[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ELIAN GONZALEZ

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, there are few, if any, who haven't 
been moved by the triumphant story of Elian Gonzalez, a brave young boy 
found clinging to a raft on Thanksgiving Day. Elian endured a harrowing 
journey from Cuba to Florida, after his mother was lost at sea.
  Now, Elian finds himself in the center of an international tug-of-
war. Both sides are entrenched in an emotional debate, that centers 
more around the Castro regime than it does around the young boy.
  No matter how hard it may be, for Elian's sake, politics must be 
taken out of the equation. The Immigration and Naturalization Service 
has made its ruling, that Elian father's has the authority to speak for 
his son. His father, Juan Gonzalez, has asked that applications for 
admission and asylum for Elian be withdrawn.
  Congress should not ignore the bond between father and child, and the 
responsibility a father has for his son, regardless of where they 
reside.
  People with a legal interest in the matter may test the INS order in 
Court. Congress should not undermine the Court proceedings, and in the 
process, possibly trample on the family values we so often claim to 
honor.
  Elian's extended relatives in Miami filed their lawsuit in federal 
court to block the child's return, and any action by Congress to bypass 
the Court on this matter is inappropriate. The Court will hopefully 
analyze the facts and decide Elian's future based on his interests, not 
heated debate or political rigidity. This is an issue that deserves an 
appropriate forum, one away from politics, where Elian's future can be 
based on the rules of law that this country has held out to the 
world.

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