Few recall deported immigration activist in lower Yakima Valley
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sep 10, 2007
WAPATO, Wash. -- Elvira Arellano, the immigrant rights activist who was deported to Mexico after a year in sanctuary at a church in Chicago, draws little public comment in the town where she first lived after entering the U.S.

Arellano, 32, an international cause celebre after she was arrested at an immigration reform rally in Los Angeles and deported to Mexico last month, tried to keep a low profile as a single mother rearing a child and working at a laundromat as an undocumented immigrant in this central Washington farm town.

For about a year she had defied federal authorities while taking refuge at Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, the first immigrant to claim sanctuary since the 1980s.

Relatives here had little to say to the Yakima Herald-Republic.

A cousin, Maria, who agreed to be interviewed on condition that her last name not be published, told the newspaper she didn't want co-workers at a local school to know about the family connection. She also said some residents might wrongly view her work with non-English-speaking children as a political statement.

Arellano lived for three years with Maria, Maria's husband and their children before moving to Chicago. Maria has documents for legal U.S. residency.

"I'm proud of what she's doing. I believe she has done, and will do, a lot for 12 million" undocumented immigrants, Maria said. "She had it in her to be active and a fighter."

Arellano entered the U.S. at Calexico, Calif., with the aid of human smugglers, squeezing her slender frame through revolving metal gates after being caught, arrested and deported on her first try. At age 22, she came north to be with family.

During the week she tended her cousin's children as a nanny, swept the floor and cleaned machines at the family's laundromat, then dressed up for Mexican dances on weekends at the SunDome in Yakima.

Arellano took good care of clients, chatting and doing what she could for newly arrived immigrants, Maria said.

"She was very attentive," Maria said. "She was always trying to help people."

Life changed after she became pregnant while dating a hops field worker who scolded her for not taking steps to avoid pregnancy and further upset her by suggesting an abortion. She refused to see him again, Maria said.

Arellano gave birth to a son, Saul, in Toppenish on Dec. 18, 1998, and cared for him on her own, often taking him to the laundromat. Her nights of dancing in Yakima were over.

"It never occurred to her to ask for welfare," Maria said. "She said, 'This is my son, this is my responsibility and I'm going to do it.'"

In early 2000, Arellano left for Chicago with two cousins after hearing of better-paying jobs there and deciding she wanted to be farther from Saul's father.

Since her departure, several friends locally have kept in touch and still visit the laundromat to ask how she's doing, Maria said.

She returned to the Yakima Valley once, in 2003, when a group in Sunnyside asked her to speak.

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