Thread: Flor's political work keeps her locked in Chicago church sob

She hasn't seen her children in 8 years. Unbelievable... No political cause is worth that. I think it's even getting to her as she hints she might go back to Mexico. Might as well, she has made no impact on this issue. Even she admits it. Happy one year anniversary.

Woman's 'political work' keeps her locked in Chicago church
By Elena Ferrarin | Reflejos Staff

Published: 2/1/2009 12:04 AM



Most of the country is watching to see what President Barack Obama will do during his first 100 days in office.

To Flor Crisostomo, the scrutiny takes on a more personal meaning: the native Mexican undocumented immigrant, who has been in sanctuary at a church in Chicago since Jan. 28, 2008, said she might go back to Mexico if the Obama administration takes early steps toward comprehensive immigration reform.

Then again, Crisostomo said, her commitment to what she calls her "political work" is such that she still might decide to stay in the little apartment atop Adalberto United Methodist Church, a tiny storefront church in Chicago's Humboldt Park.

"I talked to my mother (on the phone), and she gave me great strength," the 29-year-old said. "I can't disappoint my children, I can't abandon this battle halfway."

Crisostomo says she's fighting for a more just U.S. immigration system and for human and workers' rights worldwide, rights she believes have been trampled on by large corporations and international trade agreements. She devotes her time to staying in close contact with activist groups in the United States and across Latin America, even participating in workers rights' conferences via videotaped addresses.

The Internet has allowed her to remain relevant even though her case has received much less attention in the media than that of Elvira Arellano, an undocumented Mexican immigrant whose yearlong sanctuary in the same Chicago church garnered national headlines until her very public arrest in California in August 2007.

[b]Crisostomo said she never had any illusions that her actions would have had the same impact as Arellano's. "From the beginning I was aware that it wasn't going to be the same," said Crisostomo, a round-faced, pretty woman with a low-key but resolute demeanor. "What matters is to keep spreading the message."[b]

Crisostomo moved to the United States in 2000, leaving behind her three small children in the care of her mother to find work to support her family. She got a job as a woodcutter at the IFCO Systems plant in Chicago, but was arrested with 25 others, and 1,200 nationwide, during workplace raids conducted by federal immigration agents on April 19, 2006.

That was the beginning of her awakening to matters of social and political justice, she said. "I developed a part of me that didn't exist, because before I was just a single mom who moved to the United States," she said.

Crisostomo is considered to be an immigration fugitive, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts wrote via e-mail. "Ms. Crisóstomo will be arrested at an appropriate time and place with consideration given to the safety of all involved," he wrote.

So what does she say to those who question her right to defy immigration laws?

"I tell them that you can't read just half a book, you have to look at the whole story," she said. "People say that immigrants come here to live the 'American dream,' but for us it isn't like that. We came for our kids, our parents, our families, because what we left behind were abandoned farms and shuttered-out small businesses."

The real culprit, Crisostomo said, is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by Canada, Mexico and the United States under President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Her family was doing fine living in a small town in the Mexican state of Guerrero, and selling food off the busy road that connected Mexico City and Acapulco, she said. But under NAFTA provisions, the Mexican government built a more modern and direct highway connecting the two cities, and when it opened in 1997 business dried up for thousands of farmers and small business owners along the old route. That's why she says she was forced to move to the United States, enduring the heartbreak of not seeing her children for the last eight years, she said.

"For my future, I imagine being with my children, whether here in the United States, or there in Mexico," she said.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=268635

"For my future, I imagine being with my children, whether here in the United States, or there in Mexico," she said.

I vote for Mexico

Crisostomo says she's fighting for a more just U.S. immigration system and for human and workers' rights worldwide, rights she believes have been trampled on by large corporations and international trade agreements

Ok now wait a minute here. She is protesting the very people that are hiring them in the USA and FREE trade agreements that gave them jobs and corporations moved to Mexico which took our jobs!

Crisostomo moved to the United States in 2000, leaving behind her three small children in the care of her mother to find work to support her family. She got a job as a woodcutter at the IFCO Systems plant in Chicago, but was arrested with 25 others, and 1,200 nationwide, during workplace raids conducted by federal immigration agents on April 19, 2006.

All you Americans ought to feel sorry that you seperated her family. SHAME ON YOU AMERICA!!! She was not a criminal,she was here to work!

That was the beginning of her awakening to matters of social and political justice, she said. "I developed a part of me that didn't exist, because before I was just a single mom who moved to the United States," she said.

So you just MOVED here right! Without ever crossing A BORDER?

Her family was doing fine living in a small town in the Mexican state of Guerrero, and selling food off the busy road that connected Mexico City and Acapulco, she said. But under NAFTA provisions, the Mexican government built a more modern and direct highway connecting the two cities, and when it opened in 1997 business dried up for thousands of farmers and small business owners along the old route

Here in America the Americans call that PROGRESS!!!

For my future, I imagine being with my children, whether here in the United States, or there in Mexico," she said.

Go back to Mexico bacause your SOB STORY holds NO WATER

But under NAFTA provisions, the Mexican government built a more modern and direct highway connecting the two cities,

Also here in America we do not move to another country because they just built a new highway down the road a piece. We just make changes as necessary

The problem is not NAFTA the problem is lack of investment in Mexico. Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans are the ones who have the primary responsibility. If they are here for years they have increased obligation not less though being here is used as an argument for giving an amnesty. Having a mixed household is not an excuse for bringing in relatives. The financing should be going to job creation in Mexico not to illegal immigration.

And here's a picture of her with her beloved Mexican flag.
What the heck are you doing here? You belong with your
family in your beloved Mexico.

Do these people really think Americans are so dumb we care what an illegal alien says? I like to thank our government for encouraging this ridicules behavior.

Go back to mexico and do your political work! We don't need your efforts here.

Flor: Just a hint, but posing with a Mexican flag won't get you any sympathy in the U.S. Just saying. Is she wearing one of those Snuggies you see on T.V.?

She hasn't seen her children in 8 years. Unbelievable

I get a kick out of the phrase, "separating families." They do it themselves! The men here sending money back to the wives, they are separated on purpose. These stupid politicians fall for this crap because they are not up on issues. They don't read the bills they sign!!