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ELIAN HAS COST UNCLE SAM $1.4M
By BRIAN BLOMQUIST -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON - Operation Protect Elian has cost taxpayers $1.4 million and is growing by leaps and bounds, government officials said. After taking Elian at gunpoint from his Miami relatives five weeks ago and flying him to meet his father, the government's chief job now is to protect the 6-year-old boatwreck survivor. That task involves about 70 government agents at
a cost to the taxpayers of $120,000 a week, according to officials in the
Justice Department.
The security team consists of about 50 U.S.
marshals and 20 deputized agents from the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, officials said.
Last week, Elian and his family decided to move
from a country plantation on Maryland's eastern shore to a leafy estate in a
tony neighborhood in Washington.
Private groups donated the houses for Elian and
his family in both cases, and the Cuban government has picked up the tab for
food and supplies.
But the security bill goes to the American
taxpayers.
The marshals won't say exactly how many agents
they've assigned to guard the Gonzalez family, citing security reasons. But a
supervisor marshal on the scene estimated that 50 marshals are involved - and
that doesn't count the INS agents.
The Justice Department said the marshals are
racking up more than $54,000 a week in overtime and more than $27,000 per week
in supplies - cell phones, cars, vans, fuel, batteries and computer hardware.
In addition, the INS says, it's costing $40,000
a week in overtime and food and hotel costs for its 20 agents - all deputized by
the U.S. marshals.
"That's not including salaries. That's
extraordinary costs," INS spokesman Don Mueller said.
Mueller said the INS agents are working at the
command of the U.S. Marshals Service and have been providing "perimeter"
security. In other words, they're the agents outside by the trees, standing on
alert.
Although the six-acre Rosedale estate in
Washington is much smaller than the Wye River Plantation near Chesapeake Bay,
marshals said it's harder to provide security because of the surrounding
population and the employees who work on the site.
Agents have surrounded the estate with yellow
tape and are posted every 200 feet, but so far little has happened.
http://www.nypostonline.com/news/4818.htm Bard
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