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CHICAGO - The smell of basil and spinach fills the kitchen on the second floor of the church Elvira Arellano and her son call home.

A family friend teaches 8-year-old Saul to play chess on the carpet of the living room steps away from where Arellano tends to the green concoction slow-cooking on the stove.

The recipe came from a friend, the fresh ingredients from Aldalberto United Methodist Church's small fenced-in garden, the one place Arellano -- an illegal immigrant from Mexico -- has been able to enjoy the outdoors since seeking sanctuary at the church on Aug. 15, 2006.


The woman who has become an international symbol for the struggles of illegal immigrant parents says she plans to venture beyond the well-worn walls of the church on Chicago's West Side for the first time since taking refuge to avoid deportation and separation from her son, who is a U.S. citizen.

Arellano planned to formally announce Wednesday a Sept. 12 trip to Washington D.C. during which she plans to lobby Congress for immigration reform, according to the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of the church and longtime Chicago political activist.

It's not clear how she'll get there, but she likely won't be flying, Coleman told The Associated Press Tuesday. He and others worry Arellano will be arrested, but she plans to go anyway.

"I will go with by Bible and my son and I will read to him from the Holy Scriptures as I do everyday," Arellano said in a statement sent Tuesday to The AP. "If this government would 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."

Whether Arellano will continue her sanctuary at the church, sandwiched between a beauty salon and bank in the city's predominantly Puerto Rican Humbolt Park neighborhood, also is unclear.

The 32-year-old says she has been too comfortable there and needs to "join the struggle" outside.

In the past year, Arellano has reignited an interest in a sanctuary movement across the U.S., gaining fame for her continued public defiance and her belief that the U.S. knowingly exploits illegal immigrants.

But she's also drawn criticism from many who say she is part of highly orchestrated movement and exploits her U.S.-born son by having him speak at press conferences.

There is no doubt, however, of her reach.

"She's a household figure at this point and her story is well known because people can relate to it," said Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who compares Arellano to Rosa Parks.

Arellano came illegally to the U.S. to Washington state in 1997. She was deported shortly thereafter, but returned and worked different jobs, including childcare. She moved to Illinois in 2000 because she had friends in the Chicago area and took a job cleaning planes at O'Hare International Airport.

She was arrested in 2002 at O'Hare and later convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August, but asked instead to take refuge at her church.

She has gone on hunger strikes, written dozens of letters, sent her son with other activists to Mexico and Washington D.C. to talk with legislators and conducted hundreds of interviews with reporters across the globe.

But she says doesn't consider herself a symbol.

"I am a single mother who has a child who's an American citizen," she said recently, speaking in Spanish.

Arellano said she didn't know she would be in sanctuary this long and considers her past year a success.