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STATEMENT BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FOLLOWING

"The question before the 11th Circuit today is whether the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service acted within the scope of her authority in determining that Elian Gonzalez did not apply for asylum. As we told the court, the Commissioner based her decision on three factors:

• "First, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has legal authority over Elian and shares a close and loving relationship with him, has made it very clear that he does not want to apply for asylum on behalf of his son.

• "Second, a six year old child is too young to make legal decisions for himself. An adult has to do that on his behalf. Under immigration law, that adult is his father.

• "And third, there is no objective basis for an independent asylum claim by Elian that would warrant overriding his father's judgment about what is best for him.

• "The Commissioner's determination that the child's sole surviving parent has the right to speak for him in these circumstances, and that a child of tender years lacks the capacity to make life-altering decisions for himself is consistent with principles in our legal system concerning the capacity of minors and the authority of parents or others to speak on their behalf.

• "Indeed, the bond between parent and child is recognized not only in our own constitutional order, but in the international community. Nothing in the text of the Immigration and Nationality Act -- the law that governed the Commissioner's decision -- suggests that Congress intended to depart from these principles in immigration matters.

• "The Commissioner followed these principles and concluded that Juan Miguel Gonzalez speaks for his young son Elian on questions of immigration.

• "We will now await the Court's decision in this matter and hope that the special bond that exists between Juan Miguel Gonzalez and his son will be upheld."

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