BY JAY WEAVER

 If the United States sends Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba to be with his father,
 federal officials will be acknowledging the custody claims the father has been
 making since his son was rescued Thanksgiving Day off Fort Lauderdale Beach.

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez asserted from day one that as the biological father, he had
 first rights to the 6-year-old boy -- not Elian's relatives in Miami. But Gonzalez ran
 into a wall of immigration laws that made it possible for the unaccompanied
 Cuban minor to stay with his relatives in Miami.

 If he had come from any other country, Elian would be back with his father by
 now.

 But now it appears federal officials are trying to reach a compromise with the
 father by agreeing to meet with him in Cuba, so he doesn't have to come to the
 United States to assert his natural custody rights in Miami-Dade family court.

 ``What they're saying is, there is family law written into the immigration laws,''
 said University of Miami law Professor David Abraham. ``Previously, INS said the
 father had to assert his rights here. Now the State Department is saying that INS
 has the authority to go talk with the father in Cuba. He has an opportunity to
 reclaim his son, perhaps one that doesn't require that he appear in Florida court.''

 The boy's attorney, Spencer Eig, said he was not certain why immigration officials
 reversed themselves.

 ``We're going to address the range of possibilities and defend his right to stay in
 the United States,'' said Eig, who is representing Elian's great-uncle and
 great-aunt, who want to keep him here.

 LEGAL STANDARD

 U.S. and international laws mandate the return of the child to his closest living
 relative unless it can be demonstrated it is in his best interests to remain in the
 custody of others. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act considers the
 parental relationship paramount, legal experts and U.S. officials say.

 In this case, however, the pleas of Elian's father have competed with the
 complexities of U.S. policy toward communist Cuba and its president, Fidel
 Castro. When the Coast Guard brought the boy to shore, Elian became what is
 known as a ``dry foot'' under U.S. immigration policy. As such, the boy can apply
 for permanent residency under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act.

 No other country is singled out in this way under U.S. law. As a result, the boy's
 fate got swept up in Cold War politics pitting Castro against Miami's Cuban exile
 community.

 ``This is setting the stage for what I was hoping would happen all along -- that the
 process would involve the father and a mechanism that the two governments
 could agree upon for the return of the boy,'' said Bernard Pearlmutter, director of
 the University of Miami's Children and Youth Law Clinic.

 It could become more complicated.

 CONFLICTING GOALS

 ``Our ultimate concern is, it's hard to justify denying the father his parental rights,''
 said Miami attorney Richard Milstein, who specializes in family law. ``But it's also
 hard to justify sending a boy back to a totalitarian regime.''

 One unresolved question is whether Elian's voyage toward Florida constituted an
 abduction, as Cuba alleges. Relatives say the boy split his time living with each of
 his divorced parents in Cuba, and the father says he received no warning that the
 mother was going to flee to Florida with Elian.

 The United States, unlike Cuba, honors an international agreement known as the
 Hague Convention that requires returning abducted children to their home country.

 ``If the mother were found to have abducted the child, then the United States must
 return the child immediately,'' UM's Abraham said. ``The State Department
 doesn't want to look like it's violating that agreement.''

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald