Another Elian Gonzalez ?

It looks like the officials in Florida refuse to learn from experience. A few years ago, they wanted to keep 5 year-old Elian Gonzalez in the United States after his mother died. It took the federal government to step in and return little Elian to his father. Now they're trying to do the same thing with a 4 year-old Cuban girl.

The girl came here with her mother. The father, Rafael Izquierdo (pictured above), allowed the child to come because he thought the mother could provide a better life for her in the United States. But things did not go well, and the mother tried to commit suicide. That's when the state of Florida stepped in and took the child.

Now Florida could have done the right thing immediately, and returned the child to his father in Cuba. That's what both the mother and father wanted. But Florida officials have this thing about Cuba, so they placed the child in a foster home. Now the foster-parents, who are wealthy, want to adopt the child, and Florida officials are petitioning the Miami court to allow them to do so.

I don't really understand how they think they have any legal grounds to do this. The only real legal ground for removing a child from her real parents, is if those parents pose a serious danger to the child. But even Florida is not alleging this. It looks like they oppose returning the little girl to her father because:

1. He is a poor farmer.

2. He lives in Cuba.

Neither of these reasons can justify refusing to return a child to a loving parent. Do we really want to set a precedent that would say a child could be taken from a parent simply because that parent is poor or not American?

Would the child grow up richer and with more opportunities if left with the foster-parents? Yes, there is no doubt of that. But that would mean she would grow up separated from her family, and that is simply wrong. In this country, we have always recognized that parental rights trump everything but the safety of the child.

There is no evidence the child would not be safe with her loving family in Cuba. To keep the child in Florida and give her to rich people who are not even her kin -- that is just child theft.

It's time for Florida to do the right thing, and return this little girl to her family.