Chicago Immigration Activist Taken Into Custody Sunday Afternoon CBS News Interactive: Immigration and Naturalization
(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.
Poster Comment:
One down. 20,000,000 to go.