Hispanics Say Elvira Arellano "... Made Everything Worse"

Full Article provided by the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Spanish-language radio host Javier Salas said he felt badly for what happened to Arellano. But in leaving the sanctuary of Adalberto United Methodist Church and heading to Los Angeles, it was only a matter of time before she was arrested. "She wasn't down to earth ... She made everything worse."

"I'm not happy that this happened, but it was bound to happen because she was challenging the system," said Salas, the host of the morning-drive talk show La Tremenda on WRTO AM-1200.

By Sunday afternoon, Salas was already on radio talking about the arrest, and callers were weighing in too.

Callers were "saying that she was traveling to Los Angeles and around the United States, she would provoke [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the anti-immigrant groups," he said. "There would be checkpoints everywhere."

Salas questioned why it appeared that mainstream media make Arellano out to be the face of undocumented immigrants, while her actions have exacerbated the animosity toward them.

"She wasn't down to earth," he said, adding that Arellano acted entitled to rights "when there's thousands and thousands of people in the same situation."

"She made everything worse," Salas said. "She's not a face of the immigrants. My family without papers, she doesn't represent them."

Immigrant activists in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities saw Arellano's arrest as inevitable.

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