Alan Diaz's Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Elian being discoverd by a BORTAC Agent

On Saturday, April 22, 2000, due to an order issued by a federal magistrate, eight SWAT-equipped agents of the Border Patrol’s Unit BORTAC unit siezed 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the Miami, Florida home of his paternal relatives.

During the confusion caused by the agents entering the home and the protestors outside, Associated Press photographer Alan Diaz was able to enter the house, finding the room where Elián, his great uncle’s wife Angela Lázaro, her niece, the niece’s young son, and Donato Dalrymple, one of the fishermen who had rescued him from the ocean, were hiding . When the agents discovered that the bedroom door was locked, the kicked it down and Diaz took the famous picture,that won him the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, of a BORTAC Agent with a MP5 submachine gun pointed toward Elian and Donato Dalrymple.

Under both Cuban and U.S law, covertly attempting to emigrate to the United States from Cuba is illegal. The current U.S. policy is the “wet feet, dry feet” rule: If a Cuban is picked up at sea or walking toward shore, he/she will be sent back by force. If he/she can make it to shore (”dry feet”), he/she is permitted to make a case for political asylum.

The Elian Gonzalez case caused a great division throughout of the nation between those who protested in favor of the child being returned to his father, those who believed that Elian should have remained in the U.S. and others, particularly those from various Caribbean nations, most notably Haiti, who were enraged by the double standard and the blatant disparate treatment of immigrants.

MSNBC News interview with Marisleysis Gonzalaz the morning of the seize