 MORE NEWS ON LAWSUIT OVER RAID TO REUNITE ELIAN GONZALEZ WITH HIS FATHER
E-mails from INS employees at the Miami office recently made public show that many employees were concerned about the possible outcome of the Elian Gonzalez raid. The messages were made public as part of a lawsuit brought against the INS by the Miami family.
One message said that the raid would be a “black day for the nation,” and another message indicates that the Miami police may have been involved in the raid two weeks before it occurred. The messages also show that many in the INS Miami office feared that there would be a public backlash following the raid. According to a message sent by the local vice-president of the union representing INS employees, most of the union members believed that Elian should have been given an asylum hearing. The lawyer for the Miami family, Frank Quintero, says that the e-mails show that the government was never serious in its negotiations with the family, and had been planning the raid all along.
Quintero also claims that the District Director of the Miami office told a group of employees that he was happy to see agents pointing a gun at the head of man during the raid. Neither the photograph nor the man referred to has been identified. The INS has denied that the Miami office had a vendetta against Elian’s family.
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