Chicago Tribune Editorial - Elvira Arellano and the law

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Elvira Arellano and the law
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published August 17, 2006

Elvira Arellano came to this country from Mexico seeking a better life, but she came here illegally. For five years, she lived fairly anonymously, like millions of other illegal immigrants. She worked as a cleaning woman at O'Hare International Airport until she was arrested in 2002 during a post-Sept. 11 security sweep at the nation's airports.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security gave Arellano, 31, a deadline for deportation. Instead of reporting to homeland security by 9 a.m. Tuesday, though, she took refuge in Adalberto United Methodist Church in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. She has said she will stay in the church indefinitely, in pure defiance of immigration authorities. They say they have the legal right to arrest her in the church and will do so at a time of their choosing.

Arellano is hardly anonymous now. In fact, she has become something of a local symbol for those who most ardently believe U.S. immigration law is patently unfair.

That doesn't mean her example is helpful to their cause. It is not.

Arellano was arrested and deported once before and re-entered the country illegally. She was found to have used a fake Social Security number to work.

And yet she has benefited from some extraordinary political support, which few illegal immigrants get to enjoy. She won the help of members of the Illinois congressional delegation, who rallied around her because her 7-year-old son, Saul, a U.S. citizen, has ADHD and other health problems. She has been granted three stays of deportation since 2003. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) sent a letter to President Bush on Wednesday asking that Arellano be granted yet another stay.

But Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Barack Obama and others have said there is nothing more they can do for her. Because her son's condition has improved, some of those sympathetic to her cause suggest that another stay of deportation cannot be justified.

And so, she stands in public defiance of U.S. law--a symbol, as well, for those who say the only problem with immigration law is that it is not tough enough on those who violate it.

Arellano would seem to have little chance of remaining in the U.S. legally even if Congress were to approve a new law that provided "earned citizenship" for some illegal immigrants--which this page has strongly supported.

There is no argument for political asylum in her case. Arellano would not be at risk of persecution if she were to return to Mexico.

Arellano's supporters are calling for a moratorium on deportation until Congress passes its now-shelved immigration reform. They are not going to prevail on that. The U.S. is not about the business of suspending the enforcement of law while it mulls whether to change the law.

Many illegal immigrants face the same situation as Arellano. Few get the breaks she has received in the last few years. They are all subject to U.S. law, as is Arellano.

It is time for her to abide by that law.