Police arrest several protesters

Reno sees no reason to reverse decision

January 6, 2000
Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

MIAMI (CNN) -- Police arrested dozens of demonstrators Thursday as they protested U.S. immigration officials' decision to return 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, and Attorney General Janet Reno said she saw no reason the decision should be reversed.

At noon, a group of Cuban exiles estimated by police at more than 100 people held a rally outside the David W. Dyer Federal Courthouse in downtown Miami. They marched north along Flagler Street to Biscayne Boulevard, chanting "Liberty, Liberty" and waving Cuban flags.

AUDIO Listen to Eig's reaction to the INS decision to return Elian Gonzalez to Cuba 680K/34 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     VIDEO To view the latest video streams on the plight of Elian Gonzalez, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.    Windows Media Real    28 K 80 K     MESSAGE BOARD US/Cuba relations     ALSO Elian's journey -- from Cuba to Disney World and back

Police officers sealed off the entrance and exit to the Port of Miami and refused to let the demonstrators enter. When demonstrators refused to disperse, officers began binding their wrists with plastic straps and putting them aboard vans to take them away. More than three dozen demonstrators, including Ramon Saul Sanchez, the protest organizer, were arrested.

"They are telling us they want to go to jail and that's where they are going," said one Miami-Dade police officer. He said the demonstrators were being charged with two misdemeanors, failing to disperse and failing to obey a lawful order.

Sanchez had said earlier President Clinton needs to reconsider his decision to return Elian to Cuba. "There are very crucial elements here which should be determined by a family court, not by politics," he said.

Community leaders are also calling for Cubans to leave their jobs, and motorists to turn their engines off for five minutes in protest of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service decision.

At a morning briefing in Washington, Reno said she "sees no basis" for reversing a decision to return Elian to his father in Cuba.

"He (Elian) has a father, and there is a bond between father and son that the law recognizes and tries to honor," Reno said. "We have no information that would indicate that that legal connection, that bond should not be honored."

INS Commissioner Doris Meissner announced Wednesday that the INS has decided the boy belongs with his father.

Arrangements have not been made for the boy's return, but officials from the National Council of Churches told CNN in Havana the boys father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, had formally asked them to help bring his son home.

Attorneys for relatives of Elian vowed Thursday to go to federal court to block his return to Cuba, and a cousin said the boy has never expressed an interest in returning to his father.

However, a family spokesman said nothing will be filed with the courts on Thursday. When an action is filed, the family is expected to contend that the father does not speak for the boy. They will further contend that when an a minor comes from a country with a record of human rights violations, a removal hearing must be held under INS rules.

Protesters in Miami denounce the decision to send Elian back to Cuba

The spokesman said the boy had seen some news reports that he was being sent back to Cuba and was "upset." At first, the spokesman said Elian had gone to school but later said there were too many cameras and he stayed home.

In Havana, the Cuban government said it remained far from certain that the little boy would be reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

Spencer Eig, an attorney for the boy's Miami relatives, has accused U.S. authorities of denying the boy political asylum without a hearing.

"If they want to stonewall this 6-year-old boy and strip him of legal representation, strip him of rights, then we will be determined to take the case into federal court and defend his rights," said Eig.

In addition, Elian's cousin said he "knows he is loved" by his family members in Miami and has never asked to go home to be with his father.

"First of all he's never asked to be with his father, and second of all as a 6-year-old that would want to be with his father would cry by the night, would have nightmares, would ask for his father. To this point he hasn't," said Marisleysis Gonzalez, the boy's second cousin. "... as he's done ever since the day he met me and asked me to stay with him that night in the hospital, I asked him, do you want to go back with your father, and his words were no."

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