Thread: Mexican mother (Elvira) organizes from inside Church

I wonder what the real reason is that this criminal has not been apprehended and deported. There are no excuses anymore that the Feds have not acted!


Mexican mother organizes from inside Chicago church

By Andrew Stern Dec 22, 2006, 13:10 GMT

CHICAGO - With Christmas fast approaching, Elvira Arellano dispatched her 8-year-old son to Washington to plead her case and that of other immigrant families who fear being torn apart by deportation.

The Mexican-born Arellano, 31, cannot go herself because she has been fighting a deportation order since August from inside a Chicago church where she has imprisoned herself, invoking the ancient medieval protection of sanctuary.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there are 2 million families in the United States with mixed status, meaning some members are undocumented. The families have nearly 4 million children, most of whom are U.S.-born. The U.S.-born children must wait until they turn 21 before petitioning to have their immigrant parents join them legally in the United States.

Clutching a nervous Chihuahua that appeared to be the church's sole alarm against intruders, Arellano said she lived in fear that immigration agents would burst in at any time and take her away for deportation back to Mexico. The idea his mother could disappear weighs heavily on Saul, her son.

'Most of the time I work diligently to continue the struggle,' Arellano said in Spanish, translated by assistant pastor Beti Guevara. 'I'm organizing people so this kind of thing won't happen and families can be together.'

At first she said she procrastinated out of fear, but has since thrown herself into organizing work. The isolation led her to read more, meditate daily and become more 'spiritual.'

Saul, who was born in the United States, was among some 20 children of immigrants who marched on Thursday to the White House to demand an end to federal raids on homes and workplaces.

It was Saul's second trip to Washington and he has made excursions to Mexico City to seek support for his mother's cause and to Miami to demand an end to the raids. Earlier this month, hundreds of undocumented immigrants working at meat packing plants were rounded up around the country -- sometimes leaving children who are U.S. citizens in limbo.

DEPORTED TWICE

Arellano was ordered deported for a second time after being convicted of Social Security fraud following a 2002 sweep at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport snared her working with false documents. She was first deported in 1997 when she attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with fraudulent documents.

She was temporarily spared deportation because of intervention by local congressmen until this August, when she ignored a government order to appear and instead took sanctuary in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago. In the process she became a symbol for rising immigrant anger at U.S. policies.

For others, she became a symbol of illegal immigration run amok and denigrated for trying to earn the right to stay in the country by producing an 'anchor baby' -- a term her pastor calls racist.

The Minutemen, a group seeking to enforce strict immigration laws, has demanded authorities arrest Arellano.

A December online poll by the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper found most opposed Arellano's stance, with some respondents calling her 'a law-breaking foreign criminal' who has nothing in common with civil rights heroes of the past.

Outside the brick storefront church, a frayed white bedsheet with the words 'holy sanctuary' hangs.

A laptop computer and ringing telephone on a desk inside the stuffy upstairs apartment testify to Arellano's labors. Alongside is a Time Magazine story about her.

She gets a rare whiff of fresh air in the church's backyard, and never ventures out the front door or beyond the church's boundaries.

'We don't have plans to enter the church,' said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Gail Montenegro, adding Arellano is one of 600,000 'fugitive immigrants' who are tracked down based on the threat they pose.

Let's see, she used the ancient rule of sanctuary. Can we invoke the ancient rule of citizen's arrest? Clearly ICE won't do its job. Her selfishness and cowardess show by the breaking of immigration laws (three times, is it?) and id theft. She also sends her EIGHT YEAR OLD son to Washington DC. Who's he with?
A chihuahua is her alarm. It's a church! What is ICE afraid of?! They can bust into Swift and round up 1300 illegals, but you can't go into a church to arrest one. What a joke!!!

Arellano was ordered deported for a second time after being convicted of Social Security fraud following a 2002 sweep at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport snared her working with false documents. She was first deported in 1997 when she attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with fraudulent documents.

For some reason ( ) the above information always seems to get lost in translation when the pro-illegal immigrant crowd openly discusses Elivera. The lady, based on her past transgressions, will never qualify for an amnesty. She is a felon and should be treated like one. Geez, Elvira has been cought red-handed on two separate occasion with false documents and has been convicted of Social Security fraud - not exactly a lilly-white history for someone that is insisting on amensty.

Hmmm......we can arrest and prosecute two border patrol agents who acted in the best interest of this country, but yet we can't apprehend a repeated violator of our laws thats only interest is in herself?

'We don't have plans to enter the church,' said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Gail Montenegro, adding Arellano is one of 600,000 'fugitive immigrants' who are tracked down based on the threat they pose.

Even ICE is completely ignoring Elvira's past history of Social Security fraud and her utilization of other false documents. Does anyone really think she wouldn't have already been arrested, jailed, and prosecuted if she had held American citizenship? Heck, let's forget she is an illegal immigrant for a minute, let's just pretend she is an Amrican citizen - perhaps then the FBI would arrest her!

Clutching a nervous Chihuahua that appeared to be the church's sole alarm against intruders, Arellano said she lived in fear that immigration agents would burst in at any time and take her away for deportation back to Mexico. The idea his mother could disappear weighs heavily on Saul, her son.

Is her only punishment for her crimes going to be living in fear. with a nervous Chihuahua....this is so absurd .................. and makes ICE look like idiots!!!!

I think we, the legal citizens of this country, are being punished more than Arellano by the fact that we have to read about this injustice. Our justice system, including the courts and law enforcement, is turning into a joke. Why are so many criminals willing to come here and commit crimes? Why are so many native born criminals unafraid to break the law? What's their punishment? Amnesty? Sanctuary in a church, with a chihuahua? Probation? Prison sentences that include access to colored television, weight sets, 3 hots and a cot?
When you have members of our society that are willing to get into trouble just so they can go to prison, we have problems. When dangerous repeat offenders are constantly released back into our society or when someone is sentenced to several decades behind bars, and yet they only serve a few, we have a problem. When you have a woman, guarded by a preacher and a ratdog, keeping ICE at bay, we have problems. When our elected officials are willing to listen more to non-citizens than over the majority of legal US citizens,...well, you know.
What has happened to our country? Pathetic.

If I commit a crime, I will santuary at my local church

Originally Posted by TyRANTosaur

I think we, the legal citizens of this country, are being punished more than Arellano by the fact that we have to read about this injustice. Our justice system, including the courts and law enforcement, is turning into a joke. Why are so many criminals willing to come here and commit crimes? Why are so many native born criminals unafraid to break the law? What's their punishment? Amnesty? Sanctuary in a church, with a chihuahua? Probation? Prison sentences that include access to colored television, weight sets, 3 hots and a cot?
When you have members of our society that are willing to get into trouble just so they can go to prison, we have problems. When dangerous repeat offenders are constantly released back into our society or when someone is sentenced to several decades behind bars, and yet they only serve a few, we have a problem. When you have a woman, guarded by a preacher and a ratdog, keeping ICE at bay, we have problems. When our elected officials are willing to listen more to non-citizens than over the majority of legal US citizens,...well, you know.
What has happened to our country? Pathetic.

Yes I do agree with you, but don't you think also that many Americans themselves don't even respect the law and set a very poor example to those here illegally? Not that the illegals have any excuse themselves for sure!

Yes, Crusader if you are refering to the businesses and the corporate swine that employ the illegals. I cannot think of a worse example than employers hiring and covering for Illegals. Than to top it off our government is turning a blind eye to it all. That is why on the Audio of the crowd outside the Swift Plant in Greeley they felt they had the right to challenge ICE enforcing the law and our system of government in a very condensending and hateful way. It is twisted that they feel they have the RIGHT to commit the crimes they engage in here in our country. It may take a revolution to turn this all around....but I am up for it and I know alot of other Americans are as well.

Of course many in our society are bad examples. That's why I asked how so many native born citizens are unafraid to break the law. We have created a softy society. We don't punish our criminals anymore. Instead, we diagnose them. So now, many are brazen in their criminal activity, knowing little will be done to them. We have law enforcement agents and politicians who barely even want to make an effort to enforce the laws. We can't get too much softer or the US will become unlivable for law-abiding citizens. Of course, I don't know where else we'd go.