Honoring Elian’s raiders

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


A grateful nation will pay tribute next week to the brave men who rid our shores of one of the great scourges of the new millenium: Elian Gonzalez. No, it’s not exhausted TV watcher who will be presenting the awards to the federal agents who snatched the overexposed six-year-old Cuban refugee from the home of his Miami relatives — it’s Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner, reports LATINOLINK.

“They were people who did an extraordinary job under extraordinary circumstances,” said an INS spokesperson of the 130 INS agents who snatched Elian from his Little Havana hideaway in order to reunite him with his father. Some agents will even get extra vacation time — so long, presumably, as they don’t spend it in Cuba.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate