Copy refutes claim by relatives' lawyer

 BY ALFONSO CHARDY

 The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service late Sunday released a copy of the search
 warrant it obtained from a federal magistrate in Miami authorizing the predawn raid in which
 federal agents seized Elian Gonzalez.

 U.S. Magistrate Robert Dube signed the warrant Friday evening after INS special agent Mary A.
 Rodriguez submitted an affidavit outlining the need for the search warrant.

 The INS released the copy of the search warrant and copies of the agency's application and
 affidavit for the search warrant after Kendall Coffey, one of the attorneys for the Miami family,
 raised questions about the legality of the raid, saying no warrant had been presented at the
 house.

 Maria Cardona, an INS spokesman, said a warrant was obtained at 7:20 p.m. Friday from
 Dube and that the document legally enabled federal officers to enter the home.

 ''It was absolutely a legal operation,'' Cardona said.

 Meanwhile, Coffey released copies of a letter in which Elian's Miami relatives asked Attorney
 General Janet Reno for guarantees the boy will not be turned over to Cuban diplomats before an
 appeals court rules on whether he has the right to a political asylum hearing.

 Reno did not respond to the relatives' plea, but the INS released copies of a departure control
 order that requires Elian and his father to remain in the United States.

 Robert Wallis, the INS District Director in Miami signed the order, which instructs Elian's father --
 Juan Miguel Gonzalez -- to stay in the United States with his son.

 ''I order you not to depart or attempt to depart with your son from the United States, or to aid or
 assist or attempt to aid or assist in your son's departure from the United States, until the
 injunction entered by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in that case is no longer in effect,'' the
 order said.