Immigration Rights Activist Elvira Arellano Arrested, Deported

Last Edited: Monday, 20 Aug 2007, 1:04 AM PDT
Created: Sunday, 19 Aug 2007, 4:13 PM PDT


In this booking photo released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, shown is Elvira Arellano after she was arrested Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007, in Los Angeles. Arellano was arrested outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church on L.A.'s historic Olvera Street where she had been speaking to reporters, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago where she sought sanctuary last year. (AP Photo/Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Los Angeles --

Immigration agents deported to Tijuana an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church, the church's pastor, the Rev. Walter Coleman, told The Associated Press late Sunday.

A message left with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials late Sunday was not immediately returned.

Elvira Arellano was arrested Sunday afternoon outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church on L.A.'s historic Olvera Street. She was deported several hours later, said Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano had taken refuge.

"She has been deported. She is free and in Tijuana," said Coleman, who said he spoke to her on the phone. "She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."

Arellano, 32, has become a symbol of the struggles of illegal immigrant parents and a source of controversy. She had said Saturday she was not afraid of being taken into custody by immigration agents.

"From the time I took sanctuary the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want," she said in Spanish. "I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."

Arellano came to Washington state illegally in 1997. She was deported to Mexico shortly after, but returned and moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at O'Hare International Airport.

She was arrested in 2002 at O'Hare and convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August.

She sought refuge at the storefront church on Chicago's West Side Aug. 15, 2006. She had not left the church property until deciding to be driven to Los Angeles, Coleman said.

http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/News ... geId=3.2.1

• Video (8/19): Arellano Arrest + Local Community Reaction

• Video (8/19): Arellano Arrest Press Conference - Rev. Walter Coleman

• Video (8/19): Chicago Latino Community Reacts to Arellano Arrest


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------