2 fathers speak out in Cuban child custody case (Miami, of course)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

2 fathers speak out in Cuban child custody case
A 4-year-old Cuban girl's birth father, foster father and birth mother spoke publicly for the first time about her case.

Posted on Fri, Aug. 24, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER, TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND LUISA YANEZ
[e-mail]

Two men, one a Coral Gables businessman, the other a farmer from central Cuba, squared off publicly for the first time Thursday to make their case why each should be the one to raise a 4-year-old girl.

On one side: Joe Cubas, 46, a nationally known sports agent, investor and real estate developer who is the girl's foster father.

On the other: Rafael Izquierdo, 32, a malanga and plantain farmer and sometime fisherman who is the girl's birth father.
(snip)

Also weighing in for the first time was Elena Perez, the girl's birth mother, whose suicide attempt in 2005 prompted state child-welfare officials to take custody of the children.

Perez, who relinquished her right to raise both of her children, supports her ex-boyfriend's wishes to gain custody of the girl and take her back to Cuba.





Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/213539.html

---

Cuban father Rafael Izquierdo talks to the media outside of the Juvenile Justice Center. At right is the birth father's current wife Yamara Alvarez. AL DIAZ/MIAMI HERALD STAFF



Here, Sports agent Joe Cubas leaves the courtroom. AL DIAZ/MIAMI HERALD STAFF



The court gag order on a juvenile custody case that has been going on for weeks in Miami has been lifted. The birth mother, Elena Perez, stands outside the juvenile courthouse. AL DIAZ/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Thanks to DU'er Mika for keeping us up to date on this situation.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Parents Sound Off In International Custody Case:Experts Testify In Cuba-Miami Child Custody Battle

Aug 23, 2007 11:39 pm US/Eastern

Parents Sound Off In International Custody Case
Experts Testify In Cuba-Miami Child Custody Battle

Natalia Zea
Reporting

(CBS4) MIAMI Family court judge Jeri Cohen was afraid this custody battle would turn into a media circus because like the Elian Gonzalez case, the result involves a child possibly being sent back to Cuba, however she changed her mind lifting the gag order and all parties spoke about the case Thursday afternoon.

The international custody fight that's been going on for more than a year in a Miami courtroom will finally go to trial on Monday, and all parties that want custody of a young Cuban girl spoke to the media.

The only one's missing were the four-year-old girl whose custody is in question, and her 12-year-old half brother.

"When it comes to my children, I'm guilty," said the girl's biological mother, who lives in Miami.

"My children have lived in agony, that's my fault; I don't deny that, my children didn't ask to be brought in to the world."

The Department of Children and Families took custody away from her after she suffered from mental health illness. The girl's biological father, Rafael Izquierdo, was allowed to leave Cuba and come to the U.S. to fight for custody of his daughter.
(snip/...)

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_235220616.html

[meowomon]

2. Unless he is unfit

The biological daddy should have custody of this child. Simple. Family law in the US will support this. Any judge would have no problem letting this child go with her father unless the judge is one of those right wing anti-Castro crazies.

[zbdent]

3. Too bad the Reichwingers don't agree about biological fathers' custody

with Elian Gonzales ...

[Judi Lynn]

4. The only people who have rights, apparently, in the eyes of the right wing, are

people who are politically in step with them. Everyone else can go pound sand.

[pnwmom]

7. It's not simple at all. The girl is 4 years old,

and she hasn't been with her biological father since she was an infant. Since her mother gave up custody, she's strongly bonded with her foster parents -- who have already adopted her older (half) brother!

If the best interests of the child were what counted, then she would remain where she is, with the family where she feels secure.

This shouldn't be about U.S./Cuban relations -- this should be about letting a little girl stay with the parents she loves, and not disrupting her life again. She's been through enough.

[David__77]

5. Why is this even an issue?

There is a birth parent that wants the child. He's not been found to be unfit. I don't care if he's Saudi or Cuban, or North Korean or French. That is the transcending factor in this case.

[Mika]

6. Its about a fantasized victory over Castro.

The cult of personality, in regards to Fidel Castro, exists in Miami - more so than in Cuba.

The rightwingnut exile extremists will put children through a slow meat grinder in order to achieve any "victory" over the Cuban government.



.

[Critters2]

33. They hate Castro more than they love their children.

They demonstrated this with Elian Gonzales, and sadly, it still seems to be true.

[pnwmom]

8. It's always an issue when a child's life is turned upside down,

for the sake of an adult.

The girl is four years old and she hasn't seen her biological father since infancy. She has no memories of him -- he is a psychological stranger to her. Since her mentally ill mother signed her over to the state, she has bonded with her foster parents and loves them. She also loves her older brother, her mother's other child, who has already been adopted by the foster parents.

How will she feel if she is taken away from her brother and away from the parents she loves? Don't you agree that this isn't just about the biological father and his wants? Shouldn't this be about what is best for the girl, too?

To me, it is just incidental that this concerns a Cuban father. This is like all the other cases where older children have been ripped away from loving homes, for the sake of "justice," and it is tragic every time.

[divineorder]

9. The Heart of the Issue

Is America's refusal to recognize or deal with the Cuban government. In any other case, the biological father would have been consulted or at least informed about the change of custody and given a chance to prove he can take care of the kids. Also, he would have been free to visit them and become at least part of their lives. But because of the embargo/blockade/our silly spat with Castro, neither party can come back and forth freely to make a case. Also, other countries already have agreements with us regarding child welfare and custody-which means the biological father has rights that must be at least considered before even foster placement.

[Mika]

12. You are 100% correct. That was the basis for the ruling in the Elian case.

The Fla DCF's argument on keeping the child from the father (abandonment) is because of the difficulties (travel, financial support, etc) and visa obstacles set up by the US government that make joint custody and responsibility impossible.

Blame the victim. Steal his child.

But, IT WILL BE A HUGE "VICTORY" OVER CASTRO! :puke: :puke:

[pnwmom]

13. The child is the ultimate victim. She has become a pawn.

And now she'll probably lose her brother and the only family she has known.

How can people think this is a simple matter? Only if the emotional well being of the child counts for nothing -- if she is nothing more than property that belongs to her father.

[Mika]

16. The law is clear on this.

Jurisdiction belongs in Cuba. The father is Cuban, the mother is Cuban, the baby is Cuban, their joint custody agreement was made in Cuba. The US and Cuba are signatories to the Hague Convention which states that child custody cases reside in the home country of a minor child who's parent(s) have legal custody.

The father is in Miami to return to Cuba with his child. The mother now wants to return to Cuba with her child (and the FLA DCF has no documentation of her having relinquished custody). Parents are the primary legal guardians. Fla DCF has no standing. Therefore the jurisdiction over the custody and adoption of this child resides in Cuba.

But, this is going on in Miami's kangaroo courts. Judges run for election. If she rules in favor of the law she will be run out of Miami on a rail by the hard line anti Castro extremist exiles that went berserk over the Elian case.

According to international treaty (and therefore the law) the Fla family court has no jurisdiction, and the Fla DCF has no legal standing in this case.

This was essentially the ruling in the Elian case by the 11th Circuit Court. Jurisdiction over a minor child resides in the home country of birth and/or residency of the parent(s) if they have custody. The supreme court refused to overturn the 11th court's decision.


If Mr Joe Cubas wants to adopt this child then he should petition for this in Cuba - provided that his parents want to put the child up for adoption, which both have stated that they don't.



-

[pnwmom]

19. Maybe the law is clear -- that still needs to be settled in court.

But what would happen if the well being of the child were paramount -- if her emotional well being rather than politics were at the core of the case -- that is not so clear.

Unfortunately, the law everywhere tends to treat children as chattel. It's simpler that way.

[Mika]

23. Anything Cuba is political in Miami. I suspect that the judge will rule in favor of the adoption.

She'll do that to preserve her career as a judge in Florida.

The case will make its way, on appeal, to the 11th Circuit Court, where they'll overturn the ruling based on jurisdiction laws.

Everyone knows this, but, just as in the Elian case, it is a way for various legal and political interests to establish themselves as hard line anti Castro enough for Miami/Florida politics. Miami's current mayor made his political debut front-and-center as head of the legal team (hired by the CANF) seeking to steal Elian from his direct family in Cuba. He ran for mayor essentially on that platform - and won.


-

[Bacchus39]

40. no, it doesn't say that

The objective of this treaty is not to decide child access issues. The main purpose is to quickly return a child who has been “wrongfully removed or retained” in violation of the custody law of the country of the child's habitual residence. If the child is removed from country by a parent without the other parent's permission, the child must be returned, and the custody resolved in the original country. It presumes that custody and access disputes should be resolved in the child's country of habitual residence, not in the country that a parental abductor brings it to. The governments of each country are required to help locate and return the child, if necessary, by force. If an abducting parent is able to avoid detection for an extended period of time, this does not automatically cause the child's habitual residence to change away from the country of the original habitual residence. There are exceptions allowed, including a grave risk of physical harm to the child, and others. But proof clearly rests with the parent opposing the return.

Japan has not signed this treaty, presumably because it would require the overhaul of many existing Family Court related laws, regulations and practices. In particular, Japanese courts currently are unable to enforce even their own custody decisions. Therefore, signing this treaty would require courts and law enforcement to be able to force removal of a child from any parent in Japan. This is currently not possible
http://www.crnjapan.com/treaties/en/hague-abduction.html

the law maybe clear but not your interpretation. the mother left Cuba and the father gave permission, correct? the convention doesn't apply.

[tammywammy]

11. Eventhough the child doesn't remember her father

They can promote a new relationship with him with visitation, weekend visits and such until they move back to Cuba.

The biological father's rights rule in this and he should have custody.

[pnwmom]

14. How can you say this when you have no access to whatever information

the Court has?

I'm glad that this is being decided carefully, in a court, not in the newspapers or by politicians on either side.

[tammywammy]

18. You don't have all the information either

I'm just giving my opinion on this

The biological father in this case wants the child. I don't see how he's even being considered unfit, other than the fact that he's Cuban (which should hold no bearing anyways).

BTW, check below to the story where Florida has lost any record of the mother giving up her rights (and she says she never did). The mother and father want to return to Cuba. Unless they can prove the mother gave up her rights and the father's unfit, they should both be allowed to go back with the daughter. Let the Cuban courts decide this.

[pnwmom]

20. All I'm saying is that when a child's well being is considered,

a case like this is NEVER simple. You're right -- I don't have access to all the information. This is the reason why Courts exist -- to decide hard issues. But I don't see why U.S. courts should have no jurisdiction.

[Mika]

25. The law says jurisdiction resides in Cuba.

Just because a Miami kangaroo court and the Fla DCF have inserted themselves into this case (for political reasons) doesn't mean that they have jurisdiction.

The judge must be sweating bullets right now trying to figure out how to twist the law into a pretzel - to keep her job.

[Bacchus39]

39. well, lets see if the father raises that issue in court tomorrow

they are in the United States aren't they? or maybe not show up at all. I mean if the court doesn't have jurisdiction then there is no reason to state the case at all.

[tammywammy]

28. The US Court have no jurisdiction

because the mother, father and the child are Cuban. And both the mother and father want to return to Cuba, that's why it should go back to Cuba.

[pnwmom]

30. Have the U.S. courts decided they have no jurisdiction? n/t

[tammywammy]

31. Yes

in an international treaty and the Elian case a few years ago definitely settled it. The US has no jurisdiction in a Cuban custody case, esp when both parents want to return to Cuba.

[pnwmom]

32. Then why is the case still under consideration in a U.S. court?

Whatever precedents have been set, the case hasn't been settled yet, has it?

[tammywammy]

44. Why is it still here?

Because it's Miami and it's dealing with Cubans. :shrug: Look at the Elian case, that should have been over and done with a a lot sooner than it was.

[Mika]

24. The judge is a politician.

She runs for her office in Miami. To keep her job, she'll have to rule in favor of the adoption. If she rules in favor of the legal parent (the dad), she'll kiss her career as a Florida judge goodbye.

Sad, but true, in hard line Miami politics.

[Judi Lynn]

15. The father and his daughter have been having visitation for a while, from what I've read.

I believe the rights of the biological parents are cosidered the ones which matter universally, from what I've heard.

You note that they claim the father is "unfit" because he allowed the mother to take the child. They tried that with Elián, as you read. Dirty, inferior, dishonest way of doing things, isn't it?

It's all going to be reworked now it is known that there has been some monkeybusiness with the documents, and the papers they claim they had to officially allow the foster parent to take the child may have never existed after all, since the mother said she NEVER gave up custody of her daughter, never signed anything to that effect, and has said she wishes that child to return to Cuba with her father.

Hope the Cuban American National Foundation and the reactionaries will lose this one, too.

[pnwmom]

21. The claim is that the father shouldn't have let the mentally ill mother

leave with the child. Has he explained why he thought that was in her best interest at the time?

[LisaL]

68. What is this woman's mental illness? If it's depression, then

she is in the company of many, many, many people. A lot of children would need to be taken away if people with depression are automatically deemed unfit parents.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Here's an article from the Miami Herald about the father's visitation:

Visits ordered in Cuban custody case
Posted on Mon, Aug. 13, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]

Signaling she may have no choice but to return a 4-year-old girl to Cuba, a Miami judge ordered Monday that her birth father be permitted overnight visits with the girl -- despite the concerns of therapists and the girl's foster parents, who claim a sleepover over the weekend ''terrified'' her.

Miguel Firpi, the little girl's court-appointed psychologist, testified Monday morning that the girl cried herself to sleep Saturday night during an overnight visit with her birth father, who came to Miami from Cuba two months ago to fight for custody.

''The child told me she cried a lot. She told me she does not want to go back,'' Firpi told Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen. ``She's anxious and concerned.''

Though Cohen expressed dismay that the long custody battle is traumatizing the girl, she told lawyers for the state Department of Children & Families and the Guardian-ad-Litem Program that the birth father has ''fundamental rights'' to raise the little girl unless he is proven to be an unfit parent.

And that, Cohen added, is a very tall order considering the state's case against him is ``anything but a slam dunk.''
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/201824.html

[pnwmom]

22. Thank you. The article goes to my concern.

The girl is being treated as the property of the father. After surviving her time with her mentally ill mother, and bonding with a new family, along with her older brother, she will have her life turned upside down again. Emotionally, she will be orphaned at the age of four and forced to leave everything and everyone who is familiar to her. But she's the father's property, in the eyes of governments everywhere, so she doesn't matter.

This kind of case happens every few years or so, but usually with American adoptive and birth parents. The fact that the father is in Cuba explains why it has gone on this long. But it doesn't make the situation any less tragic for the little girl.

[Mika]

26. She will be orphaned? Give me a break! She has a family in Cuba!

It has to do with legal guardianship, not "ownership".

If we think that any court or DCF can make a claim over a child (ownership) as they are in this case, then all children in foreign countries are endangered. Who's to say who, what , when, why, and where a child is going to be 'better off'. Should (for example) French courts & DCF insert themselves into adoption cases of American children whose parents do not want to put a child up for adoption, simply because they can make a good case as to the child being better off living in France with wealthier parents?

Its a slippery slope. That's why countries sign into law and rely on treaties like the Hague Convention on Child Custody. The Fla DCF is attempting to usurp the law for political points in hard line Miami.

[pnwmom]

29. Yes, emotionally speaking, she will be orphaned.

Emotionally speaking, the relatives in Cuba are all strangers to her.

I am not saying that there is an easy solution. I don't know what would be just or even what is right for her. But anyone who thinks that this is simple is clearly not taking the emotional well being of the child into account. Ripping her away from the only family she has known will have long term, serious consequences, as great as those of a child who has lost her parents in a car accident. Even in the best of circumstances -- with relatives anxious to care for her -- that is the kind of trauma that will be with her forever.

Why did the father consent to the mentally ill mother taking her alone to Florida in the first place? That is how this all began.

[Mika]

35. Why are you deliberately ignoring the facts. She isn't mentally ill.

She didn't even relinquish custody, as has been recently discovered.

She was despondent over her financial situation for a period of time. Now, she's doing OK and now wants to return to Cuba with her child.

Judi Lynn posted an article that supports this information, that you responded to.

Now you come back with the same lame talking point the hard line lawyers for Joe Cubas and the hard line exile talking heads are using that has been debunked for you, previously, in another posting.

:wtf:


Separation from Joe Cubas, who has only had foster custody for a short period of time, would be "as great as those of a child who has lost her parents in a car accident"?

Simply another specious argument. There is no basis in fact for such an argument.

This child would be RETURNED to her family, not "ripping her away" from her parents as you misrepresent.

You, and certain extremist elements in Miami-Dade are making the same backward, Alice in Wonderland talking point arguments.

This case, being in Miami and pitting prominent anti Castro factions against a simple working class man who lives in Cuba, is ALL about gaining some 'victory' over Castro, and you seem to be posting support for the political opportunists who have inserted themselves into this case claiming "ownership" of the child -citing unsupported specious arguments that ignore the facts- in order to steal this child from her legitimate (and legal) family. Its the Fla DCF version of 'destroy the village (the family) in order to save it'.



-

[pnwmom]

36. You insist on looking only at the politics and say it's simple.

I'm saying if you consider the child's emotional well being it is not. I, unlike you, don't claim to know the right answer in this case. But I do know it is a terribly sad and difficult situation -- not a simple, cut and dried matter.

Psychologically, her situation is no different than the other cases you hear of where children have been swapped at birth, or taken from loving adoptive parents. Whenever children are removed from homes where they are settled and secure -- in order to satisfy the legal system and the bio parents who claim them -- those children are traumatized.

Psychologically, her birth father is a stranger to her. And if she goes back to Cuba with him, she'll lose the brother who has been the only constant in her life. But go ahead, keep pretending that that won't be traumatic for her.

Anyone who knows anything about child development knows otherwise.

And the "facts" that you seem to be so clear about still have to be determined in court.

[Judi Lynn]

37. Only the most infantile, self-absorbed people wallow in emotionalism.

It's shallow, and it's transitory, it's unstable. It's always associated with ignorance, and stupidity: deep short-sightedness and backwardness.

The child has lived with her mother all this time until recently when things simply got too big for her after her new husband left with whom she flew to this country, and she discovered she couldn't swing raising the family she had all by herself.

The mother says she wants her daughter to go back to Cuba with the child's father. She would know what's best for her own daughter.

[pnwmom]

38. And a hallmark of narcissism is a profound lack of empathy.

Which seems to be the case here. Four year olds have deep emotions which you and others are unwilling or unable to recognize. They are not the feelingless belongings of their parents.

[LisaL]

56. This man is the child's biological father. He didn't give up the

custody of the child. Empathy is one thing. Laws are another. There are plenty of poor people in this country. And their children might be better off with someone else too. But unless these people give up custody, or they are found to be unfit parents, somebody else doesn't get to adopt the children.

[LisaL]

55. Those kind of cases are really difficult.

But it is my understanding that in those kinds of cases biological parents usually get to have custody. In this case, the biological father wants his child. He didn't give custody of the child to the people who want to adopt the child. Apparently the mother wants to child to be with the father. Under these conditions, I don't see why the biological father shouldn't get the child.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Many of us lived through the infantile ravings from the Cuban reacationaries who gibbered on and on

about how little Elián had adopted Marisleysis Gonzalez, his second cousin as his virtual mother since his own had drowned, and it would be a sin to take him away from her, having ~ BONDED ~ with her so well, and grown sooooo dependent on her, emotionally.....

They dragged in one of their own Cuban reactionary psychologists to "prove" their claim. They rolled and wallowed in that emotional crap forever. WISDOM is needed, not self-indulgent, self-serving infantilism projected onto the child. The most emotional people here are the assholes who are determined to get their way. Screw those idiots. They have no one's interest but their own at heart.

Before they ever saw that little girl, the father already had a place for her in his heart. He allowed his child to go with her very familiar, and beloved mother under an entirely different set of circumstances. She didn't grow despondent and depressed until her new husband ABANDONED HER AND THE CHILDREN as soon as they got to the states, almost right at the airport, the mother said.

So any kind of "mental trouble" she may have had was most surely not in evidence when she left with her daughter.

I don't trust a group of idiots to make decisions about her state of mental health, and hopefully the Miami court, even though they are vulnerable to intimidation from this hostile group, will plunge straight ahead and do the honorable thing.



Marisleysis Gonzalez.



Elián and his Cuban father.

[LisaL]

57. The man is the girl's biological father.

Men who have children are usually required to pay child support if they are not with the mother. They have certain responsibilities toward the child. So it's only fair they should have certain rights as well.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Well, by god, well, well, well! See this new wrinkle published today!

Lost record shakes up custody case
Months after the official court file in the custody case of a Cuban girl disappeared, attorneys made a startling discovery: They cannot find a crucial record

Posted on Sat, Aug. 25, 2007
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE
[e-mail]

Three days before a controversial trial over the fate of a 4-year-old girl at the center of an international custody dispute, an attorney for the Department of Children & Families dropped a bombshell Friday: They have no records to show that the girl's mother ever agreed to give up custody of the child.

For months, DCF and attorneys for the girl's birth father and foster father have planned for a trial in which the state will seek to prove that Rafael Izquierdo, the girl's Cuban father, is unfit to raise her. The trial is expected to begin Monday.

But at a hastily called emergency hearing Friday morning before Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, DCF attorneys acknowledged they have no documents to prove the girl's mother, Elena Perez, agreed to give up custody. The girl now lives with Joe and Maria Cubas, a Cuban-American family in Coral Gables.

The news infuriated Cohen, said sources who participated in the hearing, which was held in secret despite an order by the Third District Court of Appeal that proceedings in the case be open to the public. Cohen declined to discuss the development with a reporter.
(snip)

That's because much, if not most, of the evidence to be presented against Izquierdo involves actions by the girl's mom. DCF is arguing, for example, that Izquierdo should have known the child was unsafe with her mother because Perez was mentally ill, but he allowed his daughter to emigrate to the United States with her anyway.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/214785.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is too damned hot. Wouldn't you expect it, after all, in the town where Elian Gonzalez was kept hostage all those long, long, LONG months, and the community pitched a huge fit, burning tires in the street, calling for a city strike, and clogging the highways, shutting down businesses, threatening merchants who refused to shut down, when things didn't go their way?

I posted the new article as a separate thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2966475

[demo dutch]

62. That's how things are always done in Miami!

[Judi Lynn]

34. Anyone remember Sophonie, the Haitian child, living in Florida, temporarily, at the same time,

whose mother brought her here, alone, who was very ill and died? Unlike Elián's mother, who came here when her ex-con boyfriend, who had been back and forth to Cuba multiple times came back to Cuba to get her and bring her and her kid to the States, Sophonie's mother came alone. She HAD NO ONE WAITING FOR HER BACK IN HAITI. NO ONE to take care of her, yet the U.S. Gov't intended to deport the small, 6 year old girl.

The mother found someone she had known through her church in Port-au-Prince and asked for them to take care of the child, and returned alone to Haiti to see her doctor, and died soon after. The family here taking care of Sophonie loved Sophonie, wanted to keep her.

The story about Sophonie surfaced only after she had been discussed publicly in Haiti, even on the radio stations. Rep. Alcee Hastings attempted to get help for her.

At this point, I have never been able to determine what the hell happened to this child. Not yet. It really didn't seem to matter enough to Americans to elicit any interest.

Have You Heard of Sophonie?

Published On Wednesday, May 03, 2000 12:00 AM

By CHRISTINA S. LEWIS

Sophonie Telcy is a six-year-old girl, whose mother risked everything to remove her from the tiny island country of her birth, a country that is wracked by political turmoil and economic misery. After bringing Sophonie to the United States, her mother died, leaving Sophonie without care. Unlike a more well-known young motherless child, Sophonie has drawn no crowds. No marches or national work boycotts are being held in her honor. No one calls her survival a "miracle." The public is largely indifferent to Sophonie's plight because she comes from the island of Haiti rather than the island of Cuba.

The difference between this six-year old-girl from Haiti and her more famous male counterpart from Cuba is that the latter is deemed a political refugee, while the former is merely fleeing economic misery. The gap in treatment between these two children illustrates one of the most ideologically problematic distinctions in U.S. immigration policy. As tensions between Cuba and the U.S. ease and the political climate in Haiti becomes less stable, America should ease its restrictions against Haitian immigrants.

The poverty and misery in Haiti are so astounding that the argument to accept Haitian refugees could be made on humanitarian grounds alone. The country's economic structure has collapsed. It has no major industries, leading to an unemployment rate listed between 70 and 85 percent, according to a report two months ago by the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

However, helping people is rarely a good enough reason for Congress to act. The legislature needs to realize that Haiti's political climate is the real reason that Haitian refugees have flooded the coast of South Florida at a daily rate that reached into the thousands.

Last week, over 200 Haitian refugees were found stranded, without food and water, after a failed attempt to escape the escalating violence in their homeland as elections approach. The stories that emerge from refugees sound like they have emerged from a war zone. Some refugees who had been involved with the electoral campaign said that they had received death threats. "We were in misery," said Francisco Martinez, a Haitian whose parents were from the Dominican Republic, to the New York Times last week. "The chiefs in Haiti are killing people. They burn down houses."
(snip/...)

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=100804

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Florida's Haitian community fights to keep Sophonie in U.S.
May 4, 2000
Web posted at: 6:49 p.m. EDT (2249 GMT)

From Correspondent Mark Potter

MIAMI (CNN) -- Like Elian Gonzalez, Sophonie Telcy is 6 years old. And like Elian, her mother is dead. And like the Cuban boy who has been at the center of an international custody battle, Sophonie ended up staying with caretakers who are fighting to keep the Immigration and Naturalization Service from deporting the child.

But unlike Elian, Sophonie was born in Haiti. And there has been no around-the-clock media coverage of her story, no team of lawyers pressing her case in the courts.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Florida, in an attempt to highlight preferential treatment given Cubans, has introduced legislation to grant Sophonie permanent residency status.

Sophonie's story
Sophonie came to Florida a year ago with her mother, who was ill. Her mother left the child with a friend in Lake Park and returned to Haiti, where she died. The girl's father has not been found.

Sophonie is cared for by Jeanine Bolivard and her husband, both legal Haitian immigrants, who have three daughters of their own.

Through an interpreter, Bolivard said Sophonie, who is attending kindergarten, has become a part of her family.

"She's a good girl ... she stays out of trouble ... she always does her homework," said Bolivard.

But, because Sophonie was born in Haiti, the Florida family and Haitian advocates worry that she could be sent back home.

"Sophonie is facing deportation," said Marlein Bastien, president of Haitian Women of Miami, "because her mom didn't have a chance to petition for her to become a permanent resident."

And Bolivard worries about what will happen if Sophonie is returned to the poverty of Haiti. "She can die, because she don't have anybody to take care of her."
(snip/...)

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/05/04/sophonie/index.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From an article originally published in the Palm Beach Post:

~snip~
Now, like Elian, she is here but not here. She has no legal standing in the United States. No residency papers. No health insurance. No plain and

She got her picture in the paper once, after U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings filed a bill on her behalf, but the story did not make the front page. That place, especially now, is reserved for Elian Gonzalez, the little boy from Cuba, not for Sophonie Telcy, who came from Haiti.

Ti gason, the boy -- that is what the people in Sophonie's world call Elian, who was rescued at sea Thanksgiving Day and turned instantly into a cause celebre, from the moment he touched land until Saturday morning, when federal agents whisked him away. The people in Sophonie's world hear about Elian on the TV. They hear about Sophonie, too, but only when the radio broadcasts in Creole. Then, yes, people talk, rat-a-tat-tat, quick Creole gossip: What about Sophonie? What will happen to her? The little girl from Haiti?

"Ohhh, I do not know," Henry Smith said last week as he settled into the plump white sofa in his new Lake Park home, a place big enough for his three children, his wife, Jeanine, and now Sophonie.

He is not Sophonie's dad. Nobody is sure where her father is. Smith is her caretaker, the man who said yes when her mother, Sana Romelus, came to his door one Sunday morning a year ago holding Sophonie's hand.

"Will you take Sophonie for me?" she said. She was ill and had to return to Haiti, where she would last just a short time, he later learned, before dying. And so, Henry Smith said yes. He would take Sophonie.
(snip)

On April 4, Congressman Hastings, D-Miramar, put the feelings down on paper when he filed a House bill "for the relief of Sophonie Telcy."

He modeled it, precisely and purposefully, after one of the bills filed on Elian's behalf. It is only a few paragraphs long. It asks that Sophonie Telcy be granted permanent residency in the U.S.

In the accompanying news release, Hastings spoke plainly about the "patently disparate treatment of refugees from different countries."

And then he zipped about, talking up Sophonie's case on every talk show that would have him.

"In my view," his voice boomed from his car phone between appearances last week, "Sophonie Telcy is in a worse position than Elian Gonzalez.

"She doesn't have a mother. She doesn't have a father who wants to receive her. She doesn't have relatives here who want to care for her. It's an incredible situation.

"And here is Elian, who has a father who wants him back in Cuba, and relatives who want him here. So who is worse off? You answer. It's not rocket science."
(snip/...)

http://www.racematters.org/sophonie.htm

[Javaman]

41. Given the state of miami real estate due to the subprime burst..

I say go with the cuban father. ;)

[Judi Lynn]

42. New story posted in its own thread, from trial on Monday:

Tensions flare at Cuban custody trial
Posted on Mon, Aug. 27, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]

The fireworks began immediately Monday morning on the first day of a trial that will help decide the fate of a 4-year-old girl caught in a tug of war between two families -- one from Cuba, one from Coral Gables -- seeking to raise her.
(snip)

Cohen read long passages from the transcript of the Feb. 21, 2006, hearing, in which Perez described in detail her struggles in the United States after she legally emigrated from Cuba with her two children.

''I was coming here with great ideas, thinking only positive things for me and my children,'' she said, according to the transcript.

But as soon as Perez arrived at Miami International Airport her husband, Jesus Melendres, abandoned her. ''My dream {was} to stay in the U.S.,'' Perez said. ``His desire {was} to go back to Cuba.''

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/216582.html

[Judi Lynn]

43. Cuban fisherman fights celebrity sports agent for tug-of-love daughter

From The TimesAugust 28, 2007

Cuban fisherman fights celebrity sports agent for tug-of-love daughter
James Bone in New York

A Cuban man’s struggle to retrieve his young daughter from a prominent Cuban-American foster father in Miami threatens to start a new tug-of-war between the two nations, reminiscent of the battle over Elian González.
(snip)

“I know it goes wonderfully for some people, but I’m very disenchanted in this country,” Ms Pérez said. “My experience here has been abysmal. My two children and I experienced nothing but hard times. One horrible night, I decided that my kids would be better off without me and did something stupid. I’m not crazy. I have been depressed and had many sleepless nights, but I’m fine.”

The two children ended up in foster care with Mr Cubas, who became something of a folk hero in Miami’s “Little Havana” because of his career. He reportedly lost his certification as a sports agent in 2005 after one defector accused him of refusing to return his immigration papers unless he paid triple the standard fee. Mr Cubas now works in real estate. Ms Pérez agreed to allow the Cubas family to adopt her son, now 13, but not her daughter.

Mr Izquierdo says that he will not return to Cuba until he can take his daughter back home, where she has a room with a bed and toys waiting for her. “When I let her come, it was with the understanding that she was coming with her mother. Now she belongs with me,” he told reporters.
(snip)

“If the mother is saying she should be with the father, and the father is saying he wants his daughter, it would be very difficult for her not to go with him,” said Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a popular local Spanish-language radio host. “Cubans understand that the right of parents should be above all.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2337407.ece

[Judi Lynn]

45. Tensions flare at Cuban custody trial (Miami)

Source: Miami Herald

Tensions flare at Cuban custody trial
Posted on Mon, Aug. 27, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]

The fireworks began immediately Monday morning on the first day of a trial that will help decide the fate of a 4-year-old girl caught in a tug of war between two families -- one from Cuba, one from Coral Gables -- seeking to raise her.
(snip)

Cohen read long passages from the transcript of the Feb. 21, 2006, hearing, in which Perez described in detail her struggles in the United States after she legally emigrated from Cuba with her two children.

''I was coming here with great ideas, thinking only positive things for me and my children,'' she said, according to the transcript.

But as soon as Perez arrived at Miami International Airport her husband, Jesus Melendres, abandoned her. ''My dream {was} to stay in the U.S.,'' Perez said. ``His desire {was} to go back to Cuba.''





Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/216582.html

[Tyler Durden]

46. HERE we go...

I ain't gonna say SHIT about this one.

:popcorn:

[Ex Lion Tamer]

50. Yeah.

I got so pissed off over the Elian Gonzales thing I thought I was going to explode.

[Judi Lynn]

47. Washington Post Sunday article on this trial: Another Elian? Custody Fight Gears Up

Another Elian? Custody Fight Gears Up

By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 26, 2007; 1:35 PM

MIAMI -- A Cuban father allowed his young daughter to emigrate legally to the United States with her mother to find a better life. But months later, the mother has become incapable of caring for the girl and the father wants to take the child home.

It would seem a simple case, especially since the mother agrees her daughter should return to Cuba.

Yet on the eve of the trial, a judge has warned that it could "inflame the community," where the battle over Elian Gonzalez nearly eight years ago divided the city and became an international incident.

Testimony is to begin Monday over whether 32-year-old Cuban farmer Rafael Izquierdo can regain custody of his 4-year-old daughter _ whose name is being kept secret _ or whether she should remain with a wealthy Cuban-American and his wife who want to adopt her.

Until now, unlike Elian's case, this custody battle has moved quietly through family court.

But on Thursday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jerri B. Cohen reluctantly lifted a gag order at the request of the girl's foster father, Joe Cubas, 46, a former sports agent who has represented the New York Mets' Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and several other ballplayers who defected from Cuba. Cubas said he asked that it be lifted because he said he was getting many questions about the case.

The judge warned that allowing the parties to speak to the media "could have the possibility to inflame the community."

"It's going to explode," Cohen said. "I know that as sure as I sit here. I can't prevent that."

Still, civic leaders, many of whom fought hard to keep Elian from returning to Cuba, say they don't believe this case will spark similar reactions. The facts are different and neither the U.S. government nor the Cuban-exile community, burned by its negative portrayal during the Elian case, have a desire to repeat the past.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082600623.html

[Judi Lynn]

48. Something appears in the article which deserves a bit of scrutiny:

Cubas drew critics in the late 1990s who said he helped top Cuba ball players leave the island. In 2005, his sports agent certification was suspended following accusations by one defector that Cubas took his immigration documents and refused to return them. He has denied the allegations.
(snip)

Why was this swept under the rug? That's not the kind of charge you hear which comes out of thin air. There would be absolutely no reason whatsoever for the player to have invented it.

In the version of this Associated Press which ran in the International Herald Tribune appears far more than the Washington Post felt necessary with which to burden the public "beautiful" minds:

Izquierdo, a farmer from the central Cuban village of Cabaiguan, said he wants to bring his daughter back to his family home, where he lives with his parents, wife and their 7-year-old daughter.

"Her room is ready with and her bed and her little toys," he said Thursday.

When the reporters demanded to know whether the girl would not be better off growing up in the U.S., Izquierdo did not waiver. "I want my daughter to be with her father. I believe all children should be with their parents," he said.

Izquierdo, who is represented by immigration law expert Ira Kurzban, has complained that he has been allowed only 20 visits with his daughter and that often she is brought to him exhausted after a day of other activities. Still "their is love between us," he said.

Perez seconded Izquierdo's request.

"Now that she's not going to her mother, she should go to her father," Perez said of her daughter. "Those are the two best people in the world to be at the side of a child."
(snip)

But even popular Miami Spanish-language radio and television personality Ninoska Perez Castellon, who regularly rails against Fidel Castro and "leftists" on her morning show and who championed Elian's stay in Miami, said ultimately Izquierdo will likely regain custody.

"If the mother is saying she should be with the father, and the father is saying he wants his daughter, it would be very difficult for her not to go with him," she said. "Cubans understand that the right of parents should be above all."
(snip)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Cuban-Custody-Battle.php?page=1

[Tyler Durden]

49. COMMIE!

How DARE you even SUGGEST that ANYONE would be better off on that pestilence ridden back door to HELL, rather than life with non-related non-family who can SMOTHER this child with riches and privilege like microwaved CHEEZWIZZ on a bowl of pork rinds.

Do I have to turn off the sarcasm? I think it kinda leaks through doncha know.

[Judi Lynn]

51. God knows a child needs all the material things he/she can possibly receive!

You can never have too much!

It breaks your heart thinking of all those designer clothes, shoes, toys, and the yard playground equipment the Little Havana community bestowed upon the other one, Elián, knowing now that he had to walk away from "all that!"

[Judi Lynn]

52. We had to get the deeper story on the man attempting to gain custody from outside our country.

Only the Times in London had the guts to explain what the charge was about by a Cuban athlete against the man who's trying to gain control of this couple's kid. You may have noted that the Washington Post only touched on the subject without explaining the charge had enough merit to get the guy kicked out of his profession:

August 28, 2007

Cuban fisherman fights celebrity sports agent for tug-of-love daughter
James Bone in New York

~snip~
“I know it goes wonderfully for some people, but I’m very disenchanted in this country,” Ms Pérez said. “My experience here has been abysmal. My two children and I experienced nothing but hard times. One horrible night, I decided that my kids would be better off without me and did something stupid. I’m not crazy. I have been depressed and had many sleepless nights, but I’m fine.”

The two children ended up in foster care with Mr Cubas, who became something of a folk hero in Miami’s “Little Havana” because of his career. He reportedly lost his certification as a sports agent in 2005 after one defector accused him of refusing to return his immigration papers unless he paid triple the standard fee. Mr Cubas now works in real estate. Ms Pérez agreed to allow the Cubas family to adopt her son, now 13, but not her daughter.

Mr Izquierdo says that he will not return to Cuba until he can take his daughter back home, where she has a room with a bed and toys waiting for her. “When I let her come, it was with the understanding that she was coming with her mother. Now she belongs with me,” he told reporters.
(snip)

“If the mother is saying she should be with the father, and the father is saying he wants his daughter, it would be very difficult for her not to go with him,” said Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a popular local Spanish-language radio host. “Cubans understand that the right of parents should be above all.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2337407.ece

[tammywammy]

53. Judi Lynn

Thanks for keeping up with this story. I don't have time to search and search, so it's nice that I can find them here on DU.

Sounds like things really heated up in the court room today. Hopefully this is resolved quickly and they can all go back home to Cuba.

[Pithlet]

54. I hope so, too.

The Anna Mae He case recently wrapped up in Memphis, and the little girl finally went back to her parents last month. It's a heart wrenching case, but justice finally prevailed. Hopefully it will in this case, as well. And the "It's the only family he/she has ever known" doesn't cut it with me. It isn't an excuse to keep children from their parents. Unless they are unfit or have had their parental rights stripped from them, parents have the right to keep their children and raise them as they see fit, and the length of time it takes to resolve the dispute doesn't change that. The fact that one side lives in a "better country" or has more money and resources doesn't change things, either.

[Scurrilous]

58. Cuban father scores crucial victory

A Miami judge threw out a key allegation in the state's case against the Cuban father battling for custody of his 4-year-old daughter.

<snip>

"A child welfare judge Monday threw out a key piece of the state's case against a Cuban father seeking to regain custody of his 4-year-old daughter: the claim that his desire to raise her constitutes child abuse because she has "bonded" with a foster family.

Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, a 16-year veteran of the bench, tossed out the allegation against Rafael Izquierdo, the father of the auburn-haired youngster at the center of a contentious custody dispute spanning the Florida Straits.

'We often have situations like that. A parent says, 'I understand there may be some bonding, but I want my child. I love my child. I will fight for my child.' That's basically what you're : If a father does that, or a mother, it constitutes prospective abuse," the judge said. "I've never seen anything like this in all my years of doing dependency."

The judge's decision leaves two claims remaining in the state's dependency petition against Izquierdo, and the judge left little doubt she is not impressed by one of those -- that Izquierdo abandoned his daughter by allowing her to move to the United States and not sending her birthday cards or money after she arrived."

<snip>

"With everything I have seen so far, you do not have abandonment. I am telling you: I don't see it. It doesn't rise to what the courts need," Cohen said. "I don't think you meet the legal standard."

In the third count, the state is arguing that Izquierdo erred by allowing the girl's mother to take her to the United States even though he should have known she was mentally ill."

http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/217108.html

[Mika]

59. Yet another example of the Fla DCF lying in this case.

The Fla DCF is trying to pass off yet another lie in this case built on lies.. that a Cuban Peso is equal to a US dollar.

From the Miami Herald article posted by Scurrilous,

Kurzban dismissed the state's claim that Izquierdo abandoned the girl by failing to send her money in the United States.

The state, he said, claimed that Izquierdo had ``$8,000 in the bank.''

They really meant pesos, Kurzban said, which would be equivalent to $400 -- money he could not really send her, given Cuba's relationship with the United States.

[Judi Lynn]

60. Possible very good news in this article! The test will be seeing if the judge does the right thing

or if she does what will be the safer, and more popular thing, and give in the Miami Mafia.

From the article:

Signaling her frustration with DCF's legal team, Cohen urged the lawyers to take a second look at their entire case, a theme she has returned to frequently during weekly hearings. ''You need to listen to what I'm telling you,'' she told Kapusta and the two other lawyers representing DCF.

``You need to be intellectually honest with yourselves. . . . Or are you just so locked into something because you are state employees and attorneys, and you can't see the forest for the trees?''

Cohen's suggestion that attorneys reconsider their case marked the second time Monday that the judge criticized the state for its handling of the case. Earlier in the day, Cohen scolded DCF for failing to notice, until the last minute, that they lacked a crucial court order.

The record, documenting the girl's mother's decision to give up custody, was not in the official court file of the case, which had disappeared months earlier. Cohen said she believes the state simply failed to get the order signed. ''You need to take responsibility for that,'' she said.
(snip)

The judge's dismissal of the state's claim of ''prospective abuse'' gutted what was a cornerstone of DCF's theory of the case.
(snip)

I think everyone remembers these buttheads never take "no" for an answer, and DO keep appealing until they get to the Supreme Court, which happened with the Elián Gonzalez circus. If that happens, it's important to remember _Bush, whose entire family is bonded with the Cuban "exile" elite, going all the way back to Batista's death squad loving regime, owns the Supreme Court, unfortunately.

[LisaL]

67. It is kind of ridiculous for the state to claim child abuse because the

father wants to raise his own daughter, isn't it? Biological parents (rightly or wrongly) usually have a lot of rights in these kinds of situations.

[Judi Lynn]

61. Background on the "sports agent" who is trying to get control of the child:

AL DIAZ/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Well-known sports agent Joe Cubas, the girl's foster father, is determined to keep her with him.
Joe Cubas, the foster father, gained notoriety as a sports agent
Posted on Sun, Aug. 26, 2007

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
[e-mail]

In 1993, at the World University Games in Buffalo, N.Y., a portly small-time sports agent from Miami named Joe Cubas tailed the Cuban national baseball team's bus, flashing mysterious hand signals to the players.

For the next two years, Cubas -- debts mounting, his marriage falling apart -- stalked the star-studded Cuban team around the world, from Tokyo to Millington, Tenn., sometimes in his family's Ford minivan.

In the cloak-and-dagger style that would become his trademark, Cubas and his envoys set up middle-of-the-night meetings in motel rooms and dark parking lots where they plied the reluctant Cubans with food, cash and beer -- all in the improbable hope that visions of riches and glory in America's big leagues would tempt the talented but impoverished stars to defect.

For the longest time, no one did.

Until they started to sneak out of team hotels, sprint across ballpark parking lots into waiting cars to elude Cuban security, cross borders and -- in one famous case -- wash ashore in the Bahamas on a rickety boat.

Cubas almost single-handedly created the market in Cuban sports defectors, exploiting a loophole in Major League Baseball's rules by having his clients establish residency in third countries and offering their services to the team who bid the highest. Cubas became rich from commissions on his clients' multimillion-dollar professional contracts.
(snip)

Along the way, however, Cubas was beset by allegations from players and former partners that he ripped them off and coldly abandoned defectors whose professional prospects didn't pan out. The claims have been publicly aired for years. Cubas has denied them. Some of the most damaging allegations, including claims that Cubas solicited kickbacks from teams, appear in a 2001 book, The Duke of Havana, that quotes numerous former associates of the agents extensively and by name. Several contend that Cubas hired smugglers to get star Rolando Arrojo's family out of Cuba because the player would not otherwise agree to defect. The book says Cubas described the alleged scheme in a proposal for an unpublished memoir and boasted of it to friends.

Authors Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez say Cubas' career as an agent was characterized by ''double dealing and fiscal sleight of hand'' and ``blind greed.''

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/215475.html

[demo dutch]

63. Nice Guy! Figures he lives in Miami!

[Tyler Durden]

64. A perfect father figure...

:puke:

[Judi Lynn]

65. Internatinal attention to the case: Cuba custody case before US court

Last Updated: Tuesday, 28 August 2007, 16:10 GMT 17:10 UK

Cuba custody case before US court

A custody battle is being played out in a Miami court for a four-year-old Cuban girl settled with US foster parents.

The girl was taken into custody when her mother attempted suicide after moving to the US. Her father, Rafael Izquierdo, wants her to return to Cuba.

Florida officials argue she should stay with her wealthy foster parents, former baseball agent Joe Cubas and his wife.

The case has evoked memories of the highly publicised custody saga of Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6967155.stm

[Scurrilous]

66. DCF chief calls Cuban dad case `unusual'

<snip>

"The head of Florida's child welfare agency said Tuesday that the agency's case to take away a child from a Cuban national is ''unusual'' and is the most expensive to occur on his watch.

Department of Children & Families chief Bob Butterworth made his statements to a reporter shortly after he appeared before a state legislative committee that is tasked with cutting his budget.

But despite a lack of cash and a tough time in court, Butterworth said he has no regrets over the estimated tens of thousands of dollars DCF has spent trying to keep Rafael Izquierdo from gaining custody of his 4-year-old daughter from a Coral Gables foster family.

"This is one case that I guess occurs every eight years," Butterworth said, referring to the world-watched Elián González case. "This case is now in trial. It will be over very, very shortly. Hopefully, the judge will make her decision. Hopefully, that will be it."

Asked if that meant the state would drop any further action if a judge ruled against DCF, Butterworth said that the agency would "have to assess" that."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/217758.html

[Judi Lynn]

69. Dad In Cuba Custody Case Calls Case A Kidnapping

Aug 28, 2007 8:14 am US/Eastern

Dad In Cuba Custody Case Calls Case A Kidnapping
Experts Testify In Cuba-Miami Child Custody Battle
Ileana Varela
Reporting

~snip~
"I was coming here with great ideas, with only positive ideas for my children," Perez told a previous judge.

But upon arriving at the airport in the U.S., Perez's husband abandoned her and relatives in Miami said he couldn't stay with them. She briefly received help from Catholic Charities and moved to Texas, but found little reliable daycare for her children and returned to Miami.

Days before Christmas, she called 911, begging for help and saying she didn't want to hurt her children.

"I was eaten with panic. I didn't have anybody," Perez said, according to the transcript. "I was just looking for a defense for the government to look what was going on with me and my children."

Perez eventually agreed to allow her children to stay with the cousin of the husband who abandoned her. But the transcript also made clear that Perez was confused about the proceedings and her attorney didn't speak Spanish. She wanted to avoid a trial and have her children to stay with the relatives.
(snip/...)

http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_238115625.html