Attorneys for Elian Gonzalez Face Noon Deadline to Respond to Justice Department Ultimatum
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Attorneys for Elian Gonzalez's Miami family face a noon deadline today to respond to a government ultimatum. The Justice Department told them to speed up the appeals process or the boy's temporary parole status will be revoked. CNN's Susan Candiotti has more in this report.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By noon today attorneys for Elian Gonzalez's Florida relatives are supposed to decide: accept a speedy appeals process or the 6-year-old's temporary parole status will be revoked Thursday, making his presence here illegal.</s>LINDA OSBERG-BRAUN, GONZALEZ FAMILY ATTORNEY: The Department of Justice has been criticized for not acting quickly at the very beginning of this case. And I think that they're making up for it now. And I don't think that's fair.</s>CANDIOTTI: U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said she is not willing to wait for an open ended appeals process, quote, "that could prolong the separation of this child from his father." This morning, the boy is scheduled to appear in his first taped television interview. A spokesman for his Florida relatives say their desperate to have him say for himself he doesn't want to go back to Cuba.</s>OSBERG-BRAUN: This is the ultimate attempt to get the Department of Justice to get Janet Reno to consider Elian's voice. Elian's political asylum case needs to be heard.</s>CANDIOTTI: Reverend Joan Brown-Campbell, who escorted boy's grandmothers on their U.S. visit and favors returning Elian to his father, says no one should be surprised that the boy claims that he does not want to go back to Cuba.</s>REV. JOAN BROWN-CAMPBELL, COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: When he left Cuba, he left in a boat, and his mother died in that boat. And so his thoughts about Cuba, going back or coming from Cuba are no doubt affected by that experience.</s>CANDIOTTI: Over the weekend, perhaps the strangest twist of all: On a bank's window a few blocks from the boy's home, an image some claim is the Virgin Mary, proof, some say, the boy is blessed and should not go back to his father.</s>CANDIOTTI: Reporting to you live now from outside the home where Elian Gonzalez has been living for the past four months, we can tell you that at this hour attorneys are still working on their response to the Justice Department. These attorneys say they agree in principle with a speedy appeals process and could even go along with the dates set out in the government's ultimatum. However, these lawyers are still hedging on what they will say by the noon deadline, and they are planning a news conference to announce their intentions. Finally, if the family loses all of its appeals, will they turn the boy over? Well, the attorneys say they will do what is required by law. Susan Candiotti, CNN, reporting live in Miami. Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNmoney.com The Web