MIAMI — The wrangling over a 6-year-old Cuban boy shifted Friday from the streets to a Miami courthouse, where a state judge said she would decide early next week whether to grant legal guardianship to the boy's great-uncle, with whom he is living.
If Judge Rosa Rodriguez grants the request by the boy's lawyers, the great-uncle could immediately reapply for political asylum on behalf of the boy, Elian Gonzalez. The tangled legal process could delay or block the boy's return to Cuba. But legal experts said Friday that it would be unlikely for the judge to take legal custody away from the boy's father, who has asked for Elian's return and was found by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to have a close relationship with his son.
In a move to step up the pressure, local leaders met Friday night in Washington with Attorney General Janet Reno to discuss a decision by INS to reunite Elian with his father in Cuba by Friday.
The delegation, which included Dade-Metro Mayor Alex Penelas and Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, appealed to Reno to overturn the order.
After the 45-minute meeting, which was arranged by Vice President Al Gore, Penelas told reporters that he asked Reno to "consider the clear desire of the mother," that Elian grow up in the United States. Penelas added that he felt the boy's father "has been coerced" into demanding that the boy return to Cuba.
If Reno decides not to overturn the ruling, Penelas said, he urged her to at least delay the decision for 35 to 45 days to allow lawyers for boy's relatives in Florida to prepare a legal case to block his return.
"I asked the vice president to intercede on Elian's behalf, and he did," Penelas said earlier Friday.
On Wednesday, INS officials ruled that federal and international laws compelled them to honor a request by Elian's father to be reunited with his son. Elian's mother and stepfather died at sea when the boat they were taking to the United States capsized in November. The father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has said he was unaware that his former wife was planning to flee the country with his son.
The Clinton administration, which had hoped to avoid a messy, protracted fight with Cuban exiles over the boy, now finds itself the focus of heated street demonstrations and faces the possibility that the boy may not be voluntarily turned over for his flight back to Cuba. One hundred and thirty people were arrested in Miami on Thursday in protests that snarled traffic and angered motorists.
President Clinton, on his way to the peace talks between Syria and Israel on Friday, urged protesters to take their concerns to court and refrain from lawlessness. "This is a volatile and difficult case," Clinton said. "We need to keep this out of the political process as much as possible within the established legal channels."
On another front, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., requested that the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, Rep. Dan Burton, D-Ind., issue Elian a subpoena to appear before the committee.
Friday, Burton, in consultation with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said he would not issue a subpoena, but left open the possibility, "if it becomes necessary." Burton, a strong ally of Cuban exiles, has the power unilaterally to issue congressional subpoenas. A subpoena would delay the boy's return until he appeared before the committee.
Legal experts said the lawyers' case in state court here was likely to fail, although judges had wide discretion.
"If they want to challenge the father's custody, and there is not a shred of evidence that he is an unfit father, they would have to do it in Cuba, where the custody agreement was reached," said David Abraham, an immigration law professor at the University of Miami.
Bernard Perlmutter, another law professor at the university, agreed. "I think that both procedurally and in terms of the merits, they have a slim chance of success," he said.
If Friday's legal maneuvers fail, lawyers here are expected to ask first for a temporary restraining order in federal court barring Elian's return, and then a preliminary injunction.
Miami was mostly quiet Friday with only one sparsely attended demonstration downtown. But in Cardenas, Cuba, Elian's hometown, about 50,000 people attended a rally demanding the boy's return.