Editorial: Return of Cuban boy is the right decision

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2000 | 10:03 a.m.

Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez accompanied his mother when she tried in November to escape Cuba's communist regime. Tragically, though, the child's mother and nine other individuals died when their boat sank. Fortunately for the boy, however, he was rescued off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day as he hung on to an inner tube at sea.

Immediately this became a politically charged issue. Cuban-Americans in Florida demanded that the boy remain with his relatives in Miami, asserting that this would have been his mother's wish since she was willing to die to provide him with freedom in the United States. Others, however, believed that the child should be reunited with his father in Cuba, claiming that reunification with his immediate family -- parents and grandparents -- outweighs other considerations.

In a perfect world his father would come to live in this nation and care for his son here. But that isn't the case. So far, at least, the father has said he wants to stay in Cuba and raise his son there. If this were any nation other than Cuba, there would be few protests. But because relations between the United States and Cuba are so emotional in Florida, what should have been a simple custody case got embroiled in local and national politics.

"Family reunification has long been a cornerstone of both American immigration law and U.S. practice," Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said. "This little boy, who has been through so much, belongs with his father." The INS took the appropriate -- and compassionate -- action when it decided Tuesday that the boy should be returned to his father.

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