Elvira Arellano

Arellano entered the United States without authorization in 1997 and was apprehended and deported back to Mexico by the United States government. She returned within days, again without authorization, and lived for three years in Oregon. In 1999, she gave birth to a son, Saul Arellano. She never disclosed who Saul's father was. Saul is a United States citizen. In 2000, Arellano moved to Chicago and worked doing cleaning at O'Hare International Airport. In 2002, following a post-September 11 security sweep, she was arrested and convicted for working under a false Social Security number. Arellano was ordered to appear before immigration authorities on August 15, 2006. On November 14, 2006, in Mexico City, Saul Arellano appeared before the Congress of Mexico. The Mexican lawmakers passed a resolution to urge the United States government to suspend the deportation of Arellano and other parents of children who are United States citizens. She was arrested on August 19, 2007 in Los Angeles. Within hours of her arrest Arellano was repatriated to Mexico by U.S. federal agents in compliance with an existing deportation order. She was accompanied to the Mexican border by an official of the Mexican consulate in San Diego, California, as well as by agents of the U.S. government. On August 29, 2007, Elvira Arellano asked Mexican President Felipe Calderon to request the U.S. government for a special visa to visit her son, and called for assistance to the 600,000 Mexican mothers who are in similar circumstances, as well as the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. On February 9, 2008, Elvira Arellano was denied entry into Canada where she was scheduled to arrive in Vancouver to speak at a public forum on Sanctuary and Migrant Justice on Sunday Feb 10th and to join the U.S.-based Marcha Migrante on February 12 at the border. ==Impact==

Arellano says that she should not have to choose between leaving her US citizen child in the U.S. or taking him to Mexico. Arellano's claim of a "right of sanctuary" and a claim to stay in the United States has been taken up by Latino advocate groups such as National Alliance for Immigrants' Rights, NCLR, LULAC, among others. In support, La Placita, a historic Los Angeles church, declared itself a sanctuary for any undocumented immigrant facing deportation, something it did during the 1980s for the first refugees from war-ridden Guatemala and El Salvador who escaped to California. On May 3, 2007, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) introduced H.R. 2182 which would grant legal immigrant status, with the possibility of applying for permanent residence status, to Arellano as well as 33 other people. The bill was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary and (as of August 2007) had not moved out of committee for further consideration. However, once Congress adjourns any bills not acted upon or signed into law are moot. ==See also==