Click here for our free newsletter. It's almost over. The Miami family members can seek a rehearing before the entire U.S. Court of Appeals and appeal to the Supreme Court. That makes it tough to say how soon the elder Gonz lez might take his son home to Cuba, but given the nature of the court's ruling, it looks as if that's more a question of when than if. The ruling came from the same trio of judges that seemed willing in April to consider allowing anyone to file an asylum application on behalf of a young child.
Legal experts say the judges obviously rethought that position.
But it wasn't easy. The contrast between the legalistic text of the ruling and the more emotionally worded footnotes indicates the judges were torn between distrust of Cuba's communist government and their conservative commitment to staying out of immigration matters. After he was rescued at sea in November, Eli n went to live with his great-uncle, L zaro Gonz lez. After protracted negotiations with the Miami family, federal agents seized the boy on Easter weekend and returned him to his father. Despite the court's misgivings, legal experts say the decision is airtight.