Immigration Activist Deported to Mexico

By Sonia Nazario and David Pierson
(c) 2007, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES -- Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who became a symbol in the nation's immigration wars after she took sanctuary in a Chicago church last year, was deported late Sunday, authorities said.
Arellano, 32, was arrested earlier in the day by federal immigration agents outside Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Los Angeles. She was then transported about 100 miles to the San Ysidro border crossing and turned over to Mexican immigration officials, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Arellano, a single mother, moved into Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago a year ago to avoid being separated from her 8-year-old U.S.-born son. At her request Sunday, the boy was left with her traveling companions, including Walter Coleman, pastor of the Chicago church.
Arellano was arrested as she was leaving the downtown Los Angeles church, also known as La Placita, with her son and a supporter.
Supporters said federal immigration agents surrounded the car in which Arellano was riding and took her into custody.
For immigrant-rights groups, Arellano had become the human face of stepped-up enforcement efforts that frequently separate immigrant mothers and fathers from their U.S.-born children.
But to others, Arellano was someone who had broken U.S. laws and was flouting that by holding news conferences.
There are at least 3.1 million children in the U.S. who have one or more parents in the country illegally, according to a 2006 report released by the Pew Hispanic Center.
"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. "You cannot say: I have a child who is an American citizen. That makes me immune to any law I violated." Other anti-illegal immigration activists have said that Arellano could remain with her child simply by taking him with her to Mexico.
Arellano entered the United States in 1997. On her first try, she was caught at the border and deported, said Coleman. She re-entered a few days later and in 2002 was arrested -- and later convicted -- of using a false Social Security number at her job cleaning airplanes at O'Hare International Airport.
Last summer, an immigration judge ordered Arellano to present herself for deportation.
Instead, she sought refuge in the Chicago church.
Arellano came to Los Angeles on Friday to speak at four churches over the weekend. She was pressing for immigration reform that would provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people in the U.S. illegally.
Immigration sweeps have mounted since congressional measures to legalize the country's undocumented immigrants were defeated this summer.
At a hastily organized news conference, members of the Chicago church where Arellano had stayed denounced the federal government and called on supporters to march to Washington to protest immigration laws.
"Everyone should be angry," said Emma Lozano, a member of the Chicago church.
Standing next to Lozano was Arellano's son, Saul, wearing baggy jeans and looking bewildered by all the attention.
The boy and his mother were leaving the L.A. church for another church when about 15 ICE agents in vans encircled the group, according to Arellano's supporters.
Lozano said Arellano told her frightened son to be calm and asked the agents to allow her a moment alone with him before they took her away.
Arellano was part of a fledgling movement of churches in New York, Chicago, San Diego and Los Angeles that had recently offered sanctuary to illegal immigrants.
But her cause was not widely embraced by immigrant rights activists, some of whom believed the idea of religious organizations willfully flouting the law to shelter an illegal immigrant with final deportation orders was too confrontational and feared that her tactics would only fuel anti-immigrant forces in the U.S.
Many Americans feel torn about cases such as Arellano's, said Grace Dyrness, who is studying the sanctuary movement at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California.
"People are struggling: Where do I land? Do I side with the law, without compassion? Or with compassion, and then I don't have regard for our laws?" she said.
"People wonder: What is the law, and what does my heart say and how do we bring those two together?" Dyrness said.
Arellano's arrest, Dyrness predicted, would put a damper on undocumented immigrants seeking sanctuary in churches, because they would fear becoming targets of federal immigration authorities.
But she also predicted the arrest would mobilize churches to come to their aid.
Times staff writer Tami Abdollah contributed to this report.