Posted on 08/20/2007 4:32:42 AM PDT by Ghayyour
A Mexican woman whose fight to stay in the US with her US-born son attracted national attention has been sent back to Mexico as an illegal immigrant. Elvira Arellano was arrested in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon and deported several hours later.
She became a prominent figure after taking refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from eight-year-old Saul, a US citizen.
He is staying with people who were with her when she was arrested.
Ms Arellano was handed over to Mexican authorities in Tijuana at 2200 (0500GMT) and freed, Mexican officials said.
Elvira Arellano and Saul made a powerful emotional case for keeping the families of illegal immigrants together.
Last November, Saul went to Mexico's Congress to make a personal appeal for help to stop his mother's deportation.
Ms Arellano took refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago last August, defying a deportation order.
But this weekend she left the church to travel to Los Angeles to back calls for immigration reform.
On Saturday, Ms Arellano had said she was not afraid of being arrested by US immigration officials.
"From the time I took sanctuary the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want," she said.
"I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."
Ms Arellano first came illegally to the US in 1997. She was deported but returned days later.
She settled in Chicago, working as a cleaner at O'Hare International Airport, where she was arrested in 2002 and convicted of being employed under a false Social Security number.
Defying the law
Ms Arellano was supposed to hand herself over for deportation on 15 August 2006, but instead sought refuge with her son at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago.
US authorities did not attempt to seize her from the church.
Immigrants' rights campaigners said they would stage protests and vigils to support her and demand her return to the US.
But a group favouring limits on immigration said her arrest was long overdue.
"Just because the woman has gone public and made an issue of the fact that she is defying law doesn't mean the government doesn't have to do its job," Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told the Associated Press.
Tag= Lost Art,,use to play with code with my dad..
Especially after MSM photographers sprinkle brand new toys all over the pavement.
The law is "so strict" for whoever is living here illegally, regardless of their original nationality or religion. If anything, it has been applied (or not applied as the case may be) more leniently for Mexican nationals than for almost any other nationality, this one instance of a highly vocal and publicized lawbreaker notwithstanding.
Fine by me.
Thank for saying it! Nobody is forcing her to leave her son behind--she's choosing to dump the kid so she can use him as a political lever.
Then our lying leaders, pretending to be compassionate, tell us that illegals have wonderful family values.
I'm sure some do, maybe even many; but not this manipulative criminal IMO.
I picked up on a key phrase last night when Drudge was playing sound bites. Listen carefully. While she was in jail, her eight her old son was in the custody of his “legal guardian”. That means she CAN’T take him with her. Unless a court took him away from her just try doing that if the birth mother is a Crack Addict, it ain’t easy to do. This woman is very shrewd and calculated. She is no simple peasant immigrant. This was a well planned operation to fan the flames.
May I assume you're writing about the America that used to be?
Correct! She was ordered deported for using a fake SS #. That is a felony. Charge her, jail her then deport her.
I suggest we start a betting pool as to when she will return. You know she will.
They should not be since their mother's took steps to get here illegally.
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.
Illegal Aliens don't believe they are subject to our jurisdiction and may come here when ever and how ever they please, therefore their prodigy should not be granted citizenship. Her son was allowed to speak before the Mexican Congress to plead her case, when he did so it was as a Mexican citizen pleading for the rights of his mother as a Mexican citizen.
They cannot have it both ways. Send him home to be with his mother. Send him to Mexico.
I agree with your reading of the Constitution. The courts thus far, as I understand it, have not.
Three strikes law anyone? Return three times, three felonies, and off to the work farm, for life.
I agree with you. Call me cynical, but I think this woman was bored with being stuck in the church, unable to do anything and long ignored. She needed a trip home for a wedding or two, had no money, so why not do a "speaking tour" and get a free ride? I expect to see her back in short order.
All but true, but you are talking about a country that has a definite postition on Immigration. The U.S. beginning with the President and his Immigration policy is confused, some people feel ashamed of being Americans and having so much! embarrased, because we want to be liked by world. And the fact the U.S. did not cave in outright shows a bit of back bone on our part.
No it isn't the law, and is considered such only because of a bogus decision by some judge that wasn't appealed.
Janet Reno would have burned her out. NOT
Apparently only if it’s a mexican woman and not a cuban child caught with wet feet.
The laws are the same. Muslims living here illegally are deported every day, they're just not on the six o'clock news making spectacles of themselves.
This woman chose to make herself a poster child.
We need to establish a “working jail” concept perhaps on/near large farms. People who return after deportation will serve jail time and work 8 hour days on the farm or doing whatever to offset the taxpayer expense of their illegal entry and their jail time stemming from their illegal activity.
It really roils me that stating the correct interpretation of the law (as you have done) would be considered by anyone as "insensitive". Send them all back to Mexico. Useless lot of trouble.
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