Since mid-August, all roads have led to the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago. More than 6,000 people have visited the place of worship to support Elvira Arellano, a 31-year-old mother of a 7-year-old US born child.
Daily vigils and rallies have been held at the church, located in the heart of the Windy City’s Puerto Rican neighborhood. From the temple where she was granted sanctuary, Arellano, a Mexican immigrant, is defying an order of deportation.
“I am a single mom. My son, he is a citizen. I am not a terrorist. I am not a criminal. I am a mom. He is my son,” said Arellano in a statement to the media.
Arellano’s story is a typical example of the ordeals and struggles experienced by thousands of Hispanic immigrants who fight to survive in the land of opportunities.
She came to the United States without papers from the rural town of Maravatío, in the state of Michoacán. After failing her first attempt, she crossed the border in the hot summer of 1997.
She made a journey of 1,400 miles from Mexicali to Wapato, WA, near Canada. After working there as a nanny for three years, she moved to Chicago. In December 2002, she became one of the extended victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While she was working as a cleaning lady at O’Hare International Airport, she was caught in an immigration raid, a part of Operation Tarmac.
Under Operation Tarmac, Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) conducted investigations at 196 airports and audited over 5,800 businesses. It identified more than 5,800 unauthorized airport workers and arrested more than 1,000 unauthorized alien workers, including 47 immigrants detained at Charlotte-Douglas Airport on Mar. 8, 2002.
Now Arellano is one of the 597,000 immigrant fugitives classified by ICE. “These fugitives, or absconders, are foreign nationals who have been ordered removed by a federal immigration judge but failed to comply with those orders and depart from the United States,” the federal agency states in its press releases.
Between Oct. 2005 and July 2006, the National Fugitive Operations Program made over 20,000 arrests. Many of those “fugitives” include people whose requests for asylum were rejected or who had problems with their Temporary Protected Status petitions.
Today, ICE has 45 teams to hunt “fugitive aliens,” but the federal agency expects to expand that number to 52 by the end of the year.
Arellano’s son, Saul, is one of the 3.1 million children born in the US whose parents are undocumented immigrants. Based on her situation, Arellano started La Familia Unida, a grass roots organization that helps families on the verge of being separated by the current immigration legislation.
Certainly, Arellano has been luckier than Gloria Esmeralda Zoler Romero. This 31-year-old woman from Honduras was seven months pregnant when the ICE agents knocked on the door of her apartment at Lake Mist, a complex located near Old Pineville Road and Archdale Drive, at 5am in mid-August.
Zoler Romero, a fugitive according to ICE standards, was arrested and interviewed at the Tyvola Centre Offices. Hours later, she was released with an order to come back in October. Last week, she entered the hospital, where she lost her baby. “She is unconscious in a critical condition, and I blame this absurd immigration system,” a close relative said.
This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2006.
This article is just ridiculous.
1. They are not “undocumented immigrants” – they are here illegally, so we call those that break the law illegal immigrants. It has nothing to do with documentation. It has everything to do with the fact they broke the law to get here.
2. My heart goes out to the women (Zoler Romero) who lost her baby. I fail to see the connection on how ICE caused this. All you’ve reported on is specualtion from a close relative – no facts.
3. Arellano’s story is typical – she is here illegally. She was caught the first time (props to our border patrol!) and made it through the second time. The author of this article fails to mention that she broke the law to get here ot that she is here illegally.
4. 6,000 people coming to “pay pilgrimmage” to this woman over the last 30 days is not that many people or supporters. Those sympathetic to her cause are attempting to gin up support but it is not working. Many high school football games in Charlotte get more than 6,000 people to attend…
5. She is a single Mom – where is her husband? Is he in America illegally as well?
6. Too many other questions are not even addressed by this article. How much of a drain on the taxpayers is this family, if at all? Is/was she on public assistance? Did she have insurance to assist with the delivery & care of her child?
Stop glorifying these people!!
If an aamerican was caught stealing someones social security number would you hail them as the next joan of arc? I don’t think so , we would be in jail for that. I say stick her in jail for a while and revoke the kids citizenship , neither of them should be here anyway.
The fact that this woman violated federal law to enter the United States and that she violated federal law by working in the United States (Had to have committed fraud to obtaina job at an airport)and the fact that she is again violating fedreal law by refusing to leave, not to mention the fact that the pastor of the church is violating federal law by aiding and abetting as well as harboring a fugitive seems to be lost on the writer of this article. We are a nation of laws, and the pastor should be arrested and charged and she should be arrested and deported. The bible tells us that we should obey the laws of the land. Grow up and get real.
She is not a Hispanic immigrant, she’s an illegal alien from Mexico. She has been deported twice, she’s committed the felony of document fraud, obtained illegal employment by means of fraud, and now defies a court order and chose to become a fugitive. She’s not a “hero” but a blatantly, arrogant, defiant, poor excuse for a mother. What kind of parent shamelessly hides behind a young child to try to evade prosecution for her crimes? Is that the “family values that don’t stop at the Rio Grande”? Sin Verguenza. There is nothing wrong with the laws, there is something very wrong with illegal aliens that have become so brazen in their utter contempt for any laws that they do not like. Afuera de aqui. basta ya.
Listen to the pro-illegal
immigrants talking heads — they rarely discuss that laws
are broken. In Elvira’s case, a
felony because she entered
twice. It’s always some
emotional appeal. They want
us to disregard our laws, the
way they do in Mexico. They
want to have a party here in
the US & when it’s as trashed
as Mexico, I guess they’ll
move on to Canada. Her
situation is too bad, but I
don’t buy such a cynical use
of the system & religion to
bypass our system.
I hope to goodness there is a
constitutional amendment to
correctly interpret the 14th
Amendment in its proper
context. These anchor babies
are born to Mexican citizens
& are no “subject to the
jurisidiction” of the US.
They are NOT citizens. I’m
tired of paying for them to
come here & drop their babies.