American Dad and his Brazilian-American Son Reunited

I am glad that father and son are reunited. It is only right that the bioligical American father of a young boy whose Brazilian mother had died have the right to raise his son. Neither the Brazilian grandmother nor the Brazilian stepfather have a more legitimate claim to raise this young boy than the boy's biological father.

The whole case harkens back to the Elian Gonzalez controversy, in which the Clinton Administration's Department of Justice had to mount a clandestine operation to return Elian Gonzalez to his father, who wanted to bring Elian back with him to Cuba. Regardless of what we think of the Castro regime, I always maintained that what was best for the boy was for him to be with his father. And so I supported the Clinton Administration's actions with regard to Elian Gonzalez for the same reason that I support the current transfer of this young boy to his American father.

One notable difference is that the kin of Elian Gonzalez in the U.S. refused to abide by the legal decisions that awarded custody of Elian to his father, making the clandestine action necessary; but the Brazilian family of the young man who is currently the subject of this custody battle accepted, albeit grudgingly, the judicial decision of Brazil's Chief Justice of the country's Supreme Court. And though they turned the boy over in a way that sought to maximize publicity and exposure, a way that they argued was a manner of protest at the decision but which was unnecessarily traumatic for the boy, they still, in the end, peacefully turned him over to his father.

It was the right decision and the right thing for the Brazilian family of this boy to do.