WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee has decided to look into what its chairman, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, calls "the botched-up way" the Justice Department handled the Elian Gonzalez case.
Hatch told the Deseret News Monday the panel is "looking into" whether seizing the boy at gunpoint from Miami relatives Saturday was legal. He said the department also ignored many of its own rules in its handling of the case so far."We're looking into it, but we haven't decided yet whether to hold hearings yet," Hatch said. But the panel is seeking explanations from the Justice Department on several issues.
Hatch said he wants to know "what right did they (the Immigration and Naturalization Service) have to break down the door and storm that home? They say they had permission of a magistrate. I'd like to hear more about that."
He added, "I was appalled by combat-dressed INS agents storming the house with automatic weapons when there was no indication at all that these people are violent." Hatch noted he recently met with the Miami relatives and the fishermen who rescued the boy.
"I wonder why they (the INS) were doing it before the 11th Circuit Court had its hearing" on whether Elian has the right to apply for asylum, Hatch said. "The family had indicated it would abide by whatever was the decision of the court."
Hatch added, "If the circuit comes down in favor of the family in Miami, it will all look pretty bad."
An upset Hatch also said, "Elian Gonzalez would be in Cuba today if this administration had its will. They called his father in Cuba and agreed to give him back to his father without talking to the family in Miami . . . and without any consideration of the mother, who died trying to get her son to a land of freedom."
He added, "Under our Constitution and under the rules of the INS itself . . . even children have due process rights," he said. "Under those guidelines, if a child indicates that he wants an asylum hearing, they have to give it. . . . They ignored that."
Hatch said the committee "has a good idea of what immigration laws say, and the attorney general has not been following those laws. Neither has the INS."
Hatch said the family also has provided credible evidence that Elian's father would like to stay in the United States except that he is worried that would lead Cuban officials to punish his parents and other relatives.
"We'll never know because of the botched-up way the Justice Department handled it," Hatch said.
"If you believe the family . . . there's a lot of indication that the father really wants him to be in freedom . . . if he were not worried what they would do to his parents and the worry of having Cuban officials eavesdropping on what he says."
Hatch said he feels the family was making a reasonable request when it insisted on seeking a neutral site to meet with the boy's father to allow a custody switch.