Posted on 08/26/2007 1:44:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MIAMI - A Cuban father allowed his young daughter to emigrate legally to the United States with her mother to find a better life. But months later, the mother has become incapable of caring for the girl and the father wants to take the child home.
It would seem a simple case, especially since the mother agrees her daughter should return to Cuba.
Yet on the eve of the trial, a judge has warned that it could "inflame the community," where the battle over Elian Gonzalez nearly eight years ago divided the city and became an international incident.
Testimony is to begin Monday over whether 32-year-old Cuban farmer Rafael Izquierdo can regain custody of his 4-year-old daughter — whose name is being kept secret — or whether she should remain with a wealthy Cuban-American and his wife who want to adopt her.
Until now, unlike Elian's case, this custody battle has moved quietly through family court.
But on Thursday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jerri B. Cohen reluctantly lifted a gag order at the request of the girl's foster father, Joe Cubas, 46, a former sports agent who has represented the New York Mets' Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and several other ballplayers who defected from Cuba. Cubas said he asked that it be lifted because he said he was getting many questions about the case.
The judge warned that allowing the parties to speak to the media "could have the possibility to inflame the community."
"It's going to explode," Cohen said. "I know that as sure as I sit here. I can't prevent that."
Still, civic leaders, many of whom fought hard to keep Elian from returning to Cuba, say they don't believe this case will spark similar reactions. The facts are different and neither the U.S. government nor the Cuban-exile community, burned by its negative portrayal during the Elian case, have a desire to repeat the past.
Elian, then 5, was found floating at sea on an inner tube on Thanksgiving Day 1999, after his mother drowned with others attempting to defect to the U.S. The boy's Miami relatives and many Cuban exiles insisted that Elian remain in this country, but immigration officials ruled in favor of his father, who wanted him returned to Cuba. A standoff ended only when armed federal agents raided the Little Havana home of Elian's uncle to seize the boy and send him to Cuba.
In the current case, both parents are in Miami and have agreed to participate in the U.S. legal system — and both say the girl should go with her father.
"The reaction in the community has been incredibly mature up to this point, and I'm sure it will remain this way," said Carlos Saladrigas, head of the Cuba Study Group, a nonpartisan group of business and civic leaders formed after the Elian case to promote democracy in Cuba through moderate channels.
The case began in 2004 when the girl's mother, Elena Perez, won the visa lottery to come to the U.S. with her son and daughter, each of whom has a different father. Both fathers agreed to let their children go with her.
But after Perez was hospitalized in December 2005 following a suicide attempt, the children were put in foster care and ended up with the Cubas family. Perez agreed to let them adopt her son, now 13, but not her daughter.
Izquierdo said he wants to take his daughter back to his family home in the central Cuban village of Cabaiguan, where he and his wife have a 7-year-old daughter.
"Her room is ready with and her bed and her little toys," he said Thursday.
Perez agrees. "Now that she's not going to her mother, she should go to her father," she said of her daughter. "Those are the two best people in the world to be at the side of a child."
An independent guardian appointed for the girl favors leaving her girl with Cubas. Several top attorneys for the Florida Department of Children & Families also appear to favor Cubas.
Cubas said the girl, who calls him "Papi," shouldn't be separated from her brother and doesn't want to go back to Cuba.
"I don't believe this is a matter of where their better life could be provided," he said. "It is our belief, as is the wishes of the children, that they remain together and that's why we're here."
Cubas drew critics in the late 1990s who said he helped top Cuba ball players leave the island. In 2005, his sports agent certification was suspended following accusations by one defector that Cubas took his immigration documents and refused to return them. He has denied the allegations.
Perez and Saladrigas said the community's fear in both the Elian case and this one was that the fathers had been pressured to bring their children back by the Castro government.
"The concern is whether they are speaking from their heart or being coerced, and there is no clear answer to that. You will never know," Saladrigas said. "If it wouldn't be for that it would be a no-brainer."
That being said, the child's place is with her father "The Community" be damned.
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
Elian Gonzales = only immigrant Dems ever wanted sent back.
Too bad the Cuban Community doesn’t vote Democrat.
Damn the community. It’s the parents kid and their responsibility.
I would demand a note from Castro with today’s date on it. Handwritten of course.
Will trade for Elian for a girl to be named later.
OK, don’t jump on me, because I’m only asking for information-would not that set a precedent for the illegals in Mexico? I know the political situation is different, but wouldn’t the left try to equate ambiguous “humanitarian” grounds, for Mexican illegals, with this reason?
It’s great having your child with you when they are little. But all too soon they are adult slves of a Commie regime. Brave Holocaust victimes knew this and smuggles their childre OUT of Germany to freedom — the price — they couldn’t be “with” their children as babies in the death camps.
This not Elian 2
Are you kidding me? We get to look forward to another 2,000 threads or so?
Be still my heart...!!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38e59db64ae9.htm
Parents of course have rights. Unfortunately he’s not considered the parent in Cuba. Cuba is the parent/owner of this child. So I’d say let the Cuban-American family adopt her...then she’d have parents as parents not the communist hell hole of Cuba.
The left isn’t above trying anything, but since you cited it yourself, Mexico is not a totalitarian regime. It has a Conservative President and government. If all the participants involved were from Mexico or Mexican immigrants, it would be a completely different story. Cuba has no respect for human rights and children are literally defined as slaves (there is no such thing as parental rights in Cuba - the state dictates to parents what they will do with their children, and will routinely take them away for proper indoctrination). It was why I passionately stood against Elian’s hijacking and deportation to Cuba.
Thanks
The article states:
"In the current case, both parents are in Miami and have agreed to participate in the U.S. legal system — and both say the girl should go with her father."
Under the "Dry Foot - Wet Foot" policy, the father HAS been allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and both parents have freely decided what to do in this case.
In the Elian case, those who argued about "father's right" were somewhat off base since Castro and the Clinton Administration kept Elian's father and family under a de facto house arrest while they were in the U.S.
The Elian raid was given the green light once negotiations had reached the point where it was agreed that the Miami family and the father's family would be allowed to meet in neutral territory to hash things out without the presence of the Cuban agents that Clinton had allowed into the U.S. to keep Elian's father and his family under control. Castor vetoed the plan and the raid followed.
We will never know what Elian's father actually wanted because either he or his wife and other child were always held hostage even while in the U.S.
In this case, both parents are in the U.S. and in agreement about what to do with the child. We should be careful about saying that the U.S. Government should decide that parents, of their own free will, have no say in how to raise their own child.
I think that is already being done.
“Several years ago, when Elvira came to us with a medical emergency regarding her son, I was happy to introduce a private relief bill on her behalf,” Durbin wrote. “It is our understanding that those circumstances have now changed. We cannot fix the injustices of this system with private bills; only comprehensive immigration reform can permanently remedy this situation,” he added
So far, though, it’s just idiots like Durbin who “think” that way. A majority of American people don’t, and I would hope that nothing would play upon their emotions as opposed to their common sense to change that.
Is the mother going to go back to Cuba also. I heard about a documentary saying that Cuba has far better health svcs than the US.
“The case began in 2004 when the girl’s mother, Elena Perez, won the visa lottery to come to the U.S. with her son and daughter, each of whom has a different father. Both fathers agreed to let their children go with her.”
“But after Perez was hospitalized in December 2005 following a suicide attempt, the children were put in foster care and ended up with the Cubas family. Perez agreed to let them adopt her son, now 13, but not her daughter.”
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