[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 29, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1871-S1872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     IN SUPPORT OF A PRIVATE RELIEF BILL FOR ELIAN GONZALEZ-BROTONS

  Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate to speak 
about an incident that occurred just before Thanksgiving Day 1999, when 
a mother who so loved her son that she tried to bring him to the shores 
of the United States of America from Cuba. Had she succeeded, she would 
have joined her family members already in the United States. Instead, 
she met with tragedy in the Florida straits. The mother died. The five-
year-old boy survived. Now, we are being forced to consider young 
Elian's future.
  Today, the freedom sought by a mother for her son is being mocked. 
Elian Gonzalez finds himself in the middle of a struggle between his 
Miami family and the Department of Justice, an agency unwilling to 
consider what is in the best interest of the child, an agency 
continually impairing a fair presentation of the merits of this case.
  I ask my colleagues to open their minds and their hearts and listen 
to why the current process being used by the DOJ and the INS represents 
a grave injustice and denies a decision that should be based upon 
Elian's best interest. Remember when Elian first arrived, the INS 
stated that the matter was a custody decision for a Florida state 
family court. Forty-eight hours after Castro threatened the United 
States, the decision flipped, and continues to bend to Castro's will. 
Now the administration wants to rush an appeals process to send him 
back to a country that Human Rights Watch states has ``highly developed 
machinery of repression.''
  In the past week, the Department of Justice has put unrealistic 
demands on the family of Elian to expedite the appeal of the federal 
district court decision. The Department of Justice has repeatedly 
threatened to revoke Elian's parole and remove the child to Cuba if the 
family fails to agree to their demand that both sides have an appellate 
brief prepared in one week. These unprecedented tactics short-circuit 
and dismantle the judicial process in which an appellate is typically 
allotted a minimum of 30-60 days to prepare a brief. This is plain and 
simple--Elian's family's civil rights are being denied.
  This past Monday, the family under great pressure filed a motion with 
the Eleventh Circuit to expedite the appeals process, and still, the 
government's threats have continued. In a letter sent to the family at 
10 p.m. on Monday night, the government demanded that the family's 
attorneys appear for a meeting on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. with INS 
officials to discuss the revocation of Elian's parole. The government 
has continually dictated the terms of all meetings and has bulldozed 
over the right of Elian and his Miami family.
  Today, the Department of Justice has summoned Elian's great-uncle, 
Lazaro Gonzalez, to a meeting where he is expected by the INS to sign a 
unilateral demand ``to comply with the instructions of the INS,'' yet 
the INS has failed to provide the attorneys and the family with what 
those instructions will be. After all this child has been through, is 
it too much to ask how the government plans on removing him from the 
only home he now knows? Should his family agree to having INS agents 
come to his Miami home and take him? Probably not. But one thing is for 
sure: they should know the details of what they are agreeing to.
  Keep in mind that this same agreement, if signed, destroys any shred 
of dignity left in our judicial process. It demands that the family's 
attorneys have a brief prepared to submit to the Supreme Court within 5 
days of the appellate court decision, a time line virtually impossible 
to meet.
  In its effort to dictate terms for the family's appeal, the 
government has betrayed the very integrity for which the Attorney 
General is charged with defending--equal protection under the law and 
the right to pursue justice in a free America. In the past week, I've 
heard justice department officials say they are taking more aggressive 
action against the family because they want

[[Page S1872]]

to prevent them from invoking more ``legal maneuvers.'' These ``legal 
maneuvers'' happen to be the legal rights of Americans--properly 
exercised in the middle of an appeals process. These ``legal 
maneuvers'' are tools in which all Americans are empowered to seek a 
fair hearing in the United States of America. I find it unconscionable 
that the justice department would so blatantly express their desire to 
dictate terms and influence the outcome of this case.
  My reason for coming to the floor today is express my sheer 
frustration and anger in the manner in which the DOJ and the INS has 
handled this case. The recent acts of these two agencies demonstrate 
that the administration is no longer interested in resolving this case 
in a fair, unbiased way. The offer by the Department of Justice is a 
deeply flawed offer, one that no American would ever accept, one that 
no person in America should ever have to accept. Elian's mother 
sacrificed her life for the freedoms of America, freedoms she never had 
in Cuba, freedoms she never thought our country would deny her son in 
his moment of need. We should all, despite our views on this issue, be 
deeply ashamed at any attempt to short circuit justice in order to 
reach a resolution in the quickest possible way.
  In the United States, we stand up to injustice in the world by 
zealously guarding our laws. We consistently and rightly argue that our 
strength and power come from our commitment to America's principles: 
freedom, justice, democracy and the protection of basic human rights. 
We are a nation founded upon these principles and we remain strong 
because we defend them. Mr. President, today and throughout the course 
of Elian's stay in the United States the INS and our Attorney General 
have not stood up for the one thing they are supposed to defend--
justice for all.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed as in 
morning business for a period not to exceed 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The remarks of Mr. Jeffords pertaining to the introduction of S. 2311 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')

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