http://www.quote.com/qc/news/story.aspx ... N_89172215

Mexican Legislators Will Travel to Chicago to Visit Elvira Arellano
9 February 2007, 1:32pm ET

CHICAGO, Feb 09, 2007 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ --

Mexican legislators have traveled to Chicago to meet with Elvira Arellano, an illegal alien who defied a U.S. government order that she turn herself in to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation. The 31-year-old woman was arrested in 2002 during an immigration sweep at O'Hare International Airport. U.S. officials noted that Arellano had already been deported once in 1997, and that she had a criminal conviction for Social Security fraud.

Rosanna Pulido, Illinois spokesperson for You Don't Speak for Me, a national coalition of American Hispanics who oppose illegal immigration, states, "Actually Elvira Arellano is a testament to the utter failure of the Mexican government. Because of widespread corruption, the government of Mexico has consistently failed to provide economic opportunity to millions of Mexican people and encourages them to violate U.S. immigration laws. The Mexican government could care less about people like Ms. Arellano. What they are really here to protect is the $23 billion a year that the millions of Mexicans living in the U.S. send home to Mexico," Pulido charged.

You Don't Speak for Me holds the U.S. government complicit in creating the nation's illegal immigration crisis. "Elvira Arellano is also a testament to the unwillingness of the United States government to uphold the rule of law and enforce its own immigration laws. This failure has undermined our sovereignty while harming the interests of countless Americans," said Pulido.

You Don't Speak for Me also condemned attempts by the Mexican legislators and illegal alien rights activists to exploit Ms. Arellano's son for their own political ends. "Children are not human shields," declared Pulido. "It was his mother who put the boy in a difficult position when she knowingly broke multiple laws in this country. Whenever parents are held accountable for breaking the law their children are inevitably harmed. We all regret when that happens, but no justice system in the world can allow parents to hide behind their kids.

"Instead of coming here and posturing for the television cameras back home, these Mexican legislators could spend their time and energies far more productively instituting reforms in Mexico that allow people like Ms. Arellano opportunities at home," Pulido concluded.

SOURCE You Don't Speak for Me