Thread: Mexico Passes Resolution on Deportation

Nov 14, 2006

Mexico Passes Resolution on Deportation

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ ... TE=DEFAULT

By JULIE WATSON
Associated Press Writer


MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico's Congress was swayed Tuesday by a 7-year-old boy on a mission to save his mom.

Second-grader Saul Arellano, a U.S. citizen, appeared in Mexico's 500-member Chamber of Deputies to plead for help in lobbying Washington to stop the deportation of his mother, an illegal immigrant who has taken refuge in a Chicago church. His efforts paid off with a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to suspend the deportation of Elvira Arellano and any other illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens.

If the U.S. agrees, it would "create a precedent that will benefit more than 4.9 million children who have been born in the United States and whose parents live under the threat of deportation," said Mexican congressman Jose Jacques, who lived in the United States for 33 years and has an American daughter and granddaughter.

Flashing cameras and swarms of reporters surrounded the boy as he entered the chamber. Lawmakers rose from their seats to shake his hand. But instead of stepping to the podium, he was swept into a side room, where he hid his face and ducked under a table.




"I think being so small he was kind of freaked," family friend Jesus Carlin said.

Saul then took the microphone and spoke to reporters in Spanish, describing what he wanted from Mexico's lawmakers: "I want them to tell President Bush to end the deportations so that my mother and other families can stay together in the United States."

U.S. officials say there is no right to sanctuary in a church under U.S. law, and nothing to prevent them from arresting Elvira Arellano, who has lived at the church since Aug. 15, the day she was supposed to surrender for deportation. So far, they have not moved to seize her.

Saul and his mother live on the second floor of the church, where a small bedroom is crowded with the boy's toys and schoolbooks. They have a miniature pinscher, Daisy, to keep them company.

Arellano, 31, said she was nervous about sending her son to Mexico, and Saul was afraid she would be deported while he was away. "I told him to be calm, everything would be fine and I would be here waiting for him," she told The Associated Press in Chicago.

President Vicente Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, failed during his six-year term to persuade the U.S. Congress to approve a migration accord allowing thousands of Mexicans to work legally in the United States. While Bush personally supports a temporary guest-worker program, Republicans in Congress opted to strengthen border security instead.

Arellano said she should not have to choose between leaving her son or taking away his rightful opportunities as an American. But conservative columnists and anti-illegal immigration activists say Arellano put herself and her son in this difficult spot by repeatedly breaking the law.

Arellano illegally crossed into the United States in 1997 and was quickly sent back. She returned within days, living for three years in Oregon before moving to Chicago in 2000. Her current troubles began when she was arrested at O'Hare International Airport, where she worked as a cleaning woman. Convicted of working under a false Social Security number, she served three years probation before being ordered to appear at the immigration office in Chicago.

Fox's spokesman Ruben Aguilar acknowledges that Arellano broke U.S. law, but "we think there exist certain elements of a humanitarian nature that should be taken into account to avoid splitting up the family."

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I HOPE THE COURTS DON'T SET A PRECEDENT!
IF THEY ALLOW THE PARENTS OF ONE ANCHOR BABY AN EARLY IN, THEN GUESS WHAT WILL HAPPEN!

They should take that Worthless Mother Elvira Arellano and Charge her with Child Abuse. There are many forms of Child abuse and this is a great example of it and not only her, but everyone involved in this should be charged with abuse of a Child. Each should be sentence to the max.

let's see if i understand this....the boy was freaked when he appeared before the mexican congress...but he could address the body by microphone... ok
his mother is a felon...has committed several border invasions, has defrauded, and now seeks asylum in a church, ICE has done nothing about it...the church mascot is aiding and abetting a felon...ok
the boy is supposly american..her status with the father....he wants nothing to do with his son...ok and no relatives in this country...ok
She sends him to mexico to play this game....of pity...I WONDER IF HE WENT ALONE?? WHAT A GREAT ALL-AROUND MOTHER....
oh..mr.fox wants amnesty for all children's family... ok...the devil wants ice water in hell!!!
NOWWW...
I ASK...HOW MANY AMERICAN MOTHERS ARE IN JAIL FOR LESS???? because they had children with no one to take care of them...were they granted a stay out of jail...NO...IN THAT CASE CHILDREN GO TO DYFUS...WHERE THIS CHILD BELONGS...SHE BELONGS IN JAIL...AND MR. FOX SHOULD TAKE A LONG WALK OFF A SHORT PEER...
WHO THE HELL IS MR. FOX AND HIS CONGRESS AND WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO DO WITH SUGGESTING WHAT OUR LAWS SHOULD BE...HE NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN GARBAGE DUMP AND CLEAN UP HIS CARTEL-CORRUPT GOVERNMENT BEFORE HE SUGGEST ANYTHING...MR. BUSH YOU NEED TO CHASTIZE HIS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN HIS COUNTRY AND BEING THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN CENTRAL AMERICA ...WE NEED TO BILL MR. FOX AND HIS GOVERNMENT (BY ALL 50 STATES) FOR THE COST HIS PEOPLE HAVE BURDEN THIS COUNTRY WITH ...AND TELL HIM TO SEND THE PLANES FOR THEM....

Mexico can take their resolution and stick it ........

Originally Posted by dlm1968

Mexico can take their resolution and stick it ........

EXACTLY.......

Mexican lawmakers unite behind 7-year-old

The poster child for immigration activists persuades Congress to ask the U.S. not to deport his mother, who's holed up in a Chicago church.

By Héctor Tobar and P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writers
November 15, 2006


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MEXICO CITY — Seven-year-old Saul Arellano fidgeted with his lucha libre wrestling toys Tuesday as he walked through the halls of Mexico's Congress. Alongside him was the small retinue of U.S. activists who have helped make him a cause celebre of the immigration debate on both sides of the border.

The shy but persuasive U.S.-born son of a Mexican immigrant told his story to legislators in spare, American-accented Spanish.

"It's hard to talk to a 7-year-old," said Congressman Edmundo Ramirez. "But he's made it clear he doesn't want to be separated from his mother…. There are millions of undocumented families in the United States that are in the same position."

On Tuesday, the child lobbyist persuaded the factions in Mexico's divided Congress to unite behind his plea: They voted unanimously to ask the U.S. government not to deport his mother, Elvira, an illegal immigrant holed up in a Chicago church.

The saga of "Little Saul" (Saulito in Spanish) has captivated Mexico since he arrived here Sunday on a mission to draw attention to the plight of thousands of Latino families who could be divided by stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.

Interviewed Tuesday morning in the Televisa studio by Carlos Loret de Mola, one of Mexico's most famous TV personalities, Saul offered the poignant image of a child far away from home. His small body barely filled the swivel chair. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

"Do you feel a little bit Mexican?" Loret de Mola asked.

"I don't know," the boy answered in Spanish. No se.

"How did you learn Spanish?"

"I don't know."

When Loret de Mola asked Saul whether he wanted to live in Mexico, the boy answered simply, "No."

"Why not?"

"Because over there in Chicago is where my school is, my friends," the boy said.

Saul's visits with Mexican lawmakers are the latest chapter in a story that began with Elvira's illegal border crossing and move to Washington state, where she gave birth to Saul. She later settled in Chicago, where she received a deportation order by mail three months ago.

In Chicago, New York and other U.S. cities, a growing "sanctuary" movement seeking to protect illegal immigrants from deportation has made Saulito and his mother its poster family.

The Arellanos are living above the rough-hewn wooden benches of Adalberto United Methodist Church, a storefront in a Puerto Rican neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. Between services, the front doors are usually padlocked.

"This is a fight we won't give up on," Elvira, a 31-year-old single mother, said in Spanish. "My son is an American citizen, and he deserves to have his mother by his side."

There are at least 3.1 million children like Saul in the United States, with one or more parents in the country illegally, according to a 2006 report released by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Arellano said her trouble began in December 2001 when she was arrested and later convicted of fraudulently using a Social Security number to land a job with a cleaning crew at O'Hare International Airport.
After several extensions that allowed her to stay, and a failed legal appeal, she was told to report for deportation proceedings on Aug. 15.

"I could have run, taken Saulito to another town, found another Social Security number and another job," Elvira said. "I got tired of running and hiding. I wanted a better life for us, even if it meant that we'd both have to make sacrifices."

A somber boy who dreams of becoming a firefighter, Saul has traveled to Los Angeles, visited the White House twice to deliver letters to President Bush and spoken at public rallies in Chicago.

Elvira, meanwhile, has tried to make the tiny space where she lives with her son homey. Lace curtains hang over the one small window, which looks out onto a brick wall.

The pressure has taken its toll on her son, she said. Saulito has broken out in hives from stress and is seeing a therapist once a week to deal with nightmares of his mother being dragged out of the church.

"Some people have said I'm asking too much of Saulito," Elvira said. "But he wants to do this. He wants to fight this as much as I do."

On Tuesday morning, Elvira rolled out of bed, slipped on a T-shirt that reads "Who would Jesus deport?" and wandered out to a living room covered in protest posters and handwritten letters from supporters around the country.

Since her son left on his latest tour, she's talked to him every day by phone. Saul tells his mother he wants to come back home to Chicago. And he's afraid that his mother will be deported if he isn't there to protect her.

"He's sad because he thinks he's going to stay over there in Mexico," Elvira said. "As soon as he got there, he told me he didn't like it. He wants to come home, but at the same time he's happy because he knows that he's doing something to help me."

Upon hearing of the vote Tuesday in the Mexican Congress, Elvira joined several friends and congregation members in the church's cramped kitchen to celebrate with grape juice and a prayer.

"We want to thank you, God, that three parties that can't agree on anything … can agree that a mother and her child should not be separated," said family friend and associate pastor Beti Guevara. Then the group raised its glasses and cheered: "To Saulito! Our lobbyist!"

*


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hector.tobar@latimes.com

Tobar reported from Mexico City and Huffstutter from Chicago. Carlos Martínez and Cecilia Sánchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

Now seperately I will comment on my post and the red highlighted areas.

Can our lawmakers not see through their own stupidity? This woman admits to using a fake SS No., and then admits she miight have used another after running, but this time it simply was not convenient to move again.

As well, the pressure she is putting on this little boy, he ought to be take from her and the charge should be neglect and abuse. It is apparent her poor choices have scarred him, and it is no ones fault but her own. She has used this child from day one as her pawn to stay in the U.S., and now she, and the OBL, are making him into a poster child, going on about the stress he is under, how he has developed hives and has recurring nightmares. All signs of PTSD, which has been brought on by his mother and her crimes.

Lucha libre wrestling toys????
lucha libre = freedom fighter