HOW A REFUGEE MADE GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENT
In a pre-dawn raid on April 22, 2000, U.S. federal agents storm the home of a Cuban immigrant family in Miami. The armed agents seize 6-year-old Elián González from his great-uncle Lázaro. Despite the vociferous protests of many exiled Cubans now living in America, the boy is taken into official custody and two months later the government under President Bill Clinton sends him back to Cuba.
For the White House, the case is closed— but not for the exiled Cubans in Florida, many of whom have become U.S. citizens and voters. They have not forgotten the moment half a year earlier when the boy arrived in the U.S. after his mother drowned trying to bring him to America. On Thanksgiving Day the boy was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. Elián’s repatriation means his mother’s efforts had been in vain, and now the Cuban exile community wants revenge. The day will come when there will be a price to pay for the Clinton administration. But no one in Washington yet realizes the consequences this event will have just five months down the road— in the presidential election on November 7th. The race becomes a neck-and-neck contest between the Republican George W. Bush and his Democratic rival Al Gore. Florida proves to be a key state, and the votes of Cuban immigrants will be vital to success. But Gore faces a huge problem: As Clinton’s vice president he is being held partly responsible for Elián’s deportation. And in the final tally, Bush wins Florida by a margin of 537 votes out of the 6 million that are cast. Who knows how a President Gore would have reacted if the September 11th attacks had occurred on his watch. But for the Bush presidency, they mark the beginning of the war on terror, a conflict that won’t end for many years to come.