INS honors federal agents who snatched Elian in 'Operation Reunion'

The Immigration and Naturalization Service raid to take Elian in April sparked protests in Miami

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 100 INS agents, including the Border Patrol tactical SWAT team that grabbed 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez in a pre-dawn raid, were honored Tuesday for their "textbook example of operational preparation and execution" in the mission which reunited the boy and his Cuban father.

Despite criticism from Cuban-Americans and other supporters of Elian's Miami relatives, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner flew to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia to present awards to 114 honorees behind closed doors. Her remarks were released following the event.

"Today's ceremony has been characterized by some as a 'victory party'," Meissner told the agents. "Our purpose here is not celebration, but recognition -- recognition of INS employees who did an outstanding job under some of the most trying circumstances imaginable," she said.

INS officials said such award ceremonies are routinely closed events, and media requests to cover Tuesday's event were rejected. An INS official told CNN the agents were introduced individually, and plaques were presented to the three groups honored: the Miami INS District Office, the Miami Border Patrol Sector Team and the El Paso-based "BORTAC High Risk Entry Team," which carried out the early-morning raid on the Miami home.

"It was my firm conviction, then and now, that we did the right thing on April 22, and we are doing it again today," Meissner told the agents.

Meissner said that some critics had used the occasion of Tuesday's ceremony to try to rekindle the firestorm of criticism of INS and the Justice Department within the Cuban-American community.

She praised the agents for their dedication and professionalism. "The extended hours we asked you to work -- around the clock, in many cases -- required enormous sacrifices. Holiday plans had to be modified, or scuttled altogether. The reward was in knowing that your efforts paid off," she said.

"This was evidenced when I went to Andrews Air Force Base just hours after the operation and saw a safe Elian with his arms wrapped tightly around the neck of his beaming father emerge from the airplane on which he had flown from Miami to Washington," Meissner said.

Meissner also thanked the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Team, which developed a picture of the target area and local security arrangements sufficient to begin detailed planning.

She singled out Assistant Miami District Director for Investigations Jim Goldman as the "glue that held Operation Reunion together as it moved from planning, to rehearsal, to execution."

"Where others might have faltered, you rose to the occasion," Meissner said. "This is not just my opinion, which I admit is biased. This is a view that is shared throughout INS and by your peers in other law enforcement agencies, far and wide, here and abroad. They have described Operation Reunion as a textbook example of operations preparation and execution. It also proved to be the pivotal step in closing one of the most difficult chapters in the history of INS work."

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