BY JAY WEAVER

 The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion in federal court in Miami
 on Thursday arguing that Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives have no right
 to try to stop his return to Cuba.

 The government said the Miami relatives have no legal standing to sue
 and no case to make for the boy's asylum in federal court and asked
 U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler to dismiss the family's bid to keep
 Elian in the country.

 Hoeveler set a hearing on the 85-page motion for the week of March 6
 -- promising news to the Miami family, which hopes Congress will grant
 citizenship or legal residency to the child before then.

 The government asked Hoeveler to dismiss the Miami family's suit on the
 grounds that only Elian's father in Cuba, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has authority
 under U.S. and international law to represent his 6-year-old son.

 The father has insisted on the boy's return to Cuba since his mother died
 on a tragic boat journey with him from the island to Florida.

 The relatives' federal court suit alleges the Immigration and Naturalization
 Service violated Elian's constitutional rights to an asylum hearing by twice
 denying the request made on his behalf by his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez.

 Lazaro Gonzalez wants Hoeveler to block the boy's return and order the
 INS to grant him an asylum hearing, maintaining that Elian would suffer
 ``irreparable harm'' if he were sent back to Cuba immediately.

 Hoeveler denied a Justice Department request to wrap up the high-profile
 case by Feb. 7 but said: ``There's just too much going on to let this be a
 project indefinitely.''

 In its motion to dismiss, the Justice Department's legal team argues that the
 Miami relatives have their case backward -- that if their suit succeeds, the
 ultimate damage would befall the boy, the father and the United States.

 ``The real harm is that six-year-old Elian is being kept from his father and his
 father from him,'' the government's motion said.

 ``The INS will be harmed if it cannot act upon the immigration decisions parents
 make on their children's behalf. And, if this country does not honor the wishes of
 a child's surviving parent, the United States will be harmed from the standpoint of
 its international standing in protecting parental rights in cases involving American
 children.''

 Although Attorney General Janet Reno would not comment on the suit, she
 expressed hope that Elian's relatives would do the right thing if they lose in court.

 ``I think they love the little boy very, very much,'' Reno said.

 The relatives' suit, which lists Reno among the defendants, does not focus on the
 emotional question of the boy's custody. Instead, it maintains the INS must grant
 him an asylum hearing under the Constitution.

 Ira Kurzban, a prominent immigration attorney, said that even though Elian is an
 alien, he has a constitutional right to an asylum hearing to determine whether he
 faces a ``well-founded fear of persecution'' back home.

 But, he said, the legal point at issue is who speaks for the child. And, Reno,
 backing the INS decision, found only the father has that authority.

 Still, Kurzban said, the federal court could side with the Miami relatives.

 ``A judge like Judge Hoeveler . . . could say that the attorney general can't
 determine custody [belongs to the father] and then determine based on that
 custody that she won't accept an asylum application,'' Kurzban said.

 ``So it's quite possible that Judge Hoeveler could say the INS was wrong in not
 accepting the asylum application. That, of course, has nothing to do with whether
 the boy has a claim, it's probably a frivolous claim under INS standards, but that's
 an entirely different issue.''

 Before Hoeveler could halt Elian's return, he would be legally obligated to find that
 his family would stand a good chance of ultimately succeeding in its asylum
 case.

 The relatives' attorneys, who filed suit last week, claim that Elian and his mother,
 who was divorced from the boy's father, had lived in Cuba with her boyfriend,
 Lazaro Munero, since 1997. The lawyers maintain that Munero was imprisoned in
 Cuba twice in 1998 for demonstrating against the Cuban regime.

 As a result of the boyfriend's problems, the suit claims, Elian's mother, Elisabeth,
 was questioned by the Communist Party about her loyalty to the party.

 Those experiences would harm her son in Cuba, it contends.

 But other immigration lawyers think the relatives' chance of success against the
 government are slim, because only the boy's father has the right to claim him.

 ``I don't know how they're going to get around the government's arguments,'' said
 Michael Ray, president of the South Florida chapter of the American Immigration
 Lawyers Association. ``It seems some of their arguments are based on what they
 want the law to be for political reasons.''

 Said immigration attorney Neil D. Kolner: ``You're suing the largest litigation law
 firm in the world, the federal government. They have all the resources of the
 Justice Department -- not to mention the law on their side.''

 Herald staff writer David Kidwell contributed to this report.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald