Immigration activist deported to Mexico

Updated Mon. Aug. 20 2007 1:16 PM ET

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor said.
洛杉矶 -- 为了避免与在美国出生的儿子分隔两地，一名来自墨西哥的非法一名，躲在在芝加哥的一个教堂里长达一年，最后被遣送回墨西哥。

Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference last week to announce that she would finally leave the church to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.
Elvir Arellano不理会递解令，躲在教堂里大声疾呼。她上周在一个新闻发布会上宣布她将走出教堂来游说议员们。

She had just spoken at a Los Angeles rally when she was arrested Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church and deported, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano had been living.
她一直在芝加哥的Adalberta United Methodist教堂生活，教堂的牧师Rev. Walter Coleman说：她在星期天在洛杉矶举办的一个集会上演说时在Our Lady Queen of Angels教堂外被警方逮捕。

"She has been deported. She is free and in Tijuana," said Coleman, who said he spoke to her on the phone. "She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."
Coleman说：她已经被递解处境，然后在Tijuana被释放。Coleman说他与Elvir通过电话。”她心情不错，她准备继续争取与她儿子团聚。

Her 8-year-old son, Saul, is now living with Coleman's family. During a news conference in Los Angeles after Arellano's arrest, the boy hid behind the pastor's wife and wiped away tears.
她8岁的儿子Saul现在与Coleman一家住在一起。在Arellano被捕之后洛杉矶举办的新闻发布会上男孩躲在Coleman的妻子背后擦眼泪。

Arellano had said on Saturday that she was not afraid of being taken into custody by immigration agents.
Arellano星期六说过她不害怕被移民局的官员拘捕。

"From the time I took sanctuary, the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want," she said in Spanish. "I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."

Arellano, 32, arrived in Washington state illegally in 1997. She was deported to Mexico shortly afterward, but returned and moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at O'Hare International Airport.

She was arrested in 2002 at O'Hare and convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August but instead sought refuge at the church on Aug. 15, 2006.
她于2002年因为使用假社安号工作而在芝加哥O'Hare机场附近被捕。他应该于去年八月到当局报道，但是于2006年8月15日到芝加哥的一个教堂寻求庇护。

She had not left the church property until she decided to travel by car to Los Angeles, Coleman said.
Coleman说： 她决定驱车前往洛杉矶之前一直没有离开过那个教堂。

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed her Sunday arrest. Spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said the agency would have further details on the deportation later Monday.


Arellano is staying with a friend in Tijuana, Coleman said. He said she had brought to light her struggle, and for that, "she has won a victory."

"She'll be organizing on the Mexican side of the border while we're organizing in the (United) States," Coleman said Monday. "She'll be talking to organizations throughout Mexico and congressmen in Mexico City."

Coleman said he and other activists will continue Arellano's original plan to go to Washington, D.C., and take part in a prayer meeting and rally for immigration reform at the Capitol on Sept. 12.

Immigration activists promised protests and vigils to support Arellano.

"We are sad, but at the same time we are angry," said Javier Rodriguez, a Chicago immigration activist who worked with Arellano. "How dare they arrest this woman?"

Anti-illegal immigrant groups said the 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," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors limits on immigration.

Arellano has repeatedly called for a stop to immigration raids that break up families with some members who are in the U.S. legally and others illegally. She has said her son would be deprived of his rights as a U.S. citizen if he had to go to Mexico simply because she did.

Emma Lozano, Coleman's wife and head of immigration rights group Centro Sin Fronteras in Chicago, said she was Saul's legal guardian.

"He's taking it better than we thought he would," Lozano said.

While being arrested, Arellano spoke briefly with her son before submitting to authorities, Lozano said.

"She calmed him down, hugged him and gave him a blessing," Lozano said.