Thread: Immigration activists march for deported mom

Immigration activists march for deported mom
Woman who spent year in Chicago church galvanizes movement in L.A.

Protesters carry a portrait of immigration activist Elvira Arellano and her 8-year-old son, Saul, during a demonstration in Los Angeles on Saturday. Arellano was deported after leaving a Chicago church where she had taken refuge to draw attention to the plight of illegal immigrant parents.

Updated: 2 hours, 57 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Immigrant rights activists marched through downtown Saturday in support of a deported illegal immigrant who spent nearly a year huddled inside a Chicago church to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son.

Elvira Arellano, 32, was sent back to her native Mexico last weekend after traveling to Los Angeles to attend a rally for the overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.

“It’s an effort by all immigrant rights groups to come together and re-energize the whole movement, in solidarity with Elvira,â€

Organizers said more than 2,000 people demonstrated, but authorities said it was closer to 600

Several hundred demonstrators took to the streets of Los Angeles

Another lame turnout, especially as constrasted with the 500,000 illegal aliens who marched in 2006 in Los Angeles.

No matter how much the OBL tries to spin and contort the truth, the reality is that Americans are fed up with illegal immigration and these unjust demands.

Same story as the one immediately above, but with a different headline, relevant portions highlighted. This headline is more telling than the headline listed for this thread. I hope this story is added to the homepage:
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Today is Sunday, August 26, 2007
Originally published Sunday, August 26, 2007
Updated Sunday, August 26, 2007
Rally for deported activist fails to draw large crowd

A downtown Los Angeles crowd estimated at 500 to 1,000 people, carried large pictures of illegal immigrant Elvira Arellano and her son, Saul, who was born in the U.S.
By Tony Castro
Staff Writer

Immigrant rights activists' attempts to rally around the recently deported Elvira Arellano met with little success Saturday when a downtown march failed to generate broad support for the second week in a row.

A crowd estimated at [this version dropped the word "ONLY" from here] 500 to 1,000 people, carrying large pictures of Arellano and her 8-year-old son, Saul, and signs reading "Keep Families Together," marched from Broadway and Olympic Boulevard to an afternoon rally at the Federal Building.

"We are here in solidarity with Elvira to re-energize the movement for immigration reform," said college student Mary Lou Cabral, one of the marchers.

The march and rally were a protest of last week's deportation of Arellano, an illegal immigrant and single mother who until recently took sanctuary in a Chicago church for almost a year.

She was arrested last Sunday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after speaking at La Placita Church a day after coming to Los Angeles for a rally.

Although activists sought to portray Arellano, 32, as a lightning rod for the debate, with some even comparing her to civil-rights icon Rosa Parks, the poor turnout at marches and rallies two weekends in a row in Los Angeles may suggest otherwise.

"She's not the martyr she's being made out to be - she broke the law, and she's a criminal," said Joe Lozano, a resident of Mission Hills and the grandson of Mexican immigrants. "We have people coming into the country, breaking the law by coming into the country. Someone has to abide by our immigration laws, starting with her."

March organizers had anticipated a stronger response after Arellano's arrest and deportation. She chose to leave her U.S.-born son in the custody of a friend in Chicago where he is expected to enroll in school.

Meanwhile, there were some indications that Arellano's plight has not only failed to touch those sympathetic to immigrant rights, but may have also produced a backlash of negative newspaper editorials and commentary around the country.

"If immigration activist groups continue to make her into an icon of government victimization Â… they will only garner for themselves more negative sentiment within the political community," observed the Rev. Jonathan Morris, a Roman Catholic priest and commentator and analyst for Fox television.

Arellano, who is living in Tijuana, has said she plans to campaign for legal status for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. She especially plans to focus on families such as hers that have been separated.

There are at least 3.1 million children in the United States who have one or more parents in the country illegally, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Hispanic Center.


http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/9378651.html

Elvira is a dead-beat mom. Saul is her responsibility and he should be with her in Mexico.

Dixie