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Immigration Activist Deported
AP
Monday Aug 20, 2007
An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago
church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born
son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor said.
Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for
illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order
and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference
last week to announce that she would finally leave the church
to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.
She had just spoken at a Los Angeles rally when she was arrested
Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church and deported, said
the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist
Church in Chicago, where Arellano had been living.
(Article continues below)
''She is free and in Tijuana,'' said Coleman, who said he spoke
to her on the phone. ''She is in good spirits. She is ready to
continue the struggle against the separation of families from
the other side of the border.''
Her 8-year-old son, Saul, is now living with Coleman's family.
During a news conference in Los Angeles after Arellano's arrest,
the boy hid behind the pastor's wife and wiped away tears.
Arellano had said on Saturday that she was not afraid of being
taken into custody by immigration agents.
''From the time I took sanctuary, the possibility has existed
that they arrest me in the place and time they want,'' she said
in Spanish. ''I only have two choices. I either go to my country,
Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight.''
Arellano, 32, arrived in Washington state illegally in 1997.
She was deported to Mexico shortly afterward, but returned and
moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at O'Hare
International Airport.
She was arrested in 2002 at O'Hare and convicted of working under
a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities
last August but instead sought refuge at the church on Aug. 15,
2006.
She had not left the church property until she decided to travel
by car to Los Angeles, Coleman said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed her arrest
and said she was deported Sunday night through San Diego's San
Ysidro border crossing. The discussions there included Luis Cabrera,
Mexico's general consul in San Diego, and Robin Baker, ICE's director
of detention and removals in San Diego, ICE spokeswoman Lauren
Mack said.
''Obviously this was a woman who didn't want to go. They wanted
to make sure any possible legal avenue that may have been open
to her was closed,'' Mack said. ''This was a very, very sensitive
removal for us as well as Mexico.''
Outside an ICE office in Chicago on Monday, about 50 people protested
Arellano's deportation. ''It wakes us up to do something,'' said
Bertha Rangel, who brought her three young children to the rally.
Arellano is staying with a friend in Tijuana, Coleman said. He
said she had brought to light her struggle, and for that, ''she
has won a victory.''
''She'll be organizing on the Mexican side of the border while
we're organizing in the (United) States,'' Coleman said Monday.
''She'll be talking to organizations throughout Mexico and congressmen
in Mexico City.''
Immigration activists said Monday they will continue Arellano's
original plan to go to Washington, D.C., and take part in a prayer
meeting and rally Sept. 12. They also called for a national boycott
on that date.
''We are calling upon the population of the United States to
not go to work, to not send their children to school and to not
participate in commerce, either buying or selling anything,''
Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement U.S.A. said during a small
protest outside the downtown Los Angeles federal building.
Anti-illegal immigrant groups said the arrest was long overdue.
''Just because the woman has gone public and made an issue of
the fact that she is defying law doesn't mean the government doesn't
have to do its job,'' said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American
Immigration Reform, which favors limits on immigration.
Arellano has repeatedly called for a stop to immigration raids
that break up families with some members who are in the U.S. legally
and others illegally. She has said her son would be deprived of
his rights as a U.S. citizen if he had to go to Mexico simply
because she did.
While being arrested, Arellano spoke briefly with her son before
submitting to authorities, said Emma Lozano, Coleman's wife and
head of immigration rights group Centro Sin Fronteras in Chicago.
''She calmed him down, hugged him and gave him a blessing,''
Lozano said.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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