1 Boy / 2 Nations.

• Position: Elian Gonzalez - Brief Article

Should 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez be returned to Cuba?

YES

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) made a reasonable decision in ruling that Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old boy who survived a trip across the Florida Straits, should be reunited with his father in Cuba.

Elian was one of 13 Cubans who were trying to cross from Cuba to Florida six weeks ago on a 17-foot aluminum powerboat when it capsized. Ten of those on board died, including his mother and stepfather. The boy clung to an inner tube for two days and was plucked from the Atlantic on Thanksgiving Day and brought ashore. He was immediately released into the custody of relatives in Miami--and just as quickly embraced as a pawn in the poisonous verbal contest between Fidel Castro's regime and its opponents in exile.

"This little boy, who has been through so much, belongs with his father," INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said. The White House quickly announced support for the decision.

Elian's relatives in Miami are appealing in federal court, as is their right. Some of their more militant supporters in Miami, decrying the prospect that the boy will be used as a "trophy" by Castro, have indicated they may try to disrupt efforts to reunite Elian with his father. That would be treating the boy as a trophy in a diplomatic struggle that predates his birth by years.

--EDITORIAL The New York Times

NO

This case has particular poignancy for me. I was 8 years old when Fidel Castro's tanks rolled through Havana. Thousands of families, including my own, considered making the ultimate sacrifice and shipping their children off to the United States. These families knew nothing about the life that their children would...