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 News from Around the Americas | August 2006 
Mexican Mom Defies Deportation in Bold US Immigration Standoff
 Louise Daly - AFP
| | Elvira Arellano is interviewed at the Adalberto United Methodist Church on West Division Street in Chicago, Illinois. On the face of it, Arellano seems an unlikely fugitive from justice. But the illegal immigrant is in standoff mode, deftly using the media and sensitive issues such as faith, parenting and culture to try to win the right to stay in the United States. (AFP/Tasos Katopodis) |
On the face of it, Elvira Arellano seems an unlikely fugitive from justice. But the illegal immigrant is in standoff mode, deftly using the media and sensitive issues such as faith, parenting and culture to try to win the right to stay in the United States.
A study in pink, the 31-year-old Mexican mom appears relaxed, if preoccupied, chatting on her cell phone in a shabby storefront church.
A handful of supporters and hangers-on chat quietly in the surrounding pews as Arellano submits to yet another media interview, while in a back room an industrious young man cranks out badges of Arellano and her son with the slogan: "Moratorium Now."
For the past 12 days the sometime cleaning worker has been at the center of a firestorm that has made headlines across the United States.
It began on August 15, when Arellano sought sanctuary in this community church rather than surrender to US immigration authorities to be deported back to her native Mexico.
And it shows no sign of ending any time soon.
Officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago say they have no plans to raid the church where Arellano and her seven-year-old son Saul are holed up.
Still, the stress is wearing on the young Mexican.
"It's been pretty difficult. I draw comfort from the people who drop in to pray for me and reassure me," said a wan and weary Arellano. "But I don't know how it will end."
With no legal remedies left to speak of, the 31-year-old has fought a shrewd public relations battle against her deportation, portraying herself as a modern-day civil rights activist in the vein of Rosa Parks, the black seamstress whose act of defiance triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and ushered in a new chapter in the struggle against segregation.
"The immigration system is broken. Even President (George W.) Bush recognizes that. If I could have come here legally, I would have, but I didn't have that option," she argued.
She has also played the society card, arguing that by deporting her, US authorities would be tearing her son away from the only culture and society he has ever known.
"He won't have the same opportunities in Mexico. He will lose his language," she said.
Arellano has become a poster child in a city which has seen more than 400,000 people march for comprehensive immigration reform.
"Her plight highlights the problems with the system," said Deborah Notkin, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
"The American economy needs the cheap labor force that these illegal immigrants provide, but Washington won't find a way for these people to work here safely and legally."
"It's an unworkable situation."
Arellano's arguments cut little ice with right-wing immigration activists such as John Keeley, director of communications at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
"She's a serial offender who has brazenly broken our laws. Why should she be rewarded?" he asked.
In addition to illegally sneaking into the United States, Arellano was also convicted of using fake papers to get a cleaning job at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Arellano's dilemma and her standoff with authorities has pitch-forked her into the heart of the rancorous debate over proposed US immigration reform - an issue which triggered massive grassroots demonstrations this year, and is being hotly debated in Washington ahead of November's congressional elections.
The Bush administration is pressing for a package of comprehensive immigration reforms that would go some way to remedying the black market in immigrant labor by providing for a guest worker program and a mechanism to allow some of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to earn US citizenship.
The US Senate has approved a bill that would deliver on those objectives, in addition to beefing up border enforcement, but a dueling bill passed by the US House of Representatives takes a much tougher line.
The House legislation would expand a fence along the US-Mexico border, make unlawful presence in the United States a felony and crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.
But many congressional watchers are skeptical that the two chambers will work out a compromise deal this year, in part because they believe some House Republicans hope to use immigration as a wedge issue in the November elections to help them to turn out a part of their base.
Meanwhile back in Chicago, Arellano's supporters have been frantically exploring other avenues to keep her in the United States.
A Chicago lawyer filed a civil suit on behalf of Arellano's son Saul in US district court here Thursday, seeking to block the deportation of his mother.
On a second front, Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez petitioned the White House to intervene to stop Arellano from being deported to allow him time to introduce a private bill with a view to securing a visa to allow her to stay.
But legal experts who have followed the case doubt these last-minute interventions will yield results.
"I don't think she has any legal remedies left at this stage. She's in a very difficult and desperate situation," said Steven Lubet, a law professor at Northwestern University in Chicago. |
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