Thread: Private Laws For Illegal Immigrants Unfair To Everybody

http://www.dailyherald.com/search/print ... ?id=218704

‘Private laws’ for illegal immigrants unfair to everyone

Chuck Goudie
Posted Monday, August 21, 2006

It’s no wonder that Washington politicians haven’t been able to fix the nation’s illegal immigration failure. Maybe they’re so busy protecting a few selected illegal immigrants that they can’t protect all of us from a burgeoning crisis.

Consider Elvira Arellano, the Mexican woman who has barricaded herself in a West side Chicago church since last week. Arellano is in the United States illegally and was to be deported last week. Instead, she fled to the Methodist church in Humboldt Park and began a public relations stand-off with U.S. immigration officials.

Arellano, a 31-year-old single mother, says she is fighting against America’s unjust immigration laws. To activists, her 7-year-old son Saul has suddenly become the poster child for immigration reform. Arellano contends she wants to stay in the United States to get the best care for her son, who she says has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

There is just one problem with that argument.

Elvira Arellano jumped the border and illegally entered the United States. Twice. The first time she was caught and deported, illegally returning a few days later and getting to Oregon.

That was in 1997.

Saul was born in 1998 in the United States.

Still in the country illegally, Arellano and her American-born son moved to Chicago in 2000.

Using a fake Social Security number, she got a job at O’Hare International Airport cleaning jetliner cabins.

Then, during a post-9/11 sting code-named Operation Chicagoland Skies, federal authorities arrested Arellano and dozens of other illegal immigrants working at O’Hare and Midway.

Arellano claims she is just trying to be a good mother and therefore deserves to stay in the United States.

And even though she put the boy in this position by giving birth to him in this country and then keeping him here, all that was overlooked by Sen. Dick Durbin in 2003.

“Several years ago, when Elvira came to us with a medical emergency regarding her son, I was happy to introduce a private relief bill on her behalf,” recalls the Democrat from Illinois.

A “private relief bill?”

They do exist. Private bills. You might call them laws for one. They are intended to apply to just a single person. Hundreds are introduced each year but only a few pass. Most of them are aimed at helping certain illegal immigrants stay in the United States.

“Each year we receive a considerable number of requests for private relief bills. We reserve private bills for medical emergencies and other extraordinary situations,” said Durbin, who apparently thought Arellano and her son fit those criteria.

And so, on Sept. 16, 2003, Durbin introduced the following bill to the U.S. Senate:

“For the relief of Elvira Arellano.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Section 1. Permanent resident status for Elvira Arellano…”

The bill, which passed, put Arellano’s deportation on hold temporarily. There have been two additional stays of her deportation since then. But now the extensions have expired, and she has been ordered to leave the country. Of course, she could take Saul with her.

Instead, she has chosen to use her son as a human shield while waiting for the congressional cavalry to once again ride to her rescue.

“We’ll stay here as long as necessary,” said Arellano last week from her church sanctuary.

“Until Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin introduce my private bill and approve my extension.”

My private bill.

She has asked supporters to overwhelm Durbin and Obama with requests to grant her yet another private law. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Chicago, has sent a letter to President Bush enlisting his help in obtaining a fourth stay of deportation.

Durbin has now changed his tune. “It is an unfortunate truth that scores of people are in the same situation as Elvira and her family,” he said in a written release.

Obama won’t help her, either.

“What I can’t do is to take one person out of the hundreds of thousands who are in exactly the same situation and carve them out for special treatment. That just wouldn’t be fair. That’s not how we do business here in the United States,” Obama said.

But that is how business was done for Elvira Allerano.

“My private bill” she called it.

So let’s get this straight.

Some people who are in this country illegally can hit up Congress to address their personal problems, but Americans who are here legally can’t get the representatives they elected to address a public problem.

So much for our sanctuary.

Just when I calm down a bit I read this kind of article and my bp goes up again and I get so angry. She really thinks she's a special case - MY PRIVATE BILL! Geez!
I'm going to turn Lou Dobbs on soon, maybe he'll make me feel better. At least he works for we citizens.