IPS-English MEXICO-US: 32-Year-Old Immigrant Never Dreamed
 
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:51:37 -0700


MEXICO-US: 32-Year-Old Immigrant Never Dreamed She Would Become a Symbol
Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Aug 28   (IPS)  - Elvira Arellano, the undocumented 
Mexican immigrant who took refuge in a U.S. church for a year 
before she was deported and separated from her eight-year-old son 
never imagined becoming the face of the struggle for immigrant 
rights. ”But now that I am, I hope to help change the reputation 
of ‘terrorists' that they have pinned on us,” she said.

”When I entered the United States without documents in 1997, I 
knew I was taking a risk, but I never thought I would ever be in 
this situation,” she told IPS. ”Now my hope is that my case will 
put the spotlight on what is happening with many families of 
immigrants who are being torn apart.”

”We Are All Elvira” was the phrase chanted in protest 
demonstrations held in the United States since Arellano's 
deportation on Aug. 19.

The Mexican government and legislators have offered Arellano 
shows of solidarity. On Tuesday, President Felipe Calderón asked 
her to meet with him.

According to some sources, the president offered her support so 
that her eight-year-old son Saúl, who was with her when she was 
seized by immigration agents but was left in the U.S. in the care 
of friends of the family, can study and live in Mexico.

”The politicians and government are talking about my case because 
it has become very public and because they wanted to look like 
‘oh yes, yes, we are providing support, we are paying very close 
attention to this problem',” said Arellano, who has promised not 
to return to the United States unless she can do so legally.

”The reality is that they are deporting women and children and 
the human rights of immigrants are being violated every day, 
while Mexico does very little about it,” said the 32-year-old 
Arellano, whose son is a U.S. citizen by birth.

”Mexico should take a firmer stance. If they are building a wall 
(fences and walls on the U.S. border), they scream bloody murder, 
but if they are deporting families no one says anything; it's 
just terrible,” she said.

The immigrant parents of an estimated 800,000 U.S.-born children 
are facing deportation orders.

For these families, the alternatives are to live and work 
underground, return as a family to the parents' country of 
origin, or be torn apart.

Although Arellano was one of more than 500 people deported from 
the United States on Aug. 19, her case has drawn heavy media 
attention because she had taken sanctuary in a church, thus 
defying the deportation orders she faced since August 2006.

Arellano had been arrested in 2002 and convicted of using a fake 
Social Security card while working at the O'Hare airport in 
Chicago, Illinois, where she cleaned planes. 

She was to surrender to authorities in August 2006, but instead 
took refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, 
where she lived for a year until she decided to speak at a Los 
Angeles rally in favour of immigration reform and legalisation of 
the status of the 10 to 12 million undocumented immigrants living 
in the United States, a majority of whom are Mexican.

She was arrested on her way from Our Lady Queen of Angels Church 
in downtown Los Angeles, California on her way to speak at 
another church involved in the sanctuary movement.

”I took the risk of leaving (the church in Chicago), but I knew I 
was going to be arrested anyway,” she said.

”I had no choice after a very difficult year during which I gave 
up walks in the park with Saulito, going to his school, going 
shopping -- the normal things that people do every day in the 
street,” she said.

”I knew I was in infringement in terms of my documents. But is 
that so serious that I should be accused of being a danger to the 
United States, separated from my son, and treated as a 
terrorist?” 

”They said I was a threat, but I'm just a mother who wants to 
work to give my son a better future,” she said. ”What a disgrace; 
that country that talks so much about human rights and family 
unity should be ashamed.”

Arellano said she will continue, from Mexico, to fight for the 
rights of undocumented immigrants. She is now looking for a job 
and hopes to find a school soon for her son, so he can come and 
live with her.

Her deportation was part of a wave of sweeps of workplaces and 
general crackdown on undocumented immigrants. In addition, New 
Department of Homeland Security regulations that will take effect 
in September will stiffen the penalties for companies found to 
have knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

”For me, the most important thing is to spread the message that 
instead of being seen as terrorists and criminals in the United 
States, we should be treated as what we are: human beings who did 
not have opportunities in our countries and had to leave to seek 
a better life elsewhere,” said Arellano.

She first went to the United States at age 22, paying a ”coyote” 
or people smuggler to get her across the border.

”I went to find a better life, because I was earning very little 
in Mexico (as a secretary), and besides, emigration was a 
tradition in my home state (of Michoacán).

”I don't regret anything. Now I'll fight to have my son by my 
side, that's the first thing, and to support the cause of so many 
brothers and sisters living in the United States,” she said.

On Saturday, hundreds of immigrants and activists marched in Los 
Angeles in support of Arellano, carrying signs reading ”We Are 
All Elvira”.

The flow of Mexican migrants crossing the border into the United 
States has risen steadily since the 1970s, when some 800,000 
Mexicans by birth were residing in that country, compared to 11 
million today, including seven million who live there illegally.


***** + MEXICO: Stranded Migrants Wait for Trains That Will Never 
Come (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38908)


(END/IPS/LA NA IP HD PR MI/TRASP-SW/DC/DM/07)


 
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