Thread: ELVIRA LEAVES CHURCH TO ATTEND PROTEST IN LOS ANGELES

Immigration activist leaves sanctuary


By DAN STRUMPF, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 23 minutes ago

CHICAGO - An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a church for more than a year to avoid deportation has left the sanctuary to attend an immigration rights rally in Los Angeles, her friend said Friday.

Elvira Arellano left the church for the first time since seeking sanctuary there Aug. 15, 2006, and was traveling to California by car Friday, Emma Lozano, head of immigration rights group Centro Sin Fronteras, said from Los Angeles.

Arellano is accompanied by people close to her, Lozano said, including the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church where she and her son have lived for more than a year.

Lozano declined to say whether Arellano's 8-year-old son, Saul, is with her.

She also declined to give specifics about when Arellano left the storefront church on Chicago's West Side, but Arellano's last public appearance there was Wednesday, when she announced plans to travel next month to Washington, D.C., in what many expected to be her first venture from the church.

"She's not alone and she's got a lot of company and on her way," Lozano said Friday night. "And she'll be here tomorrow, so we're really looking forward to that."

The Los Angeles march is set for Saturday morning. Arellano plans a press conference at La Placita, which Lozano described as a prominent Catholic church.

A message seeking comment was left late Friday night with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

On Wednesday, Arellano announced she would travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby for immigration reform and participate in a prayer meeting Sept. 12.

Lozano said those plans haven't changed.

Arellano came illegally to the United States to Washington state 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, but asked instead to take refuge at her church to avoid deportation and separation from her son, who is a U.S. citizen.

The 32-year-old has since become an international symbol of the struggles of illegal immigrant parents and a source of controversy, praised for her steadfastness and criticized as a scofflaw.

Lozano said Friday she is nervous about Arellano's trip, but optimistic and glad she's made it this far.

"Many people were saying, 'Isn't she afraid, leaving sanctuary?'" she said. "But we have to remember that Homeland Security has said 'we will come and we will get her whenever the time is right' and when they see fit. I think the threat was already there, and has been there every day."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070818/ap_ ... activist_5

Originally posted: August 15, 2007

Plea to Feds: Do not arrest Elvira Arellano when she leaves her `sanctuary'


In Antonio Olivo's story "Illegal immigrant to end yearlong stay in West Side church" we learn that Hoy newspaper is reporting--

Elvira Arellano, the illegal Mexican immigrant who has avoided deportation for a year by taking refuge inside a Humboldt Park church, plans to leave her sanctuary next month to participate in a new push for immigration reform in Washington.

I've been among those who've objected to Arellano's flouting of U.S. law and the reluctance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to respond to her double-dog dare to come and get her.

Today marks one year since Arellano and her son, Saul, 8, moved into the tiny (Aldaberto United Methodist Church on Division Street) from their former home in Pilsen. Arellano had been arrested in 2002 during an immigration raid at O'Hare International Airport, where she cleaned airplanes. She was convicted of using a fake Social Security number after the raid.

Seeming to give her an exemption because she's holed up in a church validates in the public mind what a Sun-Times editorial today calls the "principle of sanctuary," the idea that churches provide some sort of legal refuge for wrongdoers.

They don't. Or at least they shouldn't. And if immigration officials move to apprehend Arellano after she leaves her "sanctuary" it will simply validate an idea that's unconstitutional and potentially dangerous -- that she was somehow safe from the law inside the four walls of a church.

They should let her go to Washington. Then they should let her be. They had their chance. For whatever reason, they passed. Game over. She won. Move on.

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_co ... ds-do.html

From the Chicago Tribune

Activist heads to L.A. rally

By Antonio Olivo, Tribune staff reporter
9:55 PM PDT, August 17, 2007

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- Pitting secular law and 'higher law'
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Elvira Arellano has slipped out of the Chicago church where she avoided deportation for a year and is apparently headed toward Los Angeles, where an immigration march is being planned for Saturday, a West Coast march organizer said.

Arellano, an illegal Mexican immigrant, became a lightning rod in the country's immigration debate after taking refuge inside the Humboldt Park church last summer on the day she was to report to the Department of Homeland Security to be deported. Just two days ago, she announced she would leave the church, with the intention of going to Washington, D.C., to participate in a Sept. 12 prayer and fast vigil on the National Mall.

If all goes according to plan, she will be joined in Los Angeles by her son, Saul, 8, a U.S. citizen, who flew ahead with a family friend, said Javier Rodriguez, whose March 25 Coalition is coordinating the planned march through downtown Los Angeles.

Rodriguez called Arellano's decision to provoke federal immigration authorities by appearing publicly "her last fight at the O.K. Corral."

"That is a courageous, courageous woman, absolutely," Rodriguez said.

Arellano, 32, apparently left the Adalberto United Methodist Church on Thursday night, shortly after the church locked its doors and stopped receiving visitors, announcing a period of meditation and prayer. A source privy to the plans for Arellano's departure who requested anonymity said she left after 8 p.m.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined Friday to comment on Arellano, referring instead to a nearly year-old statement that calls her a fugitive and explains such arrests are prioritized based on investigative leads and intelligence.

With officials declining to raid the tiny Division Street church during Arellano's year there, her story has come to crystallize the passions of both sides of the immigration debate.

Supporters have compared her defiance to that of civil rights leader Rosa Parks. Critics, among them African-Americans who resent that comparison, say she embodies arrogance from illegal immigrants and years of government inaction that has allowed that population to swell to some 12 million people.

Arellano had entered the country illegally twice before her 2002 arrest. She was convicted of using a fake Social Security number while working as an airplane cleaner at O'Hare International Airport.

She had been scheduled to report to U.S. authorities last August. Instead, Arellano, a single mother, took refuge inside the church, announcing she wanted to fight to raise her son in the country of his birth.

"If my son was 21, and if this government still did not want me to stay in this country, I would have said to him: 'You are old enough to make your own way and make your own decisions,' And I would have packed my suitcases and gone back to Mexico," Arellano said this week in a prepared statement while announcing her intention to go to Washington. "But he is not yet an adult and I have the responsibility to protect and prepare him for the life in this country he has a right to as a U.S. citizen."

Emma Lozano, one of Arellano's closest advisers, would not confirm Arellano was en route to Los Angeles, though she had flown there herself Friday.

"As far as I know, she is still . . . she is in sanctuary," Lozano said in a telephone interview. Plans are still in place for Arellano to be in Washington next month, she said.

Later Friday, the Associated Press reported Lozano had confirmed Arellano's departure from Chicago for the Los Angeles rally.

Some immigrant activists have argued against highlighting Arellano's story, disturbed by the frequent use of Saul in speeches and marches and worried other cases are being overshadowed.

In leaving her church and adopting the role of just another activist speaking at the podium, Arellano loses some of her symbolic resonance, particularly if she gets arrested on some lonely road and never makes it to Washington, said Jorge Mujica, one of the lead organizers of several massive immigration marches that have occurred in Chicago. Mujica said he expects Arellano and her supporters could find themselves isolated from the wider immigration rights movement.

"They are going to enjoy by themselves the victory or the defeat of this," Mujica said.

aolivo@tribune.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/chi-w ... ome-center

First,

An illegal alien is NOT an ‘immigrant’. An illegal alien is a citizen of a FOREIGN country who has MIGRATED to, AND/OR gained residency AND/OR works in this country… ILLEGALLY! An illegal alien has ‘cut in line’ ..in FRONT of the millions of REAL Immigrants who patiently wait to abide ‘by the process’, and are INVITED. There is NOTHING on the base of the Statue of Liberty that says "defy this country's laws; they don't count if you just want a job."

And I continue to hear the ABUSE of the DECEPTIVE terms: "undocumented worker, immigrant, etc". The ACCURATE term is ILLEGAL:

“ALIEN", “MIGRANTâ€

Seems pretty clear to me that if the Feds do not make every attempt to seize and deport her they are giving an unconditional green light to any and all illegals. It's nonsense to believe that doing so now will legitimize the notion of "sanctuary". It is time the U.S. government sent a clear and appropriate signal to citizens, legals, and illegals alike that enforcement of immigration law is eminent! If they let this woman evade arrest again it is going to embolden millions of illegals who already believe they are and will continue to be above the law. What an insult to every U.S. citizen and legal immigrant that will be!

As far as her son is concerned, he is certainly eligible (although truly not a US citizen) for the same provision as any other child whose parent is removed from society because of unlawful behavior. Foster parents would welcome and love him, or of course he could go to live with relatives here or in another country. It's not like the poor kid is going to be left on a street corner somewhere!

I still haven't figured out why ICE didn't politely walk into the church and tell her, "It's time to go" in the first place! Maybe all Americans should build a garage, put a sign on it saying CHURCH, and then whenever they (or a friend or family member) decided to break a law simply run inside and cry out "Sanctuary-Sanctuary". It's obvious they will be safe and the police will decide to go away! RIGHT!!!!

Well stated!

I believe that ICE should have, [and STILL can] indeed set HER as an example as you’ve pointed out..

As to WHY they didn’t? Hmm.. could be a myriad of ideas, but I personally believe CORPORATE religious influence as made it's way DEEP into every crevice of our government's security..

..including ICE.

Hmm.. so I think that means we're regressing, not progressing..

What do you think..?

Originally Posted by tiredofapathy

Seems pretty clear to me that if the Feds do not make every attempt to seize and deport her they are giving an unconditional green light to any and all illegals. It's nonsense to believe that doing so now will legitimize the notion of "sanctuary". It is time the U.S. government sent a clear and appropriate signal to citizens, legals, and illegals alike that enforcement of immigration law is eminent! If they let this woman evade arrest again it is going to embolden millions of illegals who already believe they are and will continue to be above the law. What an insult to every U.S. citizen and legal immigrant that will be!

As far as her son is concerned, he is certainly eligible (although truly not a US citizen) for the same provision as any other child whose parent is removed from society because of unlawful behavior. Foster parents would welcome and love him, or of course he could go to live with relatives here or in another country. It's not like the poor kid is going to be left on a street corner somewhere!

I still haven't figured out why ICE didn't politely walk into the church and tell her, "It's time to go" in the first place! Maybe all Americans should build a garage, put a sign on it saying CHURCH, and then whenever they (or a friend or family member) decided to break a law simply run inside and cry out "Sanctuary-Sanctuary". It's obvious they will be safe and the police will decide to go away! RIGHT!!!!

The Los Angeles march is set for Saturday morning. Arellano plans a press conference at La Placita, which Lozano described as a prominent Catholic church.

There is NO WAY that this woman should be allowed to even enter this church. If ICE doesn't have agents waiting there for her arrival there is something deeply, deeply wrong in this country.

Just what in th"F" happened here??!! Here we had an illegal alien hiding in a church for one year and Chicago ICE does nothing about it??!! NOW, she's off to L.A. to attend some protest where she will probably be treated as a martyr. I am totally disgusted with not only Chicago ICE, but this countries sell out senators and other politicians who don't give a damn about securing the borders and enforcing our immigration laws.

This is why Giuliani or Romney will lose to Hillary. The American people are tired and fed up of the Bush Administration doing nothing.

Out of anger, a lot of Republicans will probably either not vote at all, or some may even vote for Hillary out of retaliation to send a message to the Republican Party that they're finished.

People are tired of standing up and fighting for Republicans because when the time arises for the Republicans to stand up for the American people and our laws.....they constantly fail us.