Activist ready for long haul at church - Many offer support for illegal immigrant

Activist ready for long haul at church - Many offer support for illegal immigrant
By Oscar Avila
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published August 17, 2006

Immigrant activist Elvira Arellano braced herself Wednesday for a lengthy standoff with the government as she holed up in a Humboldt Park church, defying a deportation order.

Ministers, friends and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) came by to offer support to an illegal immigrant now considered a fugitive by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

By Wednesday night, about 100 supporters had massed on the Division Street sidewalk in front of the church under a forest of television satellite towers. Some signed a poster-sized letter of support while others used a bullhorn to trumpet her cause.

Inside the steamy church, a drained Arellano said she was battling the flu but was grateful for the support.

"I am surrounded by my community," she said. "As long as we are united, we are content."

Arellano, 31, was arrested in 2002 for working illegally at O'Hare International Airport. As lawmakers helped her get temporary stays of deportation, Arellano became a vocal advocate for illegal immigrants.

Arellano was supposed to report to immigration authorities in the Loop on Tuesday but instead went to Adalberto United Methodist Church, hoping for sanctuary from arrest. Legal experts and the government say the church offers no protection.

With immigration authorities saying they plan to arrest Arellano, Gutierrez on Tuesday sent a letter to President Bush begging him to extend Arellano's right to remain in the U.S.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) echoed U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in expressing sympathy for Arellano but agreed with him that it was not appropriate to intervene.

"I don't feel comfortable carving out an exception for one person when there are hundreds of thousands of people just in the Chicago region alone who would want a similar exemption. And I think that if we're going to deal with these issues, we've got to deal with them in a comprehensive way that affects all people, not one by one," Obama told reporters in Springfield.

Mayor Richard Daley, also in Springfield, sounded a sympathetic note. "You have to sit down and look at her and her family and how long she's been here and look at it in a personal way, not just another number," Daley said. "And Chicago, it's a city of immigrants. Our past, our present, our future will be immigrants."

Tribune staff reporter Rick Pearson contributed to this report.

oavila@tribune.com