Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000
Legal question regarding Elian's Miami relatives
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
For what seems like weeks now, the news has (predominantly) been
portraying Elian's Miami relatives as law breakers because of
their refusal to deliver Elian to an airport near Miami. My
question is this: By what authority does a United States
government official have to order a private citizen to do the
job of a law enforcement officer? I think in certain cases, it's
possible to be deputized against one's will (though I'm not
certain of this), but are there any circumstances in which one
can be ordered to transport a fugitive to some other location?
(I'm leaving aside the fact that Elian was not a fugitive.) I'm
not a lawyer, but right off hand I'd say that would be a
violation of a private citizen's individual rights. Since Elian
is a minor, I can see where his guardians or custodians could be
ordered to bring Elian to a court of law for a hearing, and if
they refused they would be in violation of the law, but I don't
see how they can be ordered to take him anywhere else (except
perhaps to some sort of half-way house, after legal custody has
been revoked by a court of law). Any thoughts on this?
<snip>
If you think this is far-fetched and they couldn't possibly get
away with it, I had several conversations with a coworker that
demonstrated that the American branch of Pravda had done their
damage. Last week, I asked her what she thought about the case.
She replied that Elian belonged with his father. When I
mentioned that Juan Gonzalez did not have legal custody of
Elian, but rather the Cuban government had claimed custody, she
went into a rampage about how could I say that? When I mentioned
that I thought that if Elian was returned to Cuba, he would be
brain-washed into disavowing America, she said I was just being
anti-Cuban. This morning, when I asked her if she was happy now
that Elian had been abducted and would be returned to his
father, she kind of sighed, said she didn't like the way it was
handled, but claimed the Miami family was being terribly abusive
by holding the kid hostage. I consider this woman to be fairly
reasonable, though duped by the American media.
<snip>
