IF Cubans are free when they hit soil, why did we send back the little boy from Florida?

Question

I don't really remember if they caught him on water or land. It just seems we went to a lot of trouble (and tax dollars) to send one little kid home.

Answer 1

It was a political thing. Supposedly the child's father back home in Cuba wanted him to return to Cuba. The debate was that the kid wasn't old enough to decide for himself whether he wanted to stay in the US or not. The father had custody of the child and the mother or aunt or someone brought him here. Clinton and Janet Reno made the decision to export him because from a custody standpoint he wasn't legally allowed to be here.

It was a huge controversy because even though the child's father had custody once he was here he had the choice to stay but no one gave the child that right because he wasn't old enough to decide supposedly. So, breaking into someone's home and kidnapping the child to return him to Cuba at gunpoint was Clinton's solution. Which Im sure Clinton broke some laws of his own doing that.

Answer 2

It was basically a political thing because it was a minor. Since he was under 18, he couldn't make the decision for himself and the U.S. embassy couldn't grant him political amnesty without parental custody. And since he's mother died on the way over, his father had the right to make the decision, and he wanted him back in Cuba. The U.S. couldn't keep him here against his father's will, so they had to return him. I didn't really think it was all that fair. I don't think he had much to do with his father when he was in Cuba, that's why his mother tried to bring him over. His father just seemed to want all the political attention. Plus since the U.S. and Cuba don't get along, they both just wanted to "win" in the long run. Just to prove the other wrong. Stupid to do with a kid's life, but what can we do about it? So Cuba wanted to look like the family-friendly place and wanted to reunite the orphaned boy with his real father, and the U.S. finally decided to take what appeared to be an "honorable" way out and just returned him.

We never hear anything about him anymore. Last I heard (long time ago), his dad had sent him to a "boarding school" type thing. Different than in the U.S., it's not as bad and not for deliquent kids or anything, it was just a school away from home. He didn't see his dad that much anyway.

I still say they should have just let him live here with his other relatives.

Answer 3

That's weird you broght that up I was talking about this the other day with my brother, he was caught in the water not on land.

The mother died trying to get here with her son and a bunch of others if you guys remember corrrectly he was staying with family he never met before in Florida and the father was in Cuba and happy living there and yes wanted his son back where he belonged.

Answer 4

no foreigner is "free" when they hit american soil. everyone has to go through immigration inorder to legally live here. we sent the little boy back to his country(which i believe we found in the ocean on a raft?) because he had a lot of relatives there. it would make more sense for him to live in a place that he was familiar with anyway, than force him to start over in a completely strange environment.

Answer 5

he was living here but his mother died so his father requested custody of the child. The uncles didn't want to let him leave, and since he is the father, the had to use force

there are more details, but I believe that sums it up

Answer 6

Elian Gonzalez? or whatever his name was) , wasn't a parental custody issue involved in that? I seem to remember one parent still being in cuba.

Answer 7

Parental rights.