Elian Relatives to Appeal Again

Lawyers for Elian Gonzalez’s Miami relatives planned to make a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court today to block the Cuban boy’s return to his homeland and grant him a political asylum hearing.

The lawyers were expected to file an emergency petition asking Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to order that Elian stay in the United States until the Supreme Court hears their appeal, a family spokesman said. Kennedy is assigned to hear emergency matters from the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

That court refused Friday to reconsider its decision that U.S. immigration officials acted within their authority when they denied the 6-year-old a political asylum hearing. The court upheld the immigration officials’ decision that Elian’s father is the only one who should decide where so young a child should live.

The Circuit Court said an injunction preventing Elian’s father from taking his son home to Cuba will expire at 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

A single Supreme Court justice could extend the stay, but at least four of the nine justices would have to agree to hear the appeal.

Legal experts said it was unlikely the justices would agree to hear the case because it does not raise new legal issues or address conflicting rulings.

Elian survived a November 1999 migrant voyage from Cuba in which his mother and 10 others died. His Miami relatives sued to win him political asylum in the United States, arguing he shouldn’t grow up in a communist country.