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The custody and immigration status of a young Cuban boy, Elián González (born December 6, 1993), was at the center of a heated controversy in 2000 involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, his father, his Miami and Cuban relatives, and the Cuban-American community of Miami. However, a district court's ruling that the Miami relative could not petition for asylum on the boy's behalf was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, Elián González returned to Cuba with his father on June 28, 2000. Hostility between Cuba and the United States has been persistent since the Cuban Revolution. During that period, a considerable number of Cubans have tried to leave for the United States covertly, seeking alternative economic, social or political conditions. This emigration is illegal under both Cuban and U.S. law.
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