Elvira Arellano Deported

An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son has been deported to Mexico, the church’s pastor said.

Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference last week to announce that she would finally leave the church to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.

Arellano, 32, arrived in Washington state illegally in 1997. She was deported to Mexico shortly afterward, but returned and moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at O’Hare International Airport.

She was arrested in 2002 at O’Hare and convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August but instead sought refuge at the church on Aug. 15, 2006.

She had not left the church property until she decided to travel by car to Los Angeles, Coleman said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed her arrest and said she was deported Sunday night through San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing.

I find it intriguing that a good number of illegal immigrants think that they have right to live and work in the US, without slightest remorse for violating the Laws of the United States. I think the right thing for all illegal immigrants, including the Cubans who enter the US on Wet feet, dry feet policy and Mexicans who enter the US with help from Coyotes, is to quit complaining about immigration laws, pledge their allegiance to the US, and begin assimilation.

I think the USCIS did the right thing in deporting Elvira, as she entered the US multiple times illegally, and worked with a false Social Security Number. I read somewhere that it costs around $2,000 to the US tax payers for deporting one illegal immigrant. Multiply this by 12 million!