http://www.laopinion.com/primerapagina/ ... 0002678550

Elvira Arellano divides Al Migrant Parliament


Gardenia Mendoza Aguilar Correspondent of The Opinion
November 17, 2007

MEXICO, D.F.— The activist Elvira Arellano said yesterday —in the framework of the First Parliament of Migrant Leaders that live in the United States— that would she initiate a hunger strike, in order to pressure the government so that it supports a migratory agreement.
Nevertheless, a pair of hours later she seemed to change her mind, pressured by her old friends from Chicago, she ate various barbecue tacos prepared by cooks from Hidalgo.
"I did it so that they (friends) would not feel badly to eat while I only observed", said Elvira. "I will begin the hunger strike at night".
During the inauguration of the parliament, the presence of Arellano started with timid applauses and the irritation of the Congresswoman of the National Action Party (PAN), Dolores González, who in tribunal asked that Elvira not be proclaimed "representative of immigrants".
"I respect Elvira as a worker, immigrant and single mother, but not as an activist, because she goes against the sovereignty and the laws of another country that is not hers", notified the Congresswoman after being done at the tribunal.
The reaction of the Congress came immidietly: whistlings and shouts were heard in the first rows of the legislative precinct of San Lazarus, headquarters of the encounter: "Get out, racist", migrant leaders shouted from the seats of the Congress. "We are not all Elvira", shouted others. "Promoter of the Ku Kux Klan", said others.
At the end of the ceremony of inauguration, two representatives were asked about the "moral quality" of Arellano in the immigration meeting.
Luis de la Garza, of the League of United Latin-American Citizens (LULAC), with headquarters in Chicago, argued among shouts that, to require respect from the U.S. goverment, one must offer it first.
"That country has given us the opportunity that has not been found in Mexico. It has opened us the doors and we are abusing, we cannot require it, challenge it as this lady [Elvira]; the U.S. goverment has its norms and its regulations", he explained.
"To whom we have to demand is the government of Mexico by not generating jobs".
To some meters from De la Garza, Francisco Chavira, of Laredo, Texas, responded: "All the support for Elvira Arellano. All. Aren't you hurt by the deportations? We have problems with the Anti-immigrant groups, with the border wall, the state laws that deports us here?".
The discussion was diluted between mutual claims of respect and the petition of the organizers to keep the order.
Elvira Arellano, in turn, only declared that her hunger strike would initiate at lunch and would extend to December 12, time that she would remain in Mexico City in order not to worry her parents in MaravatÃ*o, Michoacán, where she lives with her son Saúl.
The failure at the meeting marked two radical positions that gave the spirit of the discussions of the encounter: to counterattack or to respect.
Hugo Loyo, an immigrant from Tamaulipas situated in Milwaukee, added to the position of the League against the Discrimination of Mexicans in the United States —announced the past Wednesday— to establish law practices of lawyers in the cities where there is a greater number of undocumented.
"We ask the Legislative to consider assigning more resources to sponsor this type of legal actions", he said.
Ana Ochoa, of the Coalition of Human Rights of Tucson, did an urgent call to create an economic fund to prompt the accusations for all the international media.
Other proposals that were emphasized were to seek an urgent mechanism to give immediate answer to the million of undocumented that are expected for the first semester of 2008.
Raúl Inns, of the Association of Leaders of Durango in Chicago, who participated on the work table for the development of the migrant communities, indicated that is necessary to change the priorities of the Program 3x1, in which by each weight that contribute the associations of migrant, the federal and state governments contribute another more each one.