Editorial: Reunion was long overdue

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 | 9:25 a.m.

The denunciations of Attorney General Janet Reno started rolling in immediately after Elian Gonzalez was taken Saturday morning from the Miami home of his relatives by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said when he first heard about the pre-dawn raid in Little Havana, "my first thought was that this could only happen in Castro's Cuba."

Give us a break. Reno, if anything, has been remarkably restrained during this standoff between Elian's Miami relatives and his Cuban father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. Reno had the legal authority to have the boy turned over to his father much sooner, but she had hoped to resolve this without the use of force. She tried repeatedly to reach a peaceful resolution but the relatives wouldn't negotiate in good faith, refusing to let the father take custody of the boy until the courts decide whether Elian should be allowed to return to Cuba with his father.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who wants hearings on the issue, condemned the government agents for carrying automatic weapons during the raid. The relatives themselves decried the use of force, saying that they were still negotiating to turn over the child. Despite these characterizations, Reno was left with no other choice. Because of their intransigence, and reports that there might be weapons in and near the relatives' home, the agents were right to carry weapons in order to defend themselves. Don't forget that at every step of the way, the relatives flouted the law. It was the relatives, not Reno, who created the dangerous environment. There would have been no need for the raid if they had simply turned the boy over to his father.

What should have been a simple matter got mixed up in international politics and the outdated way society treats fathers. If Elian had been from any other nation, and his mother had died in an attempt to reach the United States, he would have been returned immediately. Or, if it was his father who had died in the crossing and his mother who was left behind in Cuba, there would have been no question that he should be returned to his homeland.

While the Republican congressional leadership wants to hold hearings on Elian, they should give this a rest. Fortunately the boy is now back with his father, which is the way this should have been handled from the start. What is needed now is for the boy and his father to have some time together -- away from the glare of the media circus in Miami that his relatives helped foster, a situation which has done nothing but harm the child.