswoman Michele Morris.
 
                         CLINTON WEIGHS IN
                                President Bill Clinton on Tuesday declined to say if he
                         would veto any bill granting Elian citizenship. “I have not
                         decided what to do and I wouldn’t rule that out,” he said.
                                Clinton condemned the politicization of the case and
                         the fact that Elian was being “competed for in a way that is
                         unusual for a 6-year-old child.”
                                Many lawmakers and candidates for the November
                         presidential election, aware of the politically potent Cuban
                         community in Florida, have taken a position, with
                         Republicans demanding he be allowed to live “in freedom”
                         in the United States.
 
                                NBC’s Pete Williams and Andrea Mitchell as well
                         as Reuters contributed to this story.visit.