ASHINGTON - Breaking with President Clinton on an issue involving a key voter group, Vice President Al Gore yesterday announced he would support legislation giving permanent resident status to Elian Gonzalez, his father in Cuba, and other relatives.
The Senate bill, if passed, would switch the Gonzalez controversy from an immigration issue, handled in the federal courts, to a custody matter, handled by state courts. It would take Elian's fate away from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which has ordered the 6-year-old boy returned to his father in Cuba.
''From the very beginning, I have said that Elian Gonzalez's case is at heart a custody matter,'' Gore said in a statement. ''It is a matter that should be decided by courts that have the experience and the expertise to resolve custody cases with due process, and based on Elian's best interests.
''It now appears that our immigration laws may not be broad enough to allow for such an approach in Elian's case,'' Gore said. ''That is why I am urging Congress to immediately pass legislation ... which would grant permanent resident status to Elian, his father, stepmother, half-brother, grandmothers and grandfather so that this case can be adjudicated properly.''
The comments play to South Florida's Cuban-American community, a critical and politically active group in Florida that has expressed its deep anger at the Clinton-Gore administration's decision to send Elian back to Cuba. Elian was found floating on an innertube last November, a survivor of a perilous trip from Cuba that killed his mother and 10 others.
Cuban-Americans typically vote Republican, and Florida - governed by Jeb Bush, brother of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush - was once thought to be a lock for the Texas governor. But recently, the Gore campaign has seen Florida, with 25 electoral votes, as a state the vice president could win.
Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway denied that Gore's statement was meant to appease Cuban-Americans. ''It's because he believes it ought to go to family court,'' Hattaway said.
Bush, who advocates full citizenship for Elian, called on Gore to ''use his influence'' to get Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno to support the bill. The pending legislation backed by Gore, sponsored by Senators Bob Smith, Republican of New Hampshire, and Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, would grant permanent resident status for the Gonzalezes, not citizenship.
Campaigning in Wisconsin, Bush reiterated his view that the youngster and his father should be permitted to stay in the United States while Florida courts resolve the issue.
''I would hope if Mr. Gonzalez does come over, that he come over as a person who's able to make a decision based on his desire, that he be given a chance to feel in America what freedom means before he makes any decision, and that decision be made in a family court,'' Bush told reporters.
On Capitol Hill, Gore's unexpected announcement stunned some of his Democratic colleagues. Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, said the move made her question whether she would continue to support the vice president.
''I do not like it. I do not think this should be handled in a political manner,'' Waters, clearly taken off guard by the Gore announcement, said during a live program on CNN. ''This is not a custody case. It's an immigration case.''
David Abraham, a family law professor at the University of Miami Law School, said that even if the Gonzalezes were granted resident status, the matter should still be resolved in the Cuban courts. Both case law and the US uniform child custody code support this notion, he said.
White House spokesman Jake Siewert played down the policy split between the president and the vice president. Clinton has said publicly that the matter should be dealt with in the courts, and that he hoped Elian's Miami relatives would abide by the INS's demands.
''We expect the vice president will have different views on different issues from time to time,'' Siewert said. ''We're not supporting any change in the law. We're trying to enforce the law as it stands.''
The White House is uncomfortable with the use of legislation to help a particular individual or individuals, in Elian's case, said a White House source.
