Immigration's New Face
Elvira Arellano is No Martyr
By Richard Martin, 8-22-07
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Tonight at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, a prayer vigil will be held for Elvira Arellano, the 32-year-old Mexican immigrant who since her arrest and deportation last week has swiftly become a symbol of the human tragedy surrounding U.S. immigration policy.
Arellano was picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week in Los Angeles after leaving the Chicago church where she had sought sanctuary a year before. Now staying in Tijuana, Mexico, separated from her eight-year-old son Saulito, who was born in the U.S., she has become a celebrity in the Hispanic immigrant community and is said to be planning a series of media appearances and demonstrations to demand change in U.S. immigration policies.
Arellano’s supporters have portrayed her as a Mexican Rosa Parks, but her story is more complicated than that. She first crossed the U.S. border from Mexico in 1998, according to the Associated Press, and wound up first in Yakima, Washington (where her son was born) and then in Chicago, where she worked cleaning airplanes at O’Hare International Airport until her arrest in an immigration sting in 2002. Her case took four years to make its way through immigration courts but she was finally ordered to surrender to immigration authorities in August 2006. Instead, she took refuge at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where she remained until last week.
After deciding to leave the church voluntarily to participate in a nationwide campaign for new immigration policies, Arellano was swiftly detained in Los Angeles.
“Elvira exemplifies what’s wrong with current immigration laws,” says Christian Ramirez, a national immigrants’ rights coordinator with the American Friends Service Committee. “Ripping a mother away from her 8-year old child is unconscionable. Such dramatic and drastic measures fail to address the root causes of migration to the United States and ignore the needs of multi-status immigrant families.”
That may be so, but Arellano makes an easy target for right-wing anti-immigration forces like Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, who paint her as a conscious law-breaker working under a fake Social Security number who got what was coming to her.
There’s no question that an immigration policy that provides long-term residents with American-born children no path to legal status is broken, and Congress once again failed to do anything about it when it killed President Bush’s compromise bill earlier this summer. The Department of Homeland Security has once again stepped up enforcement efforts, and is on track to deport more than 200,000 people this year, many with children living legally in the country. Young, attractive, articulate, and supported by a range of activist organizations, Elvira Arellano has a chance to become one of the powerful voices working for change. Portraying her as a saint and a victim, though, belittles the complex issues surrounding illegal immigration and her own sad tale.
To date Saul Arellano remains in Chicago, living with godparents. His mother has said that she hopes he’ll join her in Mexico soon. The boy, apparently, is not eager to leave the country of his birth.
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Comments
The yahoo element on this issue never fails to make itself heard, loudly. Do you really think that the statement above is consistent with the ideals and the founding principles of America, Chris? If so, you and I grew up in different countries.
As for the twice-deported story, that has been reported by, among others, Fox News, but not the AP in its lengthy rundown of Arellano's bio. That's why I didn't mention it.... but I'm not so sure that, if true, her earlier deportation makes her less of a poster-child for the cruelties of the current system. I'm in the process of clearing this inconsistency up and will report back when I have verifiable facts.
Thanks for writing,
RM
- She is a criminal.
- The church only wants these illegals for their money and head count.
2. Why is the child still here in the US, he should be with his mother in Mexico.
- He is her responsibility and not TAX payers.
3. Illegal workers wages are raising and that means more legal Americans are being pushed out of jobs.
4. Illegal’s all do not work in the fields or clean our office buildings. They are factory workers, nurses, truck drivers, welders, and even some in IT.
5. We are being pushed out of our own country and our political leaders are letting them, because business wants cheap labor here at home.
Objective reporting ended many years ago...on all sides,
covering all issues. This woman is not a VICTIM of our
immigration policy...she's a victim of those using her to
promote their agenda. That's the real crime!
And when any group of citizens or any organization in this Nation starts preaching about the "rights" of an illegal immigrant or harboring those who have broken our laws, there are two things first-and-foremost that those of us who are citizens need to do: (1) check our wallets for our own Get Out of Jail Free card; and, (2) never fail to remember that Charity Begins at HOME.
Perhaps those of you who think otherwise would like to open the gates of our prisons and let all the criminals within walk free at our expense (in every sense of that word)? Or do you simply think that foreigners who enter this country ILLEGALLY should have more and better "rights" that those criminals who have lived legally within our shores?
As individuals, if we have compassion and charity to spare beyond the confines of our own loved ones who are our responsibility to love and care for, do we not have enough LEGAL residents within our borders that desperately need our help and financial assistance?
I think the answer to that question is: YES WE DO.
It is far past time for each of us to fully understand that we help NO ONE ~ most particularly to include ourselves and our own families ~ if we participate in the destruction of our Nation and the Laws that govern it.
Are there other nations and other people as needy, or more needy, that the least fortunate amongst us? Of course there are!
But to participate in the destruction of ourselves and our Nation ~ to offer our Nation up as a sacrificial lamb ~ is NOT the answer. Our Nation has given in every way/shape/form to others throughout the world until we have succeeded in putting our own Nation at risk. Will our own downfall help anyone else?
NO. It won't ~ without qualification: IT WON'T.
Those who wish to make a so-called-heroine out of this Elvira person are WRONG to do so. She is a common ~ or uncommon, as the case may be ~ criminal. The fact that she FREELY CHOSE to have a baby in this country in order to SELF-SERVE even at the expense of her own child does not and should not reserve a place for her on a pedestal to be worshiped rather than punished.
The Catholic hierarchy has often proven itself to be a vehicle for something less than moral or honest ~ or an exemplary model of Christianity. May God forgive them, whether we choose to do so or not. Such an enemy within is a far greater risk to our Nation than any from distance shores.
WAKE UP, AMERICA!!! Why would you wish to fiddle while OUR "Rome" is burning?
Na-na-na-na
Hey-hey-hey
A-dio-s
"As for the twice-deported story, that has been reported by, among others, Fox News, but not the AP in its lengthy rundown of Arellano's bio. That's why I didn't mention it.... but I'm not so sure that, if true, her earlier deportation makes her less of a poster-child for the cruelties of the current system. I'm in the process of clearing this inconsistency up and will report back when I have verifiable facts."
Do you realize that when an ILLEGAL immigrant is officially deported and then sneaks back in it's a FELONY. Add to that the second felony of DOCUMENT FRAUD. This woman shoud not have been deported until after she had served up to 20 years in federal prison.
The bad news is that Americans, among many developed countries, are purposefully ending their existence by ultra low birth rates. Just as countries like Italy and Germany will not exist with their current Christian population in two generations, America is going to be a Muslim, Mormon and slightly Catholic country. Japan will be gone as we know it, and its empty infrastructure taken over by Chinese, perhaps, or maybe Indonesian muslims. Maybe even Yemeni immigrants. Yemen has the highest percentage of its population 19 and under: over 40%. Those are the numbers medical advances gave the tiny British Isles two centuries ago, and they were able to export their citizens to rule the far reaches of the world, and engage in vast trading adventures. A small nation with a high birth rate and survival can take over much larger countries. The low Russian birth rate makes Russia as it exists a take over target by default. Putin knows it, and knows he has to do something to hold on until demographics might swing his way. His fear is Islamo-Europe on his borders.
So, when Americans quit having children at a replacement rate, we started into population decline. I just read, minutes ago, that Elko, NV schools started and student numbers have declined but population is up. That is direct evidence of decline. In the muslim world, the birth rates are up. The illegal Latins in America have a higher birth rate than American citizens. It is a numbers game. Them with the most babies, generation after generation, will win. We won for decades due to advanced medicine keeping our children surviving at a high rate. That is no longer true, however.
The immigrqation issue becomes one that has to address how you want the US to look for your grandchildren, if you have any. Immigration policy can only be enforced if you have secure borders. If not, then you have the immigration policy of world wide chaos determining who is here. If the majority, at some point in time, becomes a muslim majority, all this social engineering for minorities, women, the lame and challenged, will go by the wayside as our Constitution is replaced by sharia law. That is how a democracy works. The majority rules. If the majority becomes muslim, then the rest had better convert, right then, or be doomed to lives of subjugation and fear.
Deporting illegals is lawful. Law has to be enforced. Or, the US, by not enforcing immigration law, will become the land of whatever ethnic or religious group around the world has the most babies. Those babies grow up, need food, a place to sleep securely, and they will prevail in whatever political or religious beliefs they have the power of numbers to impose. What we do today is the gift we give our grandchildren, right or wrong. By action or inaction. The time to decide is now, not next year. We did not decide last year or the year before, and the problems have gotten worse each year. Deporting an illegal is moral, is legal, is the right thing to do to protect our country.
You hit every one of those nails smack-dab-square on the head with a sledgehammer!!!
GOOD YOU!!!
And when you, Paul the American, say "Do you realize that when an ILLEGAL immigrant is officially deported and then sneaks back in it's a FELONY. Add to that the second felony of DOCUMENT FRAUD. This woman shoud not have been deported until after she had served up to 20 years in federal prison." you, too, are JUST EXACTLY *RIGHT*!!!
"That may be so, but Arellano makes an easy target for right-wing anti-immigration forces like Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, who paint her as a conscious law-breaker working under a fake Social Security number who got what was coming to her."
Easy target for right wing anti-immigration forces?! I am totally offended by this statement! Mr. Martin, you owe the American people and those who have entered this country LEGALLY an apology sir!
This kind of thinking will get a lot of people killed, yet again by terrorist who WILL enter this country illegally. Wake up!
You are wrong and misguided. If Ms. Arellano had entered this country the RIGHT LEGAL way, we wouldn't even be talking about this issue. Sir she is a Felon and if caught again, needs to serve a very long jail sentence and then deported AGAIN!
There are those worrying about her "civil rights", there can be no civil rights if we throw out the rule of law.
What about the Canadian quads that were jsut born in this country? Are they too American citizens? Interestingly enough I understand this was not a sneak entrance for that purpose it was because the universal health care in Canada did not have an opening in the hospital when the time came?
I'll put plain and simple. Enforce the current immigration laws. This young lady is a felon. Fact! There is nothing politically correct about that.
Marion, let's put it this way:
If I broke into your house, then demanded that I be allowed to stay and oh, BTW you have to now support me with a job, food, and medical care; would you not be demanding that I leave?
Ms. Arellano broke into my home and she broke the law in doing so. I have no problem if she wants to come to my home and be a productive citizen, just do it legally.
Because I believe in our country and our laws that govern our country, I am a bigot and a racist?
I am proud to be an American and I am willing to stand on the highest peak and shout it out!!
I have fought for this country so people like you, Efrain, can live in a country where you are free to express your opinions.
Do you think it is just OK to go out and murder someone, or steal someone else’s property? NO? Why? My bet is because it is against the law and you could face time in prison or death row.
Why is it any different for someone to break into my home illegally and demand that I pay their way? There is nothing racist or bigot about expecting your neighbor to respect your country's laws.
Try sneaking into Mexico or breaking one of their laws. Then we will see who is a bigot or racist.
Sorry Marion. Misundertood your post.
So go ahead an apply your laws and believe in your government and your dumb president, but don't go around the world trying to imposse those so called democracy laws, by killing millions of innocent civilians,
You appear to be a very angry individual.
Yes I do believe in my country! I believe in our freedoms, laws and form of government. I would die to protect her and her freedoms. I live in the greatest country on earth! I guess that is why everyone is trying to come here.
I do and stand by our President regardless of which party he/she is affiliated with. I may not always agree, but I also have a right to not agree.
I believe in our laws, rights and freedoms.
President Roosevelt said it best:
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
If you don't like our milk and honey, you are always free to go live somewhere else!
Wrong forum!
The topic is illegal immigration! Get with the program. How does your last statement relate to immigration?
In retrospect, we all know what those initial raids and deportations lead to. These atrocities were initially possible, because people were to busy protecting their own piece of the pie (after all: the government was not bothering their own family; only the Jews), later, because they denied what was happening in their country, and finally, because the government would persecute anybody that aided a Jewish person.
This can never happen here? – Are we as a nation already at the denial stage? – It is always convenient for a fascist government to distract the people by finding a scapegoat, while the officials continue building their empires undisturbed. And if you have not noticed: they have really gotten good at it!
“But those Mexicans committed a crime – they came here illegally…” – Remember: the law is only as good as the people that enact it – and so far, I have not been impressed!
Please wake up from your complacency while you can still act: reclaim your constitution and hold your government accountable, demand a just immigration reform instead of this scapegoating. Your kids and grandkids will be your judges; and your fathers and grandfathers did not put their lives on the line to fight nationalism in Europe just to embrace the same concept in the US.
Who said anything about just "Mexicans?"
I don't care if you are mexican, german, canadian or what ever, if you want to enter this country and become a citizen of this great land DO IT LEGALLY!
Burgi, go back a few posts and read what Presiden Theodore Roosevelt said in 1907. You just show why liberals in this Country are so out of step with the rest of America!
Jewish people living in Germany were NOT illegal immigrants, for openers. And, our Nation has NOT failed to recognize the injustice of discrimination, most particularly discrimination based on ethnic, religious or racial prejudices.
YES ~ many of us DO think that people who enter our borders ILLEGALLY should be prosecuted and evicted. And those who have STOLEN our SS#s ~ or anything else ~ should pay the harshest dues our Rule of Law allows.
I can not help but wonder from your comments how benevolent you might be, Burgi, if your neighbor next door who you may have known and trusted for 40 years or more stole your Identity, committed that Theft. Why do I doubt that you would fail to prosecute that person who would, most likely, be a citizen-in-good-standing within our Nation?
The security of our borders is not "just" about Mexican people who come here to work ~ nor is it "just" about those who come here from Mexico bearing the gifts and fruits of illegal drugs peddled to our children ~ nor is it "just" about those Mexico citizens who come here to commit violent crimes, which many do.
The security of our borders is drastically needed to secure our LIVES! If you do not recognize that FACT the visions of our jointly-suffered 9-11 ATTACK has somehow been erased from your memory bank.
Do you really think that any ILLEGAL immigrant ~ especially those who are willing to march down the main streets of our cities waving a flag from another country ~ have the best interests of our Nation or the security of it foremost in their minds or hearts?
This Nation has NEVER denied entry into it by immigrants who have respect for our Nation and the Rule of Law that governs it.
Yes, Burgi ~ "... the law is only as good as the people that enact it ... ". And so far we as a Nation have fallen far short of enacting/enforcing those laws appropriately when it comes to *illegal* immigration.
The voices of those of us who want our Nation to "...wake up from (our) complacency ..." are the ones you see posted in many of these comments, above.
Our kids and grandkids may not live long enough to worry about their kids and grandkids if we do not secure our borders IMMEDIATELY.
And to say that those who broke the Law yesterday should be patted on the head and forgiven is a mighty and direct slap in the face of every law-abiding citizen of the USA. It may be the easy way out for all the politicians but it is NOT the FAIR and equitable way out for the citizens who elected them in the first place.
... or so it seems to me ...
I agree and these are ILLEGAL immigrants, NOT “undocumented workers!”
If you don't like Americans in Iraq, then how could you like Mexicans here trying to change our culture? If we cannot make a change in how Iraqis want to be governed, then why are we there? As to the bloodbath if we leave, c'est la vie. It appears muslims love death more than life as it is, and this infidel has lost compassion for the whole lot of them. My interests are now in preserving my homeland from an invasion of jihadists leaking through our borders, or the homegrown disaffected seeking to wreak mayhem on this country. I still remember the car load of explosives Customs found, along with a couple of muslims, at the Port Angeles ferry terminal, coming in from Canada, with a plan to explode them in Los Angeles at the airport. It is time to tend the home fires. Deportations of illegals is a very important part of that process. Having secure borders is a very important part of that process.
I am looking out for me and mine. You?
You're not afraid of becoming brown-skinned and bi-lingual are you?
As bearbail has so aptly stated: "It is time to tend the home fires. Deportations of illegals is a very important part of that process. Having secure borders is a very important part of that process. I am looking out for me and mine. You?"
And since your second snide question, my dear Mr. Barr, presumes discriminatory race and lingo determination not in evidence I will leave you to dwell on such inconsequential considerations all by yourself ~ only reminding you that you have NO idea what color my skin is or whether I am now multi-lingual. So wallow in your own such fears if you must ... just don't feel tooooooo good about assigning them to others.
What happens if the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to the North and the Nez Perce Tribe to the South of me want to secure their borders and consider my travels or work through their homeland illegal without proper documentation? Is it then time for another invasion? Further occupation?
'And to say that those who broke the Law yesterday should be patted on the head and forgiven is a mighty and direct slap in the face of every'...
Every 'who' Ms. Mary? Every Tribal member found throughout North America (Canada, US and Mexico)? Every member who has been acculturated and assimilated into your compassion-less society? Every Tribal member who has never known their own language or dialect or possibly ever will?
How do you explain or find compassion in a homeland where laws have been made up as they go along?
With regards to my second question, your stances appear to be aligned to those who only speak American and where 'American' is the only way.
My only fear is to travel throughout the World and to be pigeon-holed into that camp...racist or not.
Qe’ciyéw’yew’
I TOO would be fearful of you traveling throughout the World and being pigeon-holed as an American!
Certainly if you think other countries are better somehow, you can sure try to get into them legally, or illegally as you choose.
I have spent a fair amount of time in Mexico and have seen people living in conditions that give me nightmares. Of course this isn’t our problem… Except those darn poor people won’t stay put! I tend to think of myself as a fairly law abiding citizen (OK I do speed , jaywalk, and when I was ten I stole some candy) but as a mother I wouldn’t hesitate to cross the border illegally if it meant a better life for my children.
We don’t need to make Elvira a hero, nor do we need to name call, talk silliness about media conspiracy theories, spout apocalyptic prophecies or bandy about unverifiable statistics and statements.
Immigration is a serious issue fraught with tough decisions that course through the veins of morality, fairness, compassion and economics. Like many difficult decisions people tend to polarize, but I am sure there are smart, measured folks out there talking about solutions that we could all benefit hearing from.
I have spent a fair amount of time in Mexico and have seen people living in conditions that give me nightmares. Of course this isn’t our problem… Except those darn poor people won’t stay put! I tend to think of myself as a fairly law abiding citizen (OK I do speed , jaywalk, and when I was ten I stole some candy) but as a mother I wouldn’t hesitate to cross the border illegally if it meant a better life for my children.
We don’t need to make Elvira a hero, nor do we need to name call, talk silliness about media conspiracy theories, spout apocalyptic prophecies or bandy about unverifiable statistics and statements.
Immigration is a serious issue fraught with tough decisions that course through the veins of morality, fairness, compassion and economics. Like many difficult decisions people tend to polarize, but I am sure there are smart, measured folks out there talking about solutions that we could all benefit hearing from.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AustinHill/2007/08/26/immigration__the_other_mom_from_mexico?page=full&comments=true
[Quote]How sad it is to read the venom that laces the comments on this issue. Is it possible to feel compassion for this woman and her child while disapproving of her actions?[Quote]
It is hard to feel compassion when 11 million other ILLEGAL immigrants are doing the same thing. She not only did it once but twice.
Here is a question no one has asked: Did she have the child for the sole means to have the opportunity to stay in this country?
If she did, then immigration law needs to be changed to deport the child as well.
These illegal immigrants aren't doing their cause any favors by marching in the streets carrying Mexican flags and screaming to allow them to stay. If they had any integrity at all, they would voluntarily return to their country FIRST, then apply to enter this country legally.
Can we as Americans make that process to enter this country easier and streamline it? You bet we can, but first we need to STOP the flow of illegals into this country, deport those in this country illegally, then and only then, do we look at trying to make it easier for those that want to come to this country legally.
Again: READ President Roosevelt’s comments in 1907.