Immigration Raids, Family Separation, Political Ramifications...25 Years Ago It Played Out Differently

The Elian Gonzalez Story and the Nexus of Asylum, Politics and Military Enforcement

For all the Gen Zers out there, this picture is not recent. In fact, it won a Pulitzer Prize, was at the center of a huge election year issue, and may have actually changed the course of the 21st Century as we know it.

The boy on the right is Elian Gonzalez. He was a very young boy who left Cuba on a makeshift boat with his mother and numerous others in November, 1999. After a Caribbean storm wrecked the boat killing the others, Elian, alive but floating on wreckage, was found by two fisherman who then handed Elian over to the Coast Guard. He was brought to Miami and given to his Great-Uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and his daughter Marisleysis as temprorary guardians. So far, everything seems as it should.

It turns out Elian’s father was still in the picture and wanted Elian back. In Cuba. And so began one of the most drawn out custody proceedings in U.S. History. The Miami relatives, Cuban exiles with a hatred for Castro, refused to turn him over. Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian’s father, persisted for the return of his son. In January, 2000, the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service; a now defunct agency that has been reformed as CBP/ICE within the Department of Homeland Security) formally announced a plan to return Elian to Cuba. Miami’s Cuban community immediately began protesting and a public uproar ensued.

What propelled the issue even further was the fact that the Governor of Florida at the time was Jeb Bush, whose brother George W. Bush happened to be the Republican frontrunner for the Presidential Nomination. What was a local custody dispute now was placed center stage by politics. Republicans took the position that Elian should be given asylum,¹ that the custody proceedings should be handled in Florida courts and he should be given over to his Miami relatives as per his mother’s intentions. Democrats didn’t really have a position per se, but the law (because it dealt with immigration and issues of state the issue was clearly federal in nature) clearly sided with the boy’s father, as closest living relative. As the current President, Bill Clinton and the DOJ sided with the law and returning the boy to Cuba. Battle lines were drawn.

Proceedings began to reunite the broken family members. When it came time to hand Elian over to authorities for his return to Cuba, the Miami relatives refused to do so and sued to retain custody. Over the following four months, between protests and court proceedings and public speeches, it was THE biggest issue of the Republican primary season. Elian was moved to a “safe house” to ensure he would not be taken, and the DOJ began plans to go in and take him by force.

Attorney General Janet Reno (who prior to her position within the Clinton administration was D.A. of Miami County), eventually made the decision to seize the boy and return him to his father. On April 22, 2000, INS enforcement officials raided the home where Elian was staying. One of the relatives allowed AP photographer Alan Diaz into the home just as the raid was about to happen and when the raiding party found Elian with one of his cousins hiding in a closet, the photo at the top of the page was taken. Hours later, it was on the front page in papers across the globe.

The immediate public outrage was swift. The Clinton Administration was portrayed as “jackbooted thugs,” and that it was horrendous that they wouldn’t give asylum to a little boy in this situation. The right wing fringe of the country screamed of “SOCIALIST TAKEOVER!” as if Stalin were running the country or Clinton was in cahoots with Castro all along, and conspiracy theories circulated.² For the next few months, how the Democrats had handled the Elian situation was a major campaign issue for George W. Bush, now the GOP Nominee for President against Clinton’s V.P. Al Gore.

If the consequences of those events had remained isolated, we probably would not remember so much of it today. But the consequences of that raid were enormous. This event played a hugely consequential part in the ensuing election. Florida became the deciding state in the nation, and Gore underperformed particularly in Miami, Dade and Broward Counties, where the Elian ordeal played out. The eventual margin Gore lost by in Florida? 537 votes. He underperformed Clinton’s margins in those areas in the tens of thousands. George W. Bush would become President. And the United States has been a different country since George W. Bush took office. The U.S. and the world would be different places had Gore won. I’m not saying it would be better or worse, but we probably would not have gone into Iraq and many subsequent decisions made would not have been.

But when you take a step back and look at how far the GOP has come since those early days in 2000, it’s a complete 180 to today from where they were with Elian. Opposed to raiding homes?—they’re the ones doing the raiding. “Jackbooted thugs?”—they’re the ones armed to the teeth, covering their faces, proud to pull random people suspected of being immigrants off the streets or the local Home Depot. “Asylum for a boy?”—They want to end asylum, kick any potential immigrant out of the country and send them to countries they never previously steppped foot in, like El Salvador and the South Sudan. “Released to the family?” They argue for family separation. Keep an immigrant boy in Florida?—they almost seem inclined to give him an inner tube kick him back out to sea and say “Good luck and say hello to Castro for us.” Back in 2000, they could at least make the argument they were advocating in good faith on behalf of a boy; today they would chuck that kid in a series of fenced in cages and then move him to Alligator Alcatraz before likely sending him to Liberia.

Bush’s argument was that Republicans wanted a conservatism that was compassionate; that understood human issues and maintained a level of dignity and humanity in it. There should be less government, less intrustion and less social paternalism, but that we would still lift up our neighbors and communities. Trump today doesn’t argue conservatism. He doesn’t argue compassion. If harsh conservativism can be summed up as “You’re on your own,” Trumpism can be summed as “You’re one of us, or we’re coming after you.” He’s as vile and malicious as they come, and has exposed that the Republican Party, entirely bent to his will, is now as well.

PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner

There is actually a happy story to come out of this, and that is what happened to Elian himself. He was reunited with his father, returned to Cuba and put front and center for Fidel Castro to propagandize. He became a national figure and icon. He was given considerable opportunities growing up as doors that are not always open were open to him. Here is a video from 10 years ago when he turned 21.

Today, he is 31 years old, has a degree in industrial engineering, and is a Cuban politician, elected to the Cuban Assembly in 2023. He’s married and has several children.

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

During the 2000 elections, the world was at peace, the economy still humming (although would stagnate a little over the summer with the start of the dot com bubble bursting) and Clinton’s approval was pretty high. Americans seemed content. So what were the biggest issues other than Elian?

1. Steve Forbes’ “flat tax” proposal.

2. Guns, and gun ownership rights.

3. School vouchers and education reform.

Bush would start out OK, but got crushed by John McCain in New Hampshire. Some of the infamous GOP “dirty tricks” occurred³ in South Carolina and when Bush won handily there, the nomination was all but his. The race between Bush and Gore would seesaw back and forth over the summer and fall until election day, when going in it was a toss-up who would come out ahead.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

I can’t believe this was 25 years ago. I’m getting old.

LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? MAKE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE AND SHARE!!!

Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. Think about that a second; REPUBLICANS wanting an immigrant to have asylum.

2. The Clinton Administration already had somewhat of a reputation, following the ATF raids at Ruby Ridge and Waco. This just confirmed what a lot of right wing “freedom militia” people already knew.

3. One of the more famous ones was a whisper campaign that McCain fathered a black child. In fact, McCain and his wife adopted a girl from Bangladesh.