Thread: Mexican immigration activist living at US church sends son t

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/ ... tivist.php

Mexican immigration activist living at US church sends son to Latino conference
The Associated Press

Published: September 8, 2006


CHICAGO The 7-year-old son of an immigration activist who has sought refuge in a church to avoid deportation to Mexico left Friday evening for the National Latino Congress in Los Angeles, where he planned to talk about his family's experiences.

Saul Arellano is an American citizen, but his mother, Elvira, crossed into the United States illegally in 1997. They have lived in an approximately 10-foot by 10-foot (3-meter by 3-meter) room at the Adalberto United Methodist Church since mid-August.

Mexican immigrant Elvira Arellano, 31, was to surrender to federal authorities for deportation Aug. 15, but instead came to the small storefront church sandwiched between a beauty salon and bank in Chicago's heavily Puerto Rican Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Saul is being accompanied to Los Angeles by his "adopted grandmother" Emma Lozano, the executive director of the Chicago immigration-rights group Centro Sin Fronteras, and is to return Sunday. Lozano said she hopes to garner more legal support and media attention on the trip.

"This country has benefited from the sweat and labor of the undocumented," Lozano said Friday.

Arellano first was arrested in 1997 just after crossing the border into the United States. She was sent back to Mexico but returned soon after. In 2002, Arellano was again arrested and convicted of working as a cleaning woman at O'Hare International Airport under a false Social Security number.

Lozano said Arellano has been unfairly treated as a criminal.

"She has taken responsibility for what she's done but this country needs to take responsibility for creating a system of labor on the backs of undocumented workers," Lozano said.

Last month, the Rev. Walter L. Coleman of Adalberto United Methodist filed a lawsuit on Saul's behalf that argues the government should not deport Elvira Arellano because it would deprive her son of his rights as an American citizen.

The case is being closely watched by legal experts and immigration activists as it could affect the approximately 3 million children who are U.S. citizens but who have at least one parent in the country illegally.

"There are many mothers in the same situation," Arellano said in Spanish on Friday. "I want to stay with my son."

Earlier this week a judge refused to issue a temporary restraining order to keep officials from deporting Arellano. Her son's attorney has filed a motion to reconsider and a judge is expected to rule in the next week.

So far, authorities have made no attempts to arrest Arellano, but she knows she could be arrested at any time. She spends her days making sure Saul goes to school, doing press conferences, encouraging people to vote and praying.

She does not leave the church, so friends take her clothes to the laundromat and grocery shop for her. Strangers drop by school supplies for Saul, food and tokens of encouragement, like rose-scented rosaries from Mexico.

Saul, a second grader, often appears at press conferences and interviews with his mother.

"This has been his life," Arellano said in Spanish. "Everyday we are fighting for a better life."

Saul is being accompanied to Los Angeles by his "adopted grandmother" Emma Lozano, the executive director of the Chicago immigration-rights group Centro Sin Fronteras, and is to return Sunday. Lozano said she hopes to garner more legal support and media attention on the trip.

This woman, Emma Lozano, is the wife of Slim Coleman the minister of the church that Elvira Arellano is holed up in.

Mexican immigration activist living at US church sends son to Latino conference

The title is wrong.

The correct title is "Mexican fugituve felon living at US church sends son to Latino conference."

The media just can't get anything right.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

Saul is being accompanied to Los Angeles by his "adopted grandmother" Emma Lozano, the executive director of the Chicago immigration-rights group Centro Sin Fronteras, and is to return Sunday. Lozano said she hopes to garner more legal support and media attention on the trip.

This woman, Emma Lozano, is the wife of Slim Coleman the minister of the church that Elvira Arellano is holed up in.

I can't help wondering if "Reverand" Slim might just be related to the boy .

[quote]"She has taken responsibility for what she's done but this country needs to take responsibility for creating a system of labor on the backs of undocumented workers," Lozano said.
[/quote]

I would be interested in hearing exactly how she has taken responsibility for what she has done??????

If she would have taken responsibility, she would have appeared at her deportation hearing instead of hiding behind a child in a church (if you want to call it that). This lady has taken responsibility for nothing!