Thread: Pastor: Arellano to continue activism

Pastor: Arellano to continue activism
Monday, August 20, 2007 10:32 AM CDT
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By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES | Elvira Arellano knew that leaving a Chicago church, where she had taken refuge to avoid deportation and stay with her young American son, could lead to her arrest and removal from the country.

Just a day before immigration officials caught up with her, she had promised to take her cause to Washington, saying that possible deportation wouldn't deter her decision to "stay and fight."

Now in Mexico after being arrested in Los Angeles Sunday and deported several hours later, she's pledged to keep up her campaign for immigration reform, according to the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano lived the past year.

"She is in good spirits," Coleman said. "She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago confirmed the arrest Sunday. Spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said the agency would have further details on the deportation Monday.

A 32-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, Arellano has become both a beacon of hope for millions illegal immigrants and a lighting rod for conservatives who saw her brazen refusal to leave the U.S. as proof of lax enforcement.

Arellano said she took refuge in the church to avoid being separated from her 8-year-old son Saul, who was born in the U.S.

As news of her arrest first spread, angry immigration activists predicted it would inject new life into the immigration reform movement, which has struggled to gain momentum the last year as immigration agents have stepped up raids and Congress has shelved the issue.

"This can backfire on authorities big time," said Jorge Mujica, an organizer with Chicago's March 10 Coalition. "Arellano's a symbol of the movement, and you don't jail a symbol. Politically it's a big mistake."

Anti-illegal immigrant groups said the arrest was long overdue.

"She had obviously decided to become a cause celebrity," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors limits on immigration. "Other than having a young son, there was little to feel sympathy for."

Arellano was arrested around 1:30 p.m. Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church on Los Angeles' historic Olvera Street, said Coleman.

Coleman said Arellano, who is staying with a friend in Tijuana, had brought to light her struggle, and for that, "she has won a victory."

"She'll be organizing on the Mexican side of the border while we're organizing in the (United) States," Coleman said Monday. "She'll be talking to organizations throughout Mexico and congressmen in Mexico City."

Coleman said he and other activists will continue Arellano's original plan to go to Washington and take part in a prayer meeting and rally for immigration reform at the Capitol on Sept. 12.

Emma Lozano, Coleman's wife and head of immigration rights group Centro Sin Fronteras in Chicago, said she would be taking care of Saul, Arellano's 8-year-old son.

Immigrants who've been deported and re-entered the country illegally can be tried criminally, though most are deported. Arellano's swift deportation drew sharp criticism from Coleman.

"What is clear is that their only intent was to silence her," said Coleman. "They just dumped her on the border."

In a statement released late Sunday by the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, Mexico's foreign ministry demanded more information about the arrest, and asked whether Arellano had been "informed of her right to consular assistance."

A letter was written to "immigration authorities expressing profound concern about the event and demanding an explanation on how the detention was carried out," said the statement.

Arellano had arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday, leaving her sanctuary for the first time in a year to campaign for immigration reform.

Her decision to take sanctuary inspired a "New Sanctuary Movement," in which a handful of churches across the country have begun to house illegal immigrants.

But a long immigration rap sheet caused anger among conservatives, and even drew the ire of some immigrants who argued Arellano's defiance made it harder for all undocumented communities.

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 later convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August when she sought sanctuary at the storefront church on Chicago's West Side. She had not left the church property until deciding to be driven to Los Angeles, Coleman said.

Associated Press writers Michael Tarm and Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Raquel Maria Dillon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2007/0 ... 809139.txt

"They just dumped her on the border."

What do you want the Gov't do to illegal alien felon fugitives? Private helicopter, red carpet homecoming and a free house?

Maybe your're right, they shouldn't have just dumped her accross the border, she should have been tried, convicted and jailed for her crime before being deported.

"She'll be organizing on the Mexican side of the border while we're organizing in the (United) States," Coleman said Monday. "She'll be talking to organizations throughout Mexico and congressmen in Mexico City."

What? Instigating a border feud?

Originally Posted by daggul

"They just dumped her on the border."

What do you want the Gov't do to illegal alien felon fugitives? Private helicopter, red carpet homecoming and a free house?

Maybe your're right, they shouldn't have just dumped her accross the border, she should have been tried, convicted and jailed for her crime before being deported.

another lie by the pro illegal group.
she was not dumped, she was handed over to the mexican authorities at the border by ICE

OK....isn't using false ID a crime???????
isn't not showing up for sentencing a no-no??????
Isn't crossing the border ONCE a felony???????
Isn't being deported and crossing the border for a second time a BIG felony punishable by many (5-7?) years in prison?????????

I'd say she got off Easy by just being deported..... should have put her in jail and then she couldn't do her sob story behind bars....

Now if this was us ...Americans....and did a felony like this....we'd be behind bars

She is a nothing and we are wasting to much time on her. Write your senators and congressmen and express disapproval of her meeting with them. I suspect from some of the things that I am hearing that she is going to be invited by some representative or senator to speak.

Originally Posted by Beckyal

She is a nothing and we are wasting to much time on her. Write your senators and congressmen and express disapproval of her meeting with them. I suspect from some of the things that I am hearing that she is going to be invited by some representative or senator to speak.

And why can't we get a meeting to talk to OUR representatives and senators?