On November 25, 1999, eleven Cubans drowned at sea on their way to the United States in search of a better life. There was only one survivor: a five-year-old boy named Elián González. Ordinarily, undocumented immigrants are quickly returned to their homelands. After Elián was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, however, his case became a heated custody battle and a divisive political issue.

On the one hand were relatives of the boy who were living in the United States as legal residents. Because Elián’s mother died trying to bring him to Florida, they maintained, it was clear that she had wanted the boy to live in the United States. They argued that returning Elián to Communist-led Cuba was equivalent to taking away his freedom. When five-year-old Elián requested political asylum, many thought his relatives...