Speedy or Not, Elian Case Is Headed for Showdown

One way or another, the Elian Gonzalez case is going to end in tears. The Immigration and Naturalization Service on Thursday offered Elian's Miami relatives the choice of agreeing to speed up the appeals process or else seeing the boy sent home immediately on the basis of Tuesday's federal court decision upholding the government's ruling that the boy's father is his legal guardian. The INS also rejected a proposal Friday by lawyers representing the boy's Miami relatives that the case be handled by independent arbitration. That's not going to sit well with the Cuban exile activists already guarding the Miami home of Lazaro Gonzalez, where Elian is currently staying. They've threatened civil disobedience against any attempt to move Elian now, proclaiming that they're unable to control the passions of the exile community on this issue. But with most legal analysts expecting higher courts to uphold Judge K. Michael Moore's Tuesday ruling that Elian should be returned to his father — and with Juan Miguel Gonzalez announcing he would come and fetch his son as soon as the U.S. government tells him he can take Elian home — an ugly confrontation may be looming on the horizon.

Having had its jurisdiction and its ruling upheld by a federal court, the INS is legally empowered to send Elian home immediately, although it is holding off doing so for fear of provoking a potentially violent showdown with the exile community, which would exacerbate the trauma already suffered by the six-year-old. Keeping the matter in the courts is also a way of restraining senators and congressmen who've sought to intercede by rushing through legislation conferring U.S. citizenship on Elian. But the legal process will at some point — sooner rather than later, if the INS gets its way — reach a conclusion. And if the legal process ends badly for the Miami relatives, the next move may be in the hands of those hard men standing around Elian's house with walkie-talkies, who aren't out there to prepare a farewell ceremony.