Deport Her

Immigration activist who sought sanctuary arrested in L.A.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An illegal immigrant who became the face of the immigration reform movement while taking refuge in a Chicago church to avoid deportation has been arrested, the church's pastor said.
Elvira Arellano was arrested before 3 p.m. outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church on L.A.'s historic Olvera Street, where she had been speaking to reporters, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago.

Coleman said he was with Arellano when she was detained, but declined to provide other details.

"We're trying to determine her situation right now," he said.

It was unclear what law enforcement agency had taken Arellano into custody. A call to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not immediately returned.

"We are sad, but at the same time we are angry," said Javier Rodriguez, a Chicago immigration activist who worked with Arellano. "How dare they arrest this woman?"

The 32-year-old 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.

Arellano said she was staying in the United States illegally because of her 8-year-old son, Saul, who was born in America and thus a U.S. citizen. She has repeatedly called for a stop to immigration raids that break up

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"mixed families," that is families that have some members with legal status and others who are in the country illegally.
Arellano said Saturday she was not afraid of being taken into custody by immigration agents. She said she planned to take her cause to Washington, D.C.

"From the time I took sanctuary the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want," Arellano said in Spanish. "I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."

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.

She sought sanctuary at the storefront church on Chicago's West Side Aug. 15, 2006. She had not left the church property until deciding to be driven to Los Angeles, Coleman said.

deported ....came back n got pregnant there or here

Submitted by too bad on Sun, 08/19/2007 - 9:16pm.

n got on the dole....that is why she didn't want to come out of hiding...droping a brat here gets it citizenship, and the government then pays her welfare to stay here and take care of our new citizen. Sad, but true. They think she shouldn't be arrested? I think they should put her in jail and throw the key away! So Dole/and other big companies thought they could shave a little off the cost of their product by getting them here and the the welfare system supporting them instead of paying a local a good wage, greed is the problem. Bush and his cronies are grubbing the last money the US has to subsides their bussiness, while they figure out ways to sent other jobs over seas. Can you tell me where the American worker figures into this, except, maybe to bend over?

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too bad

Submitted by Cyclist on Sun, 08/19/2007 - 9:24pm.

Remember this;

The Georgia raids netted 4,034 illegal immigrants, prompting other unauthorized workers to stay home. As the $90 million onion crop sat in the field, farmers "started screaming to their local representatives," said Bart Szafnicki, INS assistant district director for investigations in Atlanta from 1991 to 2001.

Georgia's two senators and three of its House members, led by then-Sen. Paul Coverdell (R) and Rep. Jack Kingston (R), complained in a letter to Washington that the INS did not understand the needs of America's farmers. The raids stopped.

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Twenty six miles across the sea......

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