Custody battle developing over Cuban child in Miami
The Associated Press
MIAMI --
State officials want a 4-year-old Cuban girl to remain in South Florida
with a family acquaintance rather than be returned home to her father, a
newspaper reported Saturday.
The girl, who arrived legally in the United States from Cuba with her
mother and sibling two years ago, is being cared for by a family
acquaintance as the dispute over her long-term custody unfolds under
secret court proceedings, The Miami Herald reported, citing three
anonymous sources familiar with the case.
The girl was removed from her mother's care by the Florida Department of
Children & Families about a year ago after an investigation into charges
that the woman's severe mental illness made her an unfit parent.
Sources cited by the newspaper said the DCF then asked Circuit Judge
Jeri B. Cohen to grant long-term custody to a Cuban-American
acquaintance of the family.
The father in Cuba also is pressing to gain custody, but he has been
denied permission by the U.S. State Department to enter the country to
appear in court, sources said.
State law does not require his presence to grant him custody, though
many judges insist they meet potential caregivers. An independent agency
was asked to conduct a review of the living conditions of the girl's
father in Cuba.
The father and mother were not married, and their relationship had ended
by the time the woman and her children came to the United States, the
sources said.
After their arrival, the mother stopped taking her psychiatric
medication, sources said. DCF investigators took custody of the children
following a call to a state hot line that handles child abuse and
neglect complaints. The mother was given a chance to improve her
parenting skills and regain custody, but she failed, sources said.
DCF attorneys argued the father in Cuba is unfit for custody because he
took no action to safeguard the daughter from her mother's abusive
behavior while she lived on the island, a source said. The girl's mother
told child welfare workers at one point that she would prefer that the
girl live with her father in Cuba rather than in foster care, two
sources told the newspaper.
DCF also took custody of the girl's pre-teen brother, who has a
different father than the girl. There is no dispute about his staying in
the United States because his Cuban father agreed to surrender his
parental rights, the sources said. The boy also is staying with the
family acquaintance, who lives in Coral Gables.
Cohen has closed the case to the public and barred all parties from
discussing it publicly. Ira Kurzban, an immigration attorney who has
represented the Cuban government in the past, is representing the
father. Kurzban and DCF spokeswoman Erin Geraghty declined to discuss
the case Saturday with the Associated Press.
The dispute is reminiscent of the custody battle involving another Cuban
child, Elian Gonzalez, who was 5 when he was found clinging to an inner
tube off Florida's coast in November 1999.
His mother died when their boat carrying would-be migrants capsized, and
his father demanded custody after the boy began staying with his Miami
relatives in Little Havana. After a court battle waged by Elian's
relatives, the Clinton administration handed Elian over to his father in
2000 and they returned to Cuba.
Sources told the newspaper the history of the Elian case has much to do
with the cautious handling of the dispute. However, there are
differences, including the fact that the girl's mother is still alive
and the girl has no other family in the area other than her brother.
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