BY MIREIDY FERNANDEZ, ANABELLE de GALE AND CURTIS MORGAN

 With Elian Gonzalez back in the arms of his father, the commando-style raid on his
 relatives' Little Havana home has erupted into the latest, hottest flash point in the
 five-month custody battle.

 Three new national polls show the American public deeply divided about the federal
 government's gunpoint grab of the 6-year-old. In Washington, Republican lawmakers
 were urging a congressional investigation. In South Florida, the reaction was predictably
 emotional.

 ''I thought it was the most unbelievable thing that I've seen in my life in the United
 States done to a poor family with a poor house,'' said a sobbing Bertha Garcia,
 who has lived in Kendall for 38 years since coming from Cuba.

 Homestead resident Cheryl Lynn Conrad said the defiance of the Gonzalez family
 forced the hand of authorities: ''Janet Reno did what she had to do -- uphold the
 law. The raid was very well executed. They were in and out very quickly with
 minimal risk to the child.''

 The latest polls -- taken Saturday and Sunday by CBS News, NBC News and
 CNN-Gallup -- show the majority agreed the boy should be with his father and
 supported government action. But the tactics employed proved far more polarizing.

 NBC News found a sharp split on force -- 49 percent disapproved, 48 percent
 approved. CNN-Gallup's poll showed a similar difference, 40 disapproved, 36
 percent approved. The CBS survey showed opinions tilting the other way -- 56
 percent called it necessary, 38 percent called it excessive.

 REACTION TO PHOTO

 The seizure, captured in dramatic photos shown around the world, sparked a wide
 range of reactions. It was deemed either a liberation or an assault on liberty.

 Alan Storn, a bus driver from the Bronx, N.Y., said when he saw federal agents
 carrying the boy to a waiting van, he stood up and cheered over his breakfast, a
 bowl of Cheerios. ''This was like the cops saving him from kidnappers. After all
 the threats and the crazy ranting, it would have crazy for them to go in without guns.''

 Tonda Robbecke, a nursing student from Paris, Texas, was appalled. Though she
 supports the return of Elian to his father, she considered the method heavy-handed
 and under-handed:

 ''To me, it was something I would see if he were in Cuba. It just was not right, not
 in a family home, not in America. These people have done nothing, no
 aggression, no violence.''

 Sergio P. Dalmau, a Miami resident for 39 years originally from Cardenas, Elian's
 hometown, said he found the national polls upsetting and uninformed.

 ''How does an American man in Vermont know what it is like to live in Cuba?'' said
 Dalmau, who planned to close his construction supply office today in support of
 the work stoppage aimed at protesting Elian's forced removal.

 ''That was way, way excessive,'' he said. ''It's unforgivable what the government
 did. That's something you'd expect in communist Cuba or Hitler's Germany but
 not in the United States.''

 Overall, the three television polls showed Americans tended to support the
 government's efforts to reunite Elian with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

 In the NBC poll, a survey of 680 registered voters with a margin of error of about 4
 percent, almost three of four people said Elian belonged with his father. More than
 58 percent said the government did all it could before using force. And nearly
 two-thirds said the raid did not merit a congressional poll.

 The NBC poll, conducted by Zogby International, also showed the issues split
 along gender and ethnic lines. More men than women thought Elian should be
 with his father, 78 percent to 59 percent, and backed the raid, 55 percent to 40
 percent).

 Only 26 percent of Hispanics polled approved of the raid, compared to 50 percent
 of non-Hispanic whites and blacks.

 In other findings, the CBS poll of 577 people with a 4 percent margin of error also
 showed that two-thirds of those surveyed believed the family would not have
 turned over Elian voluntarily.

 A similar split in opinion was reflected in newspaper editorials here and
 internationally. The New York Times said the Justice Department had employed
 force prematurely and ''has yet to offer a good reason why it did not seek a court
 order instructing Lazaro Gonzalez to produce Elian.''

 The Chicago Tribune wrote, ''Well done, Ms. Reno'' and said the action ''ended
 one of the most bizarre, arrogant floutings of the law in recent memory.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald