Thread: Baby Waiver Continues To Agitate

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... &cset=true



Baby Waving Invader Continues To Agitate
Posted by The Watchdog - September 8th, 2006
Forget the deportation, Elvira belongs in prison and her son belongs in Mexico with their relatives.

Little Saul does as he’s told and tries desperately to create tears for the cameras. The flag they gave him to hold is the icing on the cake.

Chicago Tribune

The U.S. government and Elvira Arellano’s legal team escalated their skirmish Thursday over an unusual federal lawsuit contending that to deport the undocumented immigrant would violate her young son’s rights.

Attorneys for 7-year-old Saul Arellano say his constitutional rights would be violated if he is forced to return to Mexico with his mother even though he is a U.S. citizen by birth.

Prosecutors detailed their counterarguments in a motion filed Thursday to dismiss the case, insisting that Saul would not lose legal rights by his mother’s deportation.

Arellano has taken refuge in a Humboldt Park church since defying a government deportation order Aug. 15, creating a standoff that has generated international notoriety.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve said Saul Arellano’s lawsuit raises “novel issues.” Normally, illegal immigrants contest their own deportation orders instead of having their U.S. citizen children become plaintiffs, experts say.

Legal observers and advocates on both sides of the immigration debate are closely watching the lawsuit, which could affect the 3.1 million U.S. citizen children with at least one parent living here illegally. Some say the lawsuit is a long shot but could have political benefits.

Arellano said she does not want to take Saul to Mexico because she fears that he will return to the United States as she did: with no knowledge of English and little formal education. Arellano said she has never seriously considered leaving her son behind either.

Federal prosecutors, in their court filings Thursday, said allowing Arellano to stay in the U.S. because of her son would grant her a benefit that Congress never intended. They implied that Arellano was hypocritical in turning to the court after ignoring the government’s orders.

“Ms. Arellano should not be permitted to ignore the law and yet use the law through the means of a legal fiction by challenging the order through her son,” prosecutors argued.

Prosecutors said they considered but rejected a plan to grant Arellano a temporary stay of deportation while her son's case is heard.

Joseph Mathews, attorney for Saul, said Arellano had been willing to wear an ankle bracelet or observe a curfew if she could be protected from deportation while the case is heard.

"I am disappointed in [the government's] decision, but I understand it," Mathews said. "They have a job to do, and they are doing it."

Prosecutors said legal precedents work against Arellano, and many experts tended to agree.

David Martin, a law professor at the University of Virginia and former counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said he would be surprised if a judge agrees with the boy's claim.

"Some people's knee-jerk reaction is that you can't force a U.S.-citizen child to live somewhere else," Martin said. "This isn't really forcing him. Technically, they aren't deporting the child."

Muzaffar Chishti, director of the non-profit Migration Policy Institute's office at New York University School of Law, agreed that Saul's rights would be violated only if the government was ordering him to leave. In this case, Arellano is choosing to take him to Mexico rather than leave him in the U.S. with a guardian.

"It's a tragic human case but not a very compelling legal issue," Chishti said.

Even if Arellano's strategy doesn't hold up in court, some legal observers think her lawsuit could have political value in publicizing the situations of families like hers.

"This reflects the fact that our immigration laws are not accomplishing what they set out to, which is family unification," said Mary Meg McCarthy, director of the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center.

Critics say Arellano's rhetoric and legal tactics show how cynically many illegal immigrants use their U.S. citizen children as protection from their lawbreaking.

For some illegal immigrants, their children could eventually provide a legal window. When the children turn 21, they can petition for legal status for their parents living here illegally although the process is not easy.

Those children gained U.S. citizenship through the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 mainly to reverse pre-Civil War legal barriers against African-Americans. The amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

A growing number of congressmen want to strip the citizenship rights of the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) sponsored a bill last year to change the practice and received nearly 100 co-sponsors, almost all Republicans.



Isn't that picture of little Saul just precious? Good theatrics!!! but you're not fooling anyone.

I think this woman is just using this child for her own personal and political gains. In my opinion, she is an unfit mother.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

I think this woman is just using this child for her own personal and political gains. In my opinion, she is an unfit mother.

She's being dubbed as Miss Rosa Parks

Pack her up and deport her now. She is a felon!!!

Ms. Arellano should not be permitted to ignore the law and yet use the law through the means of a legal fiction by challenging the order through her son,” prosecutors argued.

Exactly. Disagreement with, lack of knowledge of, inconvenience in adhering to... the law is never a valid excuse or rationalization in breaking them (the law).

If she didn't agree with our procedures and laws, why did she wait so long to contest these supposedly unjust laws? Uh-huh.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

I think this woman is just using this child for her own personal and political gains. In my opinion, she is an unfit mother.

NM,
I agree 100%. Having her boy fake his tears waving the American flag is just absolutely nausiating.

This is sad. There cannot be a good outcome from this. A felon must be dealt with under the law. This woman is making her child responsible for the outcome. Clearly this is abuse, using a child like this. Get them out of my country!!

Arellano said she does not want to take Saul to Mexico because she fears that he will return to the United States as she did: with no knowledge of English and little formal education. Arellano said she has never seriously considered leaving her son behind either.

She's been here how many years and doesn't speak English? Wasn't it just a day or 2 ago where she was going to "home school" him?

She knew the repreive they gave her wasn't forever. Temporary....about as hard to get through their heads as illegal is.......she should have been making strides towards this deportation and getting her son ready instead of turning this into a 3 ring circus.

"This reflects the fact that our immigration laws are not accomplishing what they set out to, which is family unification," said Mary Meg McCarthy, director of the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center.

Well, this is a shocker....our immigration laws were intended to unite/reunite families??????? Somebody send this woman a clue!

Elvira will go down in history as a nobody. Send her packing along with her anchor.