Court rules against Elian asylum hearing
|
||||
Web posted at: 11:37 a.m. EDT (1537 GMT)
ATLANTA (CNN) -- A federal appeals court ruled today that Elian Gonzalez is not entitled to a hearing for political asylum in the United States. Still, it could be months before the long legal fight over custody of the 6-year-old boy is settled.
The ruling by the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, a victory for Elian's father and defeat for his Miami relatives, means that Elian's father could take the boy back to Cuba. But further court appeals will likely delay that.
The Miami relatives, who are not filing an appeal of the decision today, have 14 days to appeal, during which Elian must remain in the United States. The relatives may ask the 12 judges of the 11th Circuit, rather than the three-judge panel that made Thursday's ruling, to hear the case or they may appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A temporary injunction allows the boy to remain in the United States; whether that will be lifted remains unclear.
If the Miami relatives decide to take the case to the Supreme Court, and if the high court decides to hear it, the issue may not be resolved for many months. If it hasn't been decided by November 26, Elian will have been in the United States for a year and one day, making him eligible for a permanent residency card, or "green card," under the Cuban Adjustment Act.
That legislation gives green cards to Cubans who have been "inspected, admitted or paroled to the United States and live here at least one year," said Dale Schwartz, an immigration attorney in Atlanta and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
"This kid could be out of college before this thing is resolved," Schwartz said.
Complicated legal wrangling
The legal dispute over Elian began shortly after he was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida on November 25 and placed in the temporary care of his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami. A boat carrying Cubans fleeing to the United States sank. Elian was one of three people who survived but 11 people drowned, including his mother.The Miami relatives filed three political asylum applications on Elian's behalf, saying his mother's dying wish was for him to live in the United States. They also said the boy would be persecuted if he returns to Cuba. The U.S. Department of Justice rejected the requests.
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service met with Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and decided in January that he was the only person who could speak for the boy. Juan Miguel Gonzalez adamantly opposed efforts to grant Elian political asylum and demanded the return of his son to Cuba.
That decision led Lazaro Gonzalez to take the case to a Florida family court that granted temporary custody of Elian to his great-uncle. Then the Miami relatives filed a federal lawsuit requesting a political asylum hearing for Elian.
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in March and agreed with the federal government's decision that Elian's father should determine his son's future. The Miami relatives appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Elian's father came to the United States on April 6 and demanded custody of his son. Attorney General Janet Reno met with Elian's Miami relatives on April 12 and ordered Lazaro Gonzalez to surrender the boy. The family refused and obtained a court order blocking Elian's father from taking him out of the country until the 11th Circuit makes its decision.
The government then went back to a Florida family court, where a judge revoked the great-uncle's temporary custody of Elian. Armed with that order, federal agents raided Lazaro Gonzalez's house on April 22 and seized Elian.
As the legal fight wound its way through the courts, the political battle took place in the streets and the media. Thousands of people gathered daily outside Lazaro Gonzalez's home to show their opposition to Cuban President Fidel Castro and to protest the U.S. government efforts to return Elian to Cuba.
Castro countered by holding huge rallies in Havana demanding Elian's return and vilifying the boy's Miami relatives as "a bunch of kidnappers."
Some U.S. lawmakers have entered the fray, calling for granting Elian U.S. citizenship and expressing their outrage over the INS raid to seize the boy.
CNN Interactive Correspondent Raju Chebium, CNN Correspondent Susan Candiotti and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
