On January 5, 2000, the U.S. government decided to send 6-year-old Elián González back to his family in Cuba. After a dangerous boat trip from Cuba to Florida—which his mother did not survive and he completed in the end on an inner-tube—Elián in 1999 became a controversy between the United States and Cuba: should he stay with his family in Miami? Or should he be sent back to his father in Cuba? Ten years ago today, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner announced a decision that Elián’s father in Cuba was responsible for his custody, and that arrangements should be made to return the child to Cuba by January 14 (it took until June 28 of that year).
The issues surrounding the case made it more than just one family’s difficult decision. Behind it were the emotions and politics of a weighty history of U.S.-Cuban rancor, the deep divide between the Miami Cuban exile community and the island regime, and the legal questions surrounding Cuban migrants in the United States.
More recently, many have drawn parallels to the current case of Sean Goldman in Brazil, including TIME magazine, which published “The Goldman Controversy: Memories of Elián González” a few weeks ago. Sean Goldman was taken to Brazil by his mother, away from his father in the United States, and when his mother passed away last year his future became similarly uncertain. Should he stay with relatives in Brazil, or should he be returned to his father in the United States, who had been trying to get him back for years?
This case continues to rollercoaster at the moment. My colleague covers developments regularly on her blog, here.
(More on the Elián case ten years ago here, and more on the Goldman case from the FPA Brazil blog, here.)