Los Angeles News
Aug 19, 2007 4:45 pm US/Pacific

Elvira Arellano Arrested Outside Downtown Church
Chicago Immigration Activist Taken Into Custody Sunday Afternoon

(CBS) LOS ANGELES Elvira Arrellano, a Mexican woman who sought sanctuary
from deportation in a Chicago church was arrested Sunday in Los Angeles.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency
would not confirm Arrellano was taken in by ICE agents on Olvera Street,
near La Placita Church, in the Los Angeles Civic Center area at about 3 p.m.
Arellano and her son Saul, 8, who is a U.S. citizen, were in Los Angeles
seeking immigration reform and were staying at La Placita Church.
She visited three area churches to speak about immigration, but was arrested
before she could go to a fourth church.
Arellano defied a deportation order to report to the Department of Homeland
Security on Aug. 15, 2006. Instead, she sought refuge in the Adalberto
United Methodist Church in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago.
According to the New Sanctuary Movement, more than 600,000 families in the
United States have at least one member facing deportation because they are
illegal residents.
Arellano claims she seeks to remain in the United States so her
American-born son can get medical care for his attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder.
Arellano arrived in the U.S. in 1997 and was soon deported back to Mexico.
In 2000, she returned and moved to Illinois, working at Chicago's O'Hare
International Airport cleaning planes.
She was arrested in 2002 and later convicted of working under a false Social
Security number, prompting the order for her to be deported.

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