Attorney Contends INS Ordered Elian Gonzalez Files Destroyed
By Jim Burns
CNS Senior Staff Writer
January 08, 2001
(CNSNews.com) - Employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami, Fla. were ordered to destroy or conceal documents and electronic mail that were related to the Elian Gonzalez case, according to a deposition filed by an attorney who represents the INS workers.
According to Donald Appignani, "People were instructed to remove anything derogatory to the Elian Gonzalez case." He made the statement in a federal lawsuit filed by Elian's Miami relatives against the INS and Attorney General Janet Reno. The relatives contend that the Easter weekend raid, during which the then-six-year-old Elian was taken from their "Little Havana" home at gunpoint, violated their constitutional rights.
Appignani also testified that INS employees had told him "the U.S. government could be breaking the law."
Appignani approached attorney Ron Guralnick, who is representing Elian's Miami relatives with the information. Guralnick thinks the information is so valuable, he has asked Miami federal Judge Federico Moreno to order Appignani to disclose all he knows. A spokesman for the judge said the case is being reviewed and would not say when a ruling would be issued.
Guralnick also thinks the Appignani deposition has an "earth-shattering effect on our case." If what the INS employees are saying is true, Guralnick says it will be a "major movement" in the relatives' case against the federal government.
"People don't hide things if they don't have something to hide. If they have something to hide, that affects my case. I have to know about it. I'm not saying that they did or did not do it. What I am saying is that it appears that they did. I have no reason to question the integrity of a lawyer (Donald Appignani) who I don't even know," Guralnick said.
"I intend to call these people (INS employees) that did this. If someone has committed obstruction of justice and contempt of court, if it happened, there is criminal activity and whoever did it has to face the music," Guralnick said.
Appignani is a labor lawyer who represents the union that bargains for INS employees. He would not reveal which employees told him of the orders, who gave the instructions or what information the documents and e-mail contained. He said he did not hear the orders directly, they were related to him by employees.
Appignani also testified he saw a cup circulated at the INS offices with a plastic wrapper imprinted with a Cuban flag inside a circle with a red line drawn through it. On the other side was an image of a stopwatch with the number 154 inside. It was took INS agents 154 seconds to remove Elian from his Miami relatives' home in Little Havana.
"In my opinion, that was derogatory to the Cuban American community," Appignani said.
Appignani does not want the identities of his clients, the INS employees, to be revealed.
"Mister Guralnick has filed a motion to compel, to give up the identities of my clients. And I filed a response against that at the federal district court in Miami. It's my contention that I can't do that because of the fear of reprisal that might come on my clients from their employer," Appignani said. "Their careers could be ruined. Even though they are protected by the (federal) whistleblower act, they are not going to look too favorably upon them."
The INS would not comment on the case.
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