[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        CONGRESS SHOULD NOT FORCE CITIZENSHIP ON ELIAN GONZALEZ

  (Mr. SERRANO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, Elian Gonzalez will be the only person in 
the history of this country to have citizenship and/or residency shoved 
down his throat. He has not asked for it and the guardian who we accept 
is speaking for him in Cuba has rejected it.
  In the meantime, there are 2 million folks awaiting citizenship in 
this country who followed the law and will not get it on that date. 
There are 9 million undocumented aliens who will not receive residency 
on that date. The arrogance of all of this is that for the first time 
ever we are going back on a promise. We have said for years that we are 
not trying to hurt the Cuban people, but rather the Cuban government.

                              {time}  1245

  From a desire to hurt the Cuban government, we now question 
grandparents' love for their grandchild, after all, they are only tools 
of the Communist government, and fathers' love for their child.
  I have spent 3 days with the grandmothers. We all know grannies. They 
do not seem to me to be crying Communist tears or Socialist tears. They 
are crying the tears of grandparents who want Elian back. They show me 
pictures of his room, of his toys. They said to me, ``We cannot provide 
him trips to Disneyland or Disney World. We cannot provide him an 
electric car, but we love him, and we want him back.''

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