In the early morning hours of April 22, 2000, agents burst into his room, guns drawn, and scooped him up and out before the Cuban exile community could stop them.
The U.S. Coast Guard brought him ashore to Florida, where his Miami relatives fought to keep him in the United States, but after months of protests in Cuba, President Bill Clinton ordered him returned, saying the boy belonged with his father, leading to the dawn raid on the Miami house.
Elian’s father, Juan Miguel, who so eloquently fought to have his son returned to him in Cuba is now a member of the National Congress, and Elian himself has spoken out against the U.S. embargo.
“I didn’t know what to do, my heart immediately started pounding because I’m like, ‘is-- should I chance it? ... He could be here any minute, if I’m going to do it, I need to do it now,’” Berry told ABC's Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview that will air Tuesday, April 28 on a special edition of "20/20."
“At first it was so unreal,” Berry said. “When the cops had gotten there, I told them, ‘there’s two other girls in the house’ ... they put me in a car and then that’s when they ran upstairs to get them, and once I saw that I’m like, ‘This is it. I think we’re free now.’”
Since she was three months old, Sapphyre, 3, has been a patient at Shriners Hospitals for Children, where her mother, Ashley Johnson, said she's had multiple surgeries to be fitted for prosthetic feet. But for her last visit, Johnson told ABC News, Sapphyre got to leave the hospital with much more than new prosthetics.