Staff opposed Elián seizure
Backlash feared, INS e-mails reveal
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@herald.com
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Post-Elián dialogue highlights healing
Previous coverage
In the weeks leading up to the seizure of Elián González, some local employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service expressed grave concerns about a raid on the boy's Miami home, saying it would be a ``black day for the nation,'' according to INS memos cited in a lawsuit against the federal government.
In one of the memos, an INS special agent implies that Miami Police were involved in the operation at least 11 days before the April 22 raid to reunite the 6-year-old Cuban boy with his father. The city's role was to provide ``outer security'' during the seizure, according to the e-mail.
Former Miami Police Chief William O'Brien said at the time that he was not aware of the exact timing of the raid on the Little Havana home of the boy's relatives until the afternoon before it was executed.
This new information came to light Tuesday as U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno issued an order requiring a labor attorney for some INS employees to reveal their names as part of the civil suit by Elián's Miami relatives against the government.
The attorney, Donald Appignani, works for the union representing the workers.
He had turned over two internal INS e-mails to lawyers representing Elián's Miami relatives.
Appignani said Tuesday night that he had not made up his mind whether to comply with the judge's order or appeal it.
He has cooperated with the González family's lawyers by providing the initial deposition that accused the INS of destroying sensitive Elián-related documents, e-mails and other information.
He also brought to light a post-raid INS souvenir, a coffee-cup holder, that was seen as derogatory toward the exile community.
The two April 12 e-mails -- all between INS employees who are members of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1458 -- reveal that some Miami INS employees thought the raid might put district employees ``at risk of serious public reprisals,'' such as the public criticism following a 1998 INS raid on a West Dade flower warehouse.
In the e-mail to the union's national office, Jose M. Touron Jr., the Miami local's vice president, said the INS employees thought the boy should get an asylum hearing, contrary to the INS's official stand to reunite him with his Cuban father.
``If INS intentions against the child Elián González is carried out, it will be a black day for the nation,'' Touron wrote to the union's national officers, including President William King, based in Orlando.
He also copied then-INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, INS District Director Robert Wallis and other agency officials.
Touron, speaking on behalf of INS Special Agent David Wallace, the Miami local's shop steward, urged the union's national officers ``to speak up'' against any plan to take the boy by force.
SAFETY CONCERN
``You cannot remain silent on this issue,'' wrote Touron, an immigration inspector at Miami International Airport. ``If INS is still stubborn and still insist on going down the path of political destruction, we should care for our employees and their security and security of their families.''
In another e-mail, Wallace told Touron that as of April 11, the plan to reunite Elián with his father would involve Miami Police, U.S. marshals and INS agents. He said the information was provided by his first-line supervisor, Phil Warfield, and confirmed with an agent from the U.S. Border Patrol office in Pembroke Pines.
``So far all of this plan has been verbal, no written plan has been provided,'' wrote Wallace, who Appignani said was demoted over the e-mail. ``All agents are expected to be at work on Thursday, April 13, 2000. No leave will be authorized for that day.''
The night before, Attorney General Janet Reno had met with the González family at the Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin to discuss turning over Elián peacefully. But Lázaro González, the boy's great-uncle, refused to budge on her request.
ORDER DEFIED
On April 13, the government gave official notice ordering González to surrender the boy at 10 a.m. at Opa-locka Airport. He defied that order as hundreds of Cuban exiles gathered outside his Little Havana home, including celebrities Gloria Estefan and Andy Garcia.
González family attorney Frank Quintero said the two INS e-mails show there was ``dissension'' among immigration employees about the government's planned raid and that the Miami Police were involved in its strategic planning earlier than first thought.
He also said the e-mails show the negotiations between the boy's Miami lawyers and the Department of Justice were a ``hoax.''
``They were buying time to finish getting ready for the raid,'' Quintero said.
