Thread: Vote if you support Elvira

Vote if you support Elvira Arellano

August 26, 2006

BY SUE ONTIVEROS SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST





The children and voting. To me, that's what Elvira Arellano's battle to stay in the United States should be all about. I'm glad her supporters are of the same opinion.



Since I first heard about Arellano, the undocumented worker who has taken sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist Church to avoid deportation to Mexico, my prevailing question has been this: What about the rights of her 7-year-old son, Saul, who is an American citizen? We should be concerned about his rights. You start trampling on the rights of one citizen, and where does it end?

So I was glad to see that a petition is being filed in federal court to vacate her deportation. The petition says that because Arellano and Saul have no other family members in the United States who could take care of the 7-year-old if she were deported, what will happen is the United States will be deporting a U.S. citizen, too. Because that is exactly what we'll be seeing: an American citizen forced to leave the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. A child will have to choose between mom and his country of birth, the United States. That's homeland security? I don't think so.

A lot of people have said we cannot make exceptions for one mother and one child. Sorry, that's so shortsighted and denies the real family situations in this current battle over immigration. Saul and Elvira Arellano are just the public faces of a situation that is a reality in many homes across the United States.

By even conservative estimates, there are more than 3 million U.S. citizens -- children just like Saul -- whose parents are undocumented workers. These are children who were born here, which makes them just as American as George W. Bush. These are American children who, just like Citizen Saul, worry every day that Mom or Dad or both parents will be plucked away from them just like that. This, in the country that loves to drape itself in "family values." Where is the value of ripping American citizens away from their parents?

And just as those children suffer, so does little Citizen Saul. I stopped by the church this week, a modest yet well-cared-for storefront house of worship, and talked to its leader, the Rev. Walter Coleman. Many question Arellano's motives because Coleman is a longtime activist on social issues. Frankly, I think it was her lucky day when their paths crossed. This is a man who knows how to help the little people get their voices heard.

According to Coleman, Citizen Saul is having problems with separation anxiety. If mom is out of sight even briefly, he is anxiously searching her out. He may be only 7, but I bet he understands quite clearly that at any moment she could be taken away. That's no way for any child to live.

OK, before you all rip out your pens or start hammering away on the e-mails, let me say this: The millions of undocumented workers didn't just get here overnight. As Coleman pointed out, undocumented workers have been here for about a century. Why? Because their presence here worked to the advantage of businesses and our government.

And, yes, I realize Arellano came across the border illegally twice. For every comfortable U.S. citizen who tells me that, I wonder, how would you react if you and your family were so poor and hungry and just to the north there were jobs to end that misery? Desperate people do desperate things, especially with opportunity so close they can almost touch it.

In the church, right in front of a little basket with buttons that bear a photo of Citizen Saul and mom, hangs another important part of Elvira Arellano's battle, a voter registration form. There's a pile of them nearby, too. Coleman and other volunteers are working on putting up kiosks -- a thousand of them -- in neighborhood businesses starting next week.

By Coleman's estimates, they could register 100,000 new voters. As Coleman says, those who can vote should "vote for those who can't." Now that's the Coleman I remember from watching him during the Harold Washington era. Power to the people.

Supporters of Elvira Arellano who can vote should indeed first register to vote, and second, exercise that right. Make sure the politicians know you're doing it, too. For voting is the only way to make those in power sit up and pay attention.

Those who are eligible to vote and believe that this broken system of immigration should be fixed, here's your chance. Register. Vote. The elections in November are coming up. Let your voices be heard.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/ontiv...edt-sue26.html

In the church, right in front of a little basket with buttons that bear a photo of Citizen Saul and mom, hangs another important part of Elvira Arellano's battle, a voter registration form.

The propagandist who wrote this latest sob story must have missed seeing the Cuban and Mexican flags.

Send them both back, NOW!

Right on Count!

And, yes, I realize Arellano came across the border illegally twice. For every comfortable U.S. citizen who tells me that, I wonder, how would you react if you and your family were so poor and hungry and just to the north there were jobs to end that misery? Desperate people do desperate things, especially with opportunity so close they can almost touch it.

Yes, 'came across the border twice illegally'. Small details as those...

But, the author fails to realize that there are millions of US citizens that are also poor and desparate that DO NOT take the law into their own hands, or try to 'write their own', or otherwise break it (yes, I do realize that some do - of course). But, MOST DON'T. I could probably count myself into that category as evidence.

Re: "Desparate people do desparate things..." So, as long as one is desparate and opportunity is 'close' it is ok to gain an advantage by breaking whatever law happens to be inconvenient?
Bovine Scatology.

Yes, 'came across the border twice illegally'

Exactly! Another person who wants to reward lawbreakers. Ms Arellano is in fact a multiple time lawbreaker. I also dispute that her son is a legal US citizen.

And, yes, I realize Arellano came across the border illegally twice.

So now she's a felon. GO IN AND GET HER AND HER ANCHOR BABY NOW!!

According to Coleman, Citizen Saul is having problems with separation anxiety. If mom is out of sight even briefly, he is anxiously searching her out.

I hope they have a child psychologist ready to talk to Saul when they do finally come out of that church.

Originally Posted by Ladydrake

According to Coleman, Citizen Saul is having problems with separation anxiety. If mom is out of sight even briefly, he is anxiously searching her out.

I hope they have a child psychologist ready to talk to Saul when they do finally come out of that church.

This child is being used as a pawn by his illegal Mother.This is a case of child abuse in my opinion.No child should be subjected to the mental stress his mother is putting him through.Not to mention the fact that he will grow up thinking that it is ok to ignore laws.

Opinion
Off and Running: Americans need to reach middle ground in immigration debate


By Esther J. Cepeda
Thursday, August 24, 2006 7:21 PM CDT



Open to any newspaper’s ‘letters to the editor’ page, turn the dial to talk radio, or click on any Internet message board, and you will be confronted with nothing short of criticism from people on either side of the immigration debate.

The latest flashpoint is Chicago’s newest immigrant’s rights activist Elvira Arellano. To some she’s the mother-and-child face of immigration reform, drawing attention to the issue by taking refuge in a church and claiming holy sanctuary.

To others she’s flouting the authority of the federal government, the new poster child for increased enforcement of existing laws, who should be snatched up immediately and kicked out of the country, on her can, as soon as humanly possible.

Far from being a uniter in her cause, except to her supporters, Ms. Arellano has become yet another flashpoint in the national debate.
She is stoking flames of anger, in many cases, among both sides; those who support changes, to somehow integrate the estimated 11 million “undocumented” workers residing in the U.S., and those who could get by just fine with having hot sauce and Corona available at their local restaurants and nothing more.

My voicemail and e-mail were pushed to their limits this last week by passionate rhetoric on both sides.


A sampling of those messages:

“Illegal aliens are sucking our country dry of resources and need to be sent back to where they came from.”

“These people are good hardworking people just trying to carve out the American dream, wouldn’t you walk across an invisible line if your kids were starving?”

Both great points, but a voice comes, maybe a little more feebly but even more moving, to my ears, from the “middle class,” or as I like to think of it, people who deal with the ramifications of “undocumented workers” everyday. Here are some salient points from a reader named Ron:



“[A person like Arellano] is why our emergency rooms are jammed and our hospitals are going broke.

“Who pays for their education? The American taxpayer. It hardly costs them anything because the government is picking up the tab, and yet the middleclass has to struggle for years to pay for their children to get an education.

“Let’s get after the companies that hire these illegals and put stiff fines against the companies that want all this cheap labor … pay American workers a decent wage and they’ll do the work.

“I applauded the cities that put in restrictions as to how many people can live in a house. Sometimes there’s 20 people that live in one house -fine the owners that rent to illegals.

“I hope you at least took time to read this e-mail half way and try to realize what the average American citizen wants.”

Indeed, Ron.

Being a child of legal immigrant parents, I sit on a fence of dual experiences and don’t have the luxury of having a black or white view of this incredibly divisive issue -to me it’s all gray. The difference is that where most people see a race war, I see a class war.

On one side we have the affluent whose companies benefit from cheap labor and whose personal lives are propped up by cheap nannies, lawn mowers, and cooks at fancy restaurants.

Their idea of immigration reform, which would allow for legalization, means more brown faces to keep their flow of goods and services humming. And life is beautiful.

On the other side are those struggling from paycheck to paycheck, just one medical setback away from losing their house or car.

To them blanket legalization means more brown faces in their neighborhoods, over crowding houses and apartments, and hanging out on front porches speaking in a language they don’t understand.

These people look at their community and see poverty dragging down their property values and local school’s standardized test scores. Life is not so beautiful.

While I’m not here to present my idea of an ideal future for immigrants in this country, I can say that letting your blood pressure rise over the situation and sneering at the Hispanic girl who bags your groceries at the local supermarket is no solution.

Neither is looking down your nose at your “less enlightened” neighbors who just “can’t see the value undocumented workers contribute to our society.”

The answers lie somewhere around a bargaining table that respects both sides. It’s a start, anyway.

http://www.weeklyjournals.com/articles/ ... nion02.txt

In Iraq our troops go into Mosques routinely. I saw ICE goes in and gets this lady and ships her out!

Originally Posted by PhredE

Right on Count!

And, yes, I realize Arellano came across the border illegally twice. For every comfortable U.S. citizen who tells me that, I wonder, how would you react if you and your family were so poor and hungry and just to the north there were jobs to end that misery? Desperate people do desperate things, especially with opportunity so close they can almost touch it.

Yes, 'came across the border twice illegally'. Small details as those...

But, the author fails to realize that there are millions of US citizens that are also poor and desparate that DO NOT take the law into their own hands, or try to 'write their own', or otherwise break it (yes, I do realize that some do - of course). But, MOST DON'T. I could probably count myself into that category as evidence.

Re: "Desparate people do desparate things..." So, as long as one is desparate and opportunity is 'close' it is ok to gain an advantage by breaking whatever law happens to be inconvenient?
Bovine Scatology.

If Elvira Arellano was so hungry, so poor, and no family in this country to help her with the baby, why did she have a baby? I know why? Because Elvira Arellano knows more than this person who wrote this article defending her. Elvira Arellano knew that by her having an "anchor baby" she could stay in this country. And this is what we American citizens should fight against, that children born to illegal people should not be citizens.