Posted on 08/20/2007 7:39:57 AM PDT by SmithL
Los Angeles (AP) -- An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor and immigration officials said.
Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference last week to announce that she would finally leave the church to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.
She was arrested Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church in Los Angeles and deported several hours later, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano had been living.
"She is free and in Tijuana," said Coleman, who said he spoke to her on the phone. "She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement Monday that Arellano was processed at the agency's staging facility in Santa Ana, and transported 100 miles to the border crossing at Otay Mesa, where she was turned over to Mexican immigration officials late Sunday.
Officials said they coordinated closely with representatives from the Mexican consulate during the evening repatriation.
Arellano's 8-year-old son, Saul, is now living with Coleman's family. During a news conference in Los Angeles after Arellano's arrest, the boy hid behind the pastor's wife and wiped away tears.
Immigration officials said he remained with Coleman's family at the request of Arellano.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Now we know what her real values are.
This is what you get when you pander to criminals. Nothing but trouble. And more trouble.
Judging only from her public actions, that child means nothing more to this sorry excuse for a mother than a means to an end.
How dare this woman be so selfish that she would sacrifice her child for a cause she is so clearly in violation of. Why doesn’t she stay in Mexico with her child and show what she can do over there to better her country? No, she would rather come here and live off the fat of the land(us)free of charge.
This is no noble person. A person that would leave their child is not noble. A person that would not try to help their own country is a coward.
The child needs to be returned to Mexico. This child is not an American citizen.
She doesn’t want the child with her because she would have no cause then.
XIVth Amend.
Deport her son to Mexico NOW. End the scandal of “anchor babies” once and for all.
All it takes is a single Federal court ruling to this effect to get the wheels in motion for a full SCOTUS ruling that the 14th Amendment prohibits "anchor babies".
I don't think the Feds let the screen door hit her in the patootie on the way across the border....
“Deported illegal immigrant to continue activism”
As long as she does it from the comfort of her own country.
Agreed. If she’s so concerned about social justice, her own country would be a good place to start. But it’s plain that she’s not, she just wants to feed at the deepest trough.
“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?”
GEE...How dare they????? God forbid people that are openly breaking the law be arrested!!!
Lawbreakers...ie: illegals in this case...are above the laws that we,as a people of OUR United States of America enact.
Good grief!
1996 immigration reform did away with anchorbabies. Custody follows the parents. The activist is leaving the child behind under the assumption when he turns 18 he can petition for his mothers visa.
However as a convicted felon she will have to petition for waiver of excludability. (or marry a US citizen for a free pass)
If the church had wanted to do something for her, they could have simply helped her to re-establish herself in her home country (and perhaps they will). If she simply wanted to do what is right, she would have taken her son with her. Mexico is not a bad place to raise your kid, it surprises me that the “activists” and Elvira herself are so unwilling to let him be educated in a system that is probably more rigorous than our own.
And if the church were looking for an opportunity to right social wrongs, there is no more wide-open mission field than Mexico, whose dysfunction is the reason 3/4 of a million of its citizens must leave each and every year. Mexico is one of the greatest oil producers in the world, its one of the industrial giants in Latin America, and if its own people are abandoning it in droves, there is a reason, and that reason has moral roots. That is where the church should focus its attention, if it has not completely lost its own way.
That'll do a lot of good. Who's got an over/under on how quick she comes back?
Darn, no picture of “Elvira” mistress of the dark?
“slim” coleman has been a poverty pimp in chicago since forever-i remember him as a semi hoodlum type with a stingy-brim hat and a goatee-now he’s a reverend-as they say “same s##t,different color”
Add child abandonment to her rap sheet.
Exactly...
That's why the kid was left behind. She could care less about that kid.
Playing spokesperson and martyr for the illegal aliens is much more exciting than being mommy.
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