A prominent activist for illegal immigrants is facing her own standoff this week in a church on the Chicago's near Northwest side.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement, Elvira Arellano, 31, had previously been deported from the U.S. first in 1997. In 2002 while working at O'Hare Airport using a falsified Social Security number, Arellano was again deported.
Back in the U.S. for a number of years, Federal authorities had instructed Arellano to report to the Chicago loop Homeland Security office on Tuesday morning. Instead, Arellano sought sanctuary in Adalberto Memorial United Methodist Church, at 2716 W. Division St. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.
Arellano is a single mother to 7-year-old son, Saul who was born in the U.S. and is a U.S. citizen. While authorities label Arellano a fugitive for resisting her deportation, Arellano maintains that her main concern is being separated from her son.
Her work as president of the United Latino Family has helped to keep families together that would otherwise be separated due to mixed status. Now Arellano must face the threat of forced seperation from her own son.
In the past, due to her community leadership (and in order to let her stay with then ill Saul), Illinois lawmakers had spoken on Arellano's behalf to keep the young mother in the U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Luis Guiterrez and others have worked to grant Arellano with temporary stays of deportation to stay in the U.S.
As her son is no longer sick, many lawmakers are now reluctant to extend Arellano's stay. However, Mayor Daley wrote a letter of appeal for her this week, highlighting Arellano's work as a community leader.
Federal authorities assert that Arellano has continually disobeyed U.S. immigration law and say that despite support or sanctuary, nothing is preventing them from deporting her back to Mexico.
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