An internationally known illegal immigrant activist was deported Sunday, hours after her arrest in what was her first appearance outside of the Chicago church that has sheltered her from deportation officials for over a year.
Elvira Arellano, a 32-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested by federal immigration officials outside of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, also known as La Placita, in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Arellano made the trip to California – the first time she emerged from her Chicago Methodist sanctuary since she sought refuge in Aug. 15, 2006 – to attend an immigrant rights rally and to speak at several churches.
“She has been deported. She is free and in Tijuana,” said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church, which had sheltered Arellano and her son, according to NBC news. “She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border.”
Arellano has become a symbol in the battle of illegal immigrant parents to remain in the United States with their U.S. citizen children. The arrested activist has an 8-year-old U.S.-born son, Saul, who has, along with his mother, made many public appeals for more lenient immigration reform laws.
Saul and supporters of Arellano’s cause were with her during the time of arrest.
“From the time I took sanctuary, the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want,” said Arellano in Spanish on Saturday, according to NBC. “I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight.”
While supporters hail her as a Mexican Rosa Parks, critics have denounced her as a lawbreaker who flaunts her crime in the face of government officials by holding press conferences. Opponents further add that Arellano and other illegal immigrant parents can simply take their child with them back to Mexico to avoid separation.
However, Arellano contends that if she takes her son with her back to Mexico then he will lose his rights as a U.S. citizen.
“She broke the law. You cannot use your child as a human shield to ignore immigration laws,” said Joseph Turner, Western regional coordinator of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“You cannot say: I have a child who is an American citizen. That makes me immune to any law I violated,” Turner argued.
At least 3.1 million children in the United States have one or more parents in the country illegally, according to the 2006 report by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Arellano first illegally immigrated to the United States in 1997 but was then shortly deported back to Mexico. She again crossed the border and made her way to Illinois in 2000 where she worked at O’Hare International Airport cleaning planes.
She was arrested in 2002 at O’Hare and later convicted of working under a false Social Security number.
Last Wednesday, on the one-year anniversary of her stay at Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, Arellano announced during a press conference of her plan to travel to the nation’s capital. She said she would pray and fast for eight hours at Washington’s National Mall on Sept. 12 to pressure Congress to pass more humane immigration reforms.
