Elvira Arellano Deported to Mexico

Elvira_a_bl6yElivira Arellano, a 32 year old, undocumented immigrant single mother, who took sanctuary at a Chicago Methodist church was deported to Mexico over the weekend. Elvira has become the "poster person" for the New Sanctuary Movement that seeks to keep families together. Many American born children have undocumented parents. Elvira is not the first parent to be deported. Sadly these types of raids have been going on for months.

Below is a New Sanctuary Movement press release from Monday:

Elvira Arellano Arrest Decried by Faith Community
Immigration activist Elvira Arellano, who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles, has been deported.
After a year in Sanctuary, Arellano was in Los Angeles to join forces with New Sanctuary Movement families to urge the California delegation in Congress and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to fix the nation’s broken immigration system.
“We are deeply saddened by ICE’s action and we are praying for Elvira and the hundreds of thousands of families that are in jeopardy of being ripped apart,” said Kim Bobo, Executive Director, Interfaith Worker Justice. “We call on ICE to stop raids and deportation until the Congress enacts fair and comprehensive immigration reform.”
“We invite people of faith to join the New Sanctuary Movement and to contact their representatives to act on immigration reform,” said Alexia Salvatierra, Interim Executive Director, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice-California.
Despite on-going immigration raids across the country, the New Sanctuary Movement continues to work for immigration reform. The interfaith coalition pledges to open congregation doors and hearts to immigrants and their families who face deportation.
The New Sanctuary Movement is national coalition of organizations dedicated to comprehensive immigration reform in the United States. Its coordinating organizations are Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice-California (CLUE-CA), Interfaith Worker Justice, and the New York Sanctuary Coalition.

See Chicago Tribune Article

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3 Comments

  1. thanks for posting this…I would love for our church to become involved in this soon…
    on another note, dave, i saw you on the acton poster. i received an invite from them for an atlanta seminar, thanks.

  2. No problem, if you can make it do so–it truly was an excellent seminar.

  3. Someone has to explain to me what the ‘keep the families together, don’t deport’ tirades mean. Why do immigrants leave Mexico to go to the US in the first place? Doesn’t that break a family right there? If they want to keep it together then just don’t leave, or just return to Mexico. There are millions of broken familes in Mexico where one member went to the US, this is a true humanitarian disaster.

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