Cain Accuser Accounts Role in Federal Seizure/Kidnapping of Elian Gonzales to Cuba (2000)

Cubanet, (Miami) April 2000 ^ | April 2000 | Mimi Whitfield, Miami Herald

[AmericanInTokyo]

Her (INS Agent Mill's) instructions: Locate Elian, get him safely into a waiting van, and stay with him and allay his fears until federal agents reunited him with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

After Elian was found in a closet, Mills told him in Spanish: ``I know this seems frightening to you now, but it will all be over very soon,'' said Russ Bergeron, director of media relations for the INS. ``She told him: `We're not going to take you to Cuba. We're not going to put you on a raft. We're taking you to see your papa.' ''

During the flight to Maryland, aboard a U.S. Marshals Service plane, Mills, 33, repeated that message, which psychological experts consulted by the INS said would ``help overcome [Elian's] anxiety and assuage any fears,'' Bergeron said.

Once they were aboard the plane, he never left Mills' lap, INS officials said. It was his first airplane trip. ``Elian is very interactive with his adult caregiver. He was calm on the flight and he bonded with her immediately,'' said Karen Kraushaar, an INS spokeswoman who spoke with Mills after the plane landed at the base.

'APPROPRIATE PERSON'

Mills, an eight-year veteran of the INS, had been specifically chosen for the role because experts advised the INS that a Spanish-speaking, female agent would be the least intimidating for the delicate role of extracting Elian from the Miami home.

``We determined very early on that she would be the appropriate person for this operation. She had all the pieces we were looking for,'' Kraushaar said. ``As a law enforcement officer she was wedded to a very scary situation and she performed admirably.'

Mills, who is based in Miami, has a broad range of INS experience, is a veteran of tactical operations, and is fluent in Spanish. Her mother is Puerto Rican and her father was born in Virginia. Mills grew up in Pennsylvania, speaking both English and Spanish.

After a stint in the army where she was a member of the military police, Mills joined the INS as a border patrol agent in El Paso. Her next assignments were as an immigration agent in Phoenix and as an INS inspector in Pittsburgh.

RELIEVING STRESS

During the operation, Mills and another agent were specifically assigned to Elian. The second agent was a backup for Mills. Once the child was in the van, a key part of Mills' role was to put him at ease.

For the flight, the INS prepared food and a package of toys for Elian that agents had been told would help relieve stress and anxiety. They included a Pokemon game, crayons, an airplane and Play-Doh.

``The experts told us Play-Doh would be good to use when someone has been in a stressful situation, because you can squeeze it and it helps work out anxiety,'' Bergeron said.

Elian and Mills colored and played Pokemon together on the flight; he changed his clothes and he talked with his father on the phone. He was excited to be on an airplane and wasn't very interested in either food or drinks, according to Kraushaar.

Mills' mission was completed, said Bergeron, when she turned the boy over to his father at the Air Force base.

``Right now she's just trying to get some rest,'' Kraushaar said Saturday evening. ``She and the other agents were on call for 72 hours.''

[AmericanInTokyo]

My isn't that special, isn't it? For the Chillllldren, but of course. Former INS spokesman, (and Cain accuser) Karen Kraushaar, who had a role in this whole sordid 2000 affair of forceably returning a boy to Communist Cuba working in tandem with an INS/Federal Marshal swat team that went in with weapons loaded and cocked, into the face of the screaming boy, and returned him to Cuba where he has now become a "nice communist". Can this moral woman sleep at night? She certainly secured the freedom for one young man under Janet Reno, Maria Cardoza and Bill Clinton. I guess like the Nazis, we can say "just following orders."

[LOC1]

The best thing that could happen in tonight’s debate is for each of the other candidates to refuse to discuss these allegations of harassment. We collectively should shift the national conversation to the things that really matter.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Ping.

[Realman30]

I think she ought to stay in the closet!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Well, this should earn her points from all the rabid send him home to his father FR posters.

[cripplecreek]

Sounds like another unelected permanent government operative to me.

[gussiefinknottle]

the best thing is that they read aloud liberal
reporters coverage and nyts and wash posts
editorials on bill clinton scandals. then, for good
measure, they could throw out clinton’s fbi files
info, the private eyes hired to harass women,
and the vicious attacks by carville, stephanopolis,
begala, etc. on these women. talk about how
dems were always quoting european press on how
ridiculous this was. and, they should quote women
about current administrations hostile workplace atmosphere.

[Thane_Banquo]

Translation: This woman is a demonically evil grade-A super galactic beyotch.

[muawiyah]

So this Fascist POS complained about someone else making a hand motion that made her "UNCOMFORTABLE"?

If that was all we knew about we'd know this woman to be a very dangerous sociopathic personality type.

And she's still at ICE?

This is what happens when Republicans get into office and then don't go back and EXCISE the bureaucrats who facilitated some of the more outrageous excesses of the prior regime.

Bush should have fired this woman and her friends.

[TexMom7]

Boom Boom POW!

Wow you hit the nail on the head.

[AmericanInTokyo]

The sadness in Elian’s eyes, in his Cuban Communist paramilitary uniform, tells the whole story, but Fidel has seen to his development into a nice Communist. Wait till that place falls, and the true story that young man will be able to say. Many Americans are going to be ashamed of themselves, even some conservatives.

[cripplecreek]

I think the American refugees and immigrants from Cuba need to be reminded of this. It might help them make up their minds about Cain and his accusers.

[onemiddleamerican]

Translation: This woman is a demonically evil grade-A super galactic beyotch.

Only thing I can think to add is... without children of her own; which makes her an absolute expert in what's best for children. Not.

[RightGeek]

Should have sent her to Cuba instead

[TribalPrincess2U]

Bush should have fired this woman and her friends.

Bush should have fired a lot of DEMS. He trusted too much.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yes, Spanish language Cain TV ads for South Florida for the Republican Primary there can be ginned up...if by then they have NOT BACKED OFF HERMAN CAIN with these groundless smears and character assassination attempts. A whole ball of fire can be turned right back around upon these idiots and soul-less tyrants who sent a poor young boy, falling in love with America, back to a holy hell of a prison on that Island.

[Never on my watch]

I learned from my father “NEVER give Communists a victory”

A child in the care of his family was seized by US government armed officers at the implicit direction of Fidel Castro. Part of our freedom died that day.

[muawiyah]

Bush, as a rule, didn't go after people covered by the Civil Service laws. Fur shur all the appointed positions were dealt with simply because there were Republicans who wanted those jobs.

Still, it can be done ~ some of the protected federales can be identified and their lives made miserable. We used to call the places they get sent as Turkey Farms. Bunch of Democrats even once tried to send me to Dawson but I held out for Fairbanks and they gave up. They'd decided to punish another guy by sending him to Fairbanks. In the end he got a job in Anchorage and eventually bounced back once the Republicans came into power.

There's no reason this INS gal should still be an employee of the US government. She would have quite easily been put out on disability for life. It's not too late either. No federal employee should ever get involved in TWO MAJOR SCANDALS without some serious punishment.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I think the American refugees and immigrants from Cuba need to be reminded of this. It might help them make up their minds about Cain and his accusers.

They already know Cain's electric fence to kill joke plan.

[PaleoBob]

Bush, as a rule, didn’t go after people covered by the Civil Service laws. Fur shur all the appointed positions were dealt with simply because there were Republicans who wanted those jobs.

---

She “worked for Bush” according to FR reckoning. Doesn’t seem to matter to anyone though. “Woman bad, Cain good.” And now let’s all go back to sleep and re=charge our batteries for doing more smears of more “accusers” sure to come because Saint Herman said they will — and he would know (for some reason).

“Karen Kraushaar, 55, filed the complaint while working as a spokeswoman at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Justice Department in late 2002 or early 2003, with the assistance of her lawyer, Joel Bennett...”