The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear brief arguments on a claim by
                  Elian's Miami relatives that the 6-year-old should be allowed to pursue political
                  asylum in the United States because he would be persecuted if he returns to
                  communist-ruled Cuba.

                  Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was reunited with his son after federal agents
                  seized him from the Miami kinfolk in a predawn raid on April 22. Juan Gonzalez has
                  asked the court to drop the asylum petition so he can take Elian back to their
                  hometown of Cardenas, Cuba.

                  "It appears that the court is going in the direction of allowing the Miami relatives to
                  pursue the asylum claim in spite of the wishes of his father," said Dale Schwartz, an
                  Atlanta immigration lawyer and a former president of the American Immigration
                  Lawyers Association.

                  Donato Dalrymple, one of the two men who rescued Elian, filed a petition with the
                  11th Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that Kendall Coffey be replaced as an
                  attorney representing Elian's interests.

                  "I'm just doing all that I can do to be able to rescue Elian again," Dalrymple said.

                  Dalrymple said he took the action because Coffey said he would not argue the case
                  about the government raid on the Miami home of Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez.

                  Rallies in New Jersey, Washington

                  Elian has been at the center of a custody battle since he was rescued off the
                  Florida coast on November 25 after floating on an inner tube for 50 hours. His
                  mother and 10 others died when their small boat sank as they tried to make it
                  from Cuba to the United States. The boy and two adults survived.

                  A group of women gathered outside the Justice Department in Washington to
                  honor Elian's mother and to mark International Mothers Day.

                  "We must be her voice," said one woman speaking at the rally.

                  Elian was put in the temporary custody of great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami.
                  He quickly became a poster boy on both sides of the Florida Straits -- to exiles in
                  Florida, he is a symbolic victim of Cuban President Fidel Castro's revolution; to
                  Castro, he is a pawn of the Miami exile "Mafia" and U.S. hard-line policy toward
                  the island.

                  Lazaro Gonzalez and Fidel Castro's estranged daughter, Alina Fernandez, spoke
                  at a rally on Wednesday in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, near
                  the Statue of Liberty. They spoke to dozens of Cuban exiles opposed to Elian's
                  return to Cuba.

                 Father's arrival in U.S. changes court fight

                 When Juan Gonzalez, a Cuban tourism worker, flew to Washington, D.C., on
                 April 6 to reclaim his son, he changed the nature of the legal battle. Through
                 his lawyer, he accused his uncle Lazaro of trying to destroy his family and asked
                 the court to dismiss Lazaro Gonzalez's petition requesting political asylum for Elian.

                  "The dynamics of the case make the position of the father vis-a-vis Elian
                  unavoidable. It has to be addressed by the court," University of Miami law
                  professor Bernard Perlmutter said. "Just the fact that Elian has been restored to
                  the care of his father would make it very difficult for the court to render a
                  decision that would rend asunder this family a second time."

                  Elian has been staying with his father, stepmother Nercy and baby half-brother
                  Hianny at the Wye River Plantation, a secluded conference center on Maryland's
                  Eastern shore. He is under court order not to leave the country while his appeal
                  is pending.

                  Neither the boy nor his father are expected to attend the Atlanta hearing
                  Thursday. The Miami relatives, including Lazaro Gonzalez and his daughter
                  Marisleysis, who helped care for Elian, have said they plan to travel to Atlanta.

                  Meanwhile, a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation of Elian to be used in
                  consideration of his appeal was filed with the court on Wednesday. But the panel
                  sealed the contents so they will not be made public.

                  The report is based on the observations of psychiatrist Paulina Kernberg and
                  clinical social worker Susan Ley.

                  Ruling may hinge on definition of 'any alien'

                  Legal experts say the 11th Circuit's decision will hinge on its interpretation of a
                  statute that says "any alien" may apply for political asylum. The question is
                  whether Congress, when it established the law, envisioned that a 6-year-old
                  would seek refuge.

                  Even if Elian gets a hearing, it would be held before an asylum officer for the
                  U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS previously ruled the boy
                  belongs with his father.

                  And even if Elian is awarded political asylum, there would be little to prevent
                  Juan Gonzalez from returning to Cuba with his son.

                  "There's nothing in the law that says that if you're offered political asylum, you
                  have to accept," Perlmutter said. "There would be nothing, except perhaps an
                  order from the INS, that would prevent the father from taking him by his hand
                  and returning him to Cardenas, Cuba."

                           The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.