An Earned Priviledge, Not A Right

Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant from Mexico defied a deportation order from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to report on August 15, 2006. Instead she walked into the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago and openly sheltered there with her now 8 year old son. Her son is an American citizen, an anchor baby, so he was free to come and go without fear of arrest. Some like Javier Salas, a Univision Talk Show host said many in the Mexican community knew this was a stunt as most Mexicans are Catholic, so what's she doing in a Methodist church?

Several months ago Elvira called herself the Rosa Parks of the immigration reform movement. Rosa Parks? Rosa Parks wasn't performing illegal activities. She was a woman on a bus demanding to be allowed to sit where she pleased. Citizenship in the U.S. is not a 'right', it is an earned privilege for those not born in this country.

Elvira Arrellano is being used as a helpful stooge for the activists on the side of amnesty and automatic paths to citizenship for all those here illegally in this country. Elvira came into this country in 1997 the first time and was deported back to Mexico. In 2000 she came back into this country and went to Chicago. She's been employed at O'Hare International Airport as a part of the cleaning staff of planes, using a bogus Social Security number. She was arrested in 2002 and convicted of working under this bogus Social Security number. She was ordered deported due to this conviction.

She deliberately gave birth to an anchor baby to remain in this country, believing no one would force her to go back to Mexico if she had a child who was an American citizen. She claims her son, Saulito needs medical treatment for ADHD. I'm fairly certain those drugs are also available in Mexico.

While sheltering in this Methodist church, she has appeared on numerous tv shows, along with the minister of the church, Rev. Walter Coleman. She was driven out to Los Angeles to speak in four churches, but was finally arrested after the third speech. She was sent to Mexico. Her son remains here under the legal guardianship of Emma Lozano, head of the immigration rights group Centro Sin Fronteras.

So, what took so long, ICE? You knew where she was and how she was flaunting her status in that church. You knew the arrogant tone of the minister harboring her. Why wasn't he arrested for harboring a fugitive?

If Elvira has only the purest of best interests of her son in mind, why was she allowing him to live as he has the past year? Why was he used as her shield. Aren't mothers supposed to protect their children, not the other way around? And, most importantly, if she is such a devoted mother, why didn't she take him with her back to Mexico. The only person insisting on the breaking up of this family is Elvira herself.

The New Sanctuary Movement has weighed in on this. They claim more than 600,000 families in the U.S. have at least one member up for deportation due to illegal status. So? Whose decision was that? Because you can run across the checkpoint, swim across the river, or hike across the desert, does that mean you landed here and no longer abide by the rules of the country you insist you have a right to live in? Just coming into the country is the first illegal act. Then working with a bogus or stolen Social Security number is the second offense.

It's a tough issue to deal with today. Bringing this whole destroying families argument into it is just for show value. To tug at American heartstrings. Elvira is being used, willingly, by this group and she has now moved from sympathetic mom trying to make a better life for her son, who wasn't even born when she first broke into this country, to just another illegal activist.

Much like Cindy Sheehan, who went from grieving mother to anti war activist traveling the world with her hate speech, Elvira is on the fast track to the land of no sympathy.

No other country allows illegal immigrants to just stay in their country with no action taken. It's a privilege, not a right.