BY ERIC PIANIN
 Washington Post Service

 WASHINGTON -- While many Florida politicians are championing legislation to
keep Elian Gonzalez from being returned to Cuba, Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miramar
Democrat, says he has a better idea: helping someone who really needs assistance,
by conferring permanent residency on a motherless Haitian 6-year-old in his district.

 Hastings does not have high hopes that his bill will pass soon. But, like the vast
 majority of blacks in Congress, he is angered and perplexed by what he considers
 special treatment afforded to Cuban refugees and Cuban-American leaders.

 ''I have a long list of children in my district in similar or worse situations than Elian,''
 Hastings said last week. ''Why should he receive preferential treatment?''

 Hastings' view reflects the strong feelings among the nearly 40 members of the
 Congressional Black Caucus. Given the deep divisions in Congress over Elian's
 fate, the almost unanimous view among black lawmakers that the child belongs
 with his father in Cuba is striking.

 ''More than anything else, there is a strong value in the African-American
 community that parents have the right to raise, protect and make decisions
 for and about their children,'' said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a former
 caucus chairman. ''We do not believe that any argument other than abuse by
 parents supersedes the rights of parents to raise their children.''

 While a few House and Senate members have decried the administration's
 decision to return Elian to a communist dictatorship his mother fled, many others
 are ambivalent or agree that the boy should be reunited with his father.

 For black members of Congress, the case is a vivid reminder of what they
 consider a double standard in U.S. immigration policy toward Cuban refugees, on
 the one hand, and refugees with darker skin colors from Haiti, the Dominican
 Republic and elsewhere.

 CRITICS OF POLICY

 Many blacks have criticized the ''wet foot/dry foot'' immigration policy, which
 allows most Cubans to remain in the United States if they manage to reach land,
 while Haitians and others usually are returned to their homeland regardless of
 whether they touch shore or are captured at sea.

 Hastings, who represents nearly 40,000 Haitians in his district, complained that
 Haitian refugees are routinely deported, while those from Cuba get special
 consideration. As a way of protesting the disparate treatment, Hastings
 introduced a bill early this month focusing attention on 6-year-old Sophonie Telcy,
 a Haitian girl who was left in the care of a family friend in Lake Park when her
 mother died last year.

 'WORSE SITUATION'

 ''We have a child who is really floating,'' Hastings said last week. ''No one in Haiti
 wants her . . . and the family here is strained to keep her, since she has no
 benefits. If that isn't a worse situation than Elian's, I don't know what is.''

 Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a Cuban American who grew up in Union City,
 said he understands ''the frustration'' of blacks who perceive racial overtones to
 U.S. immigration policies.

 ''But the law of the land of the United States is based upon the view that Cubans
 are fleeing oppression and not some economic circumstance . . . and that
 someone who reaches this shore within a year and a day is eligible for permanent
 residency,'' he added. ''So until that law is changed, I'm for continuing to enforce
 that law.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald