five-month saga of the 6-year-old boy from cuba takes a dramatic turn. in the little havana section in miami four or five minivans swooped down on the modest home of lazaro gonzalez, approximately two dozen federal agents with them and they used a battering ram to gain access to the home, shortly thereafter carried elian gonzalez, the 6-year-old boy carried into the white van you see there. >> now that little boy you see in the arms of that agent is 16 years old and not surprising, attending a cuban military academy. no custody battle. no tv crews and no raids from the bedroom. cnn's shasta darlington reports. >> reporter: you probably remember the face, elian gonzalez, the cuban rafter boy at the heart of a politically charged custody battle. he's not so little anymore. elian, now 16 attends a cuban military academy. he joined the union of communist youth vowing to follow the example of fidel and raul castro. elian was just 5 when a smuggler's boat headed to the united states flipped over and killed his mother. he was found clinging to an innertube and handed over to relatives in sout

. he came to this country in 1962 from cuba as part of the peter pan program and became an american citizen in 1968. i asked him what he thought of the bill. and he told me, you know, he's a big baseball fan. he said what if i go to arizona to see the diamondbacks play and i go to the game and i forget my i.d.? i've been an american citizen for 42 years. yet i speak with a spanish accent and look very pspanish. what happens to me if i'm stopped without proof of identification on me? obviously, a lot of people are not too supportive of this. i talked to several people from h mera costa college. we talked earlier, you have some strong sentiments about this senate bill and it becoming a law. >> yes, i do. i'm completely against it. i think that anytime you have a law that gives so much power to the state and singles out a group, it's dangerous and it sends the wrong message to the community. i myself am an immigrant. i came in 1985 to the united states. and since then, i've earned a high school education. i have a bachelor's degree and two master degrees. all of it comes from the suppo