Arellano turns up in L.A.:
Says she doesn't fear arrest on 1st trip away from sanctuary

August 19, 2007
BY ROBERT JABLON

LOS ANGELES -- An illegal immigrant who avoided deportation by living in a Chicago church said Saturday she is not afraid of being taken into custody on her first trip outside the sanctuary in a year.
Elvira Arellano spoke at a downtown Los Angeles church as her 8-year-old son Saul, a U.S. citizen, participated in a small rally a few miles away at City Hall.

''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.''

Congress failed to pass immigration reform legislation in its last session. Arellano and activists want lawmakers to place a moratorium on deportations and hammer out reforms that would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the country, at least temporarily.

''We cannot wait for another election,'' she said. ''We can't wait, sitting with our arms crossed, while our families are being separated.''

The 32-year-old and her son took refuge last year at Chicago's Adalberto United Methodist Church. Arellano said she didn't want to be separated from the boy, who was born in the United States.

She has since become a symbol of the struggles of illegal immigrant parents and a source of controversy, praised for her steadfastness and criticized as a scofflaw.

She spoke at La Placita, a historic Catholic church near the Mexican-themed Olvera Street, which has joined other churches nationwide in declaring itself a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. The movement is largely symbolic since immigration agents are not legally barred from making arrests in churches.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials declined to comment, but uniformed agents did not appear to be present at the church or rally.

Local church officials said Arellano planned to visit and pray today with the families of four illegal immigrants living in churches in Los Angeles, then head back east.

The Rev. Richard Estrada, associate pastor at La Placita, also known as Our Lady Queen of Angels, said Arellano could serve as an inspiration and bolster the spirits of the four families living in three Los Angeles area churches.

"There's a message of hope she's passing on,'' Estrada told the Sun-Times. "While she's here, we wanted her to speak to them."

Although hopeful about the movement's ability to protect Arellano and the other illegal immigrants, Estrada worries immigration agents could come at any time.

"There's a concern," he said.

From Los Angeles, Arellano planned on heading to Washington, D.C., to take part in a Sept. 12 prayer meeting and rally for immigration reform at the Capitol.

''I will go and pray and fast in front of the Congress,'' Arellano said. ''I will go with my Bible and my son, and I will read to him from the Holy Scriptures as I do every day.

''If this government would arrest me and separate me from my son, let them do it in front of the men and women who have the responsibility to fix this broken law and uphold the principles of human dignity.''

Arellano came to Washington state illegally in 1997. She was deported to Mexico shortly after, 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 sanctuary at the Chicago church on Aug. 15, 2006. The Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto, said Arellano had not left church property before driving to Los Angeles. AP

Contributing: Dan Rozek

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/516 ... s1.article