“She can’t take me to the store and can’t take me to school. It makes me feel a little bad. My friends - they have their moms and their dads,”

“I want President Bush to end the deportations so my mom and other families can stay here in the United States.”

These are the words spoken by an 8-year-old, Saúl Arellano, in an interview for AL DÍA Newspaper. Saúl is a US citizen by virtue of being born here, but his mother, Elvira Arellano, is not. I am deeply saddened by this because Saúl isn’t the only child crying because they might lose their parents; they are people suffering because nativist are hell bent on making their idea of what America should be.

Elvira is the heroic undocumented immigrant in Chicago who has openly defied a deportation order to remain in the country with her son. Nine months has passed when she decided to seek sanctuary at Adalberto United Methodist Church. She has become the face of the movement and a symbol of opposition to the racist, unfair anti-immigrant laws. She is forcing our society to look into the eyes of a mother pleading for an opportunity to stay in this country with her US born son.

History is filled with many people who endangered their lives escaping to another country because, had they stayed, they would either been killed or have lived in a life of destitute. Elvira’s personal story is no different. Given the corporate media gatekeepers limited information about her personal story is difficult to find, however, I am sure they want it that way. It makes it easier for the xenophobes to keep up their pressure to deport her. But that wasn’t going to stop me.

In an interview with ColorLines Magazine, we are able to get a personal look at what drives Elvira. Other than the key information we know, Elvira is from a rural area in southwest Mexico, the state of Michoacán, where most people make their livelihood by farming. In her interview, Elvira explains the difficulty of finding employment in Mexico, the struggles she had living in the US, her struggles as a single mother, the complexities of our poor immigration system, and why she is determined to stay in US:

In Mexico, you can apply for a job when you are between 18 to 25 years old. If you are older it is more difficult, and I am already 31. It is not so easy for them to give me a job in Mexico. That is why there is so much unemployment in Mexico, because they don’t offer opportunities to us. In Mexico to be able to work at McDonald’s you have to have finished high school and here, without being able to read and write, one can start to work.
…
The saddest thing [about being arrested] is that your life changes—it is such a huge turn. Because it is as if suddenly, what are you going to do with your things, your bed, the things that you buy for your son, his television, his movies? It is as if you leave an entire life and all goes to the garbage and you have nothing with you. I had to give away all my things, everything, I gave it all away because I didn’t know if I would have to leave. We were left with nothing except for the clothes we had for winter, and Saulito’s television and his movies and toys. And I only had the documents which I had stored, you see.

I thought, but why, I am not a criminal. I am not stealing, nor did I kill anyone. I didn’t want to steal an airplane, you see. At that moment, I thought where is the humanity, where are the humans? Why treat a person like they are a criminal? Since all I have done is to work to survive and to maintain my son. For me it has been difficult to think why they treat us in this way, all of us who are immigrants.
…
They took me in front of a judge who treated me so badly, he treated me like a criminal. I went to court for the first time when they arrested me on December 1, the second time was in January, and the third was in March, when they sentenced me to three years probation. I served my three years of probation and immigration never allowed me to go in front of a judge because I had a previous deportation order from ‘97.

They never gave me the opportunity to stand before a judge. If they had given me the opportunity to stand before a judge and to speak to him and tell him the reason why I am here, for my son. To me it was unjust, because to criminalize me, to want to put me in jail, why don’t they let me see a judge? And to try to defend myself and try to stay in the United States, why don’t they let me see a judge?

In my opinion, the way they have treated me has been unjust, because they have treated me like a criminal, when they have received my taxes. My job gave me a check for $3,000 that they owed me for two months of work, and they took almost $1,000 in taxes. Why do they take the taxes and accept my manual labor for nine years? Why did they accept my taxes for nine years that I contributed to social security, federal, state, and Medicare? Why do they accept my taxes but cannot accept that I have human rights, and why don’t they respect me?

Many people come on a visa and stay, but I did not have that opportunity. First, because I did not have any money. But you think about what will happen with our lives, with Saulito’s, with mine. First of all, I don’t want him to lose his language. Because he was born here in the U.S., and in that way, no matter what happens, he is an American citizen, and he has a right to be here in this country, as an American citizen. I am his father, his mother, and I have a right to be with him. If they deport me, they are forcing him to be deported as well. I know that in my country, we will be able to survive and to live with dignity. But he will not have the education of his language. When he grows up, and he wants to return, how is he going to come back? The same—without being able to speak the language, without having the opportunity to work, even though he is an American citizen? And what will become of him? When he grows up, he will have to depend on welfare, because he will not have enough to pay his rent, pay his bills, and I don’t want him to be like that. I want him to be a person with a good education to be able to compete with any other American citizen who is here in this country.

Her story is not unusual, I have written about this many times. The way society treats vulnerable groups reveals its heartless soul. The current immigration system is cruel, unfair and immoral. It forces many good people into breaking the law because there are limited legal channels to enter or remain in the US legally. What people refuse to accept, America is reverting back to classifying people of color and the working class as second-class citizens. And second-class citizenship is nothing but modern day slavery. As long as people have this mentality of not wanting to talk about it in the “Land of Free” racism will continue to exist. We are at the point again where it is liberty or it is death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody. I will continue to repeat this message until it is ingrained into our subconscious.

We continue to live in a very fractionalized and disjointed America due to the policies of our administration, and because of that, we currently have families being broken up and native born Americans being exiled. Their crime? Falling in love.

However, nativisits are shouting from the mountain tops demanding that every undocumented immigrant be deported or jailed for breaking the law because we are a nation of laws; they somehow turn around and hypocritically excuse Pair Hiltons for drinking and driving and cry foul for sending her to jail.

Where is the moral justice behind all of this?

It is time to be more forgiving to the victims who are unjustly scapegoated, persecuted and abused in this milieu of hatred and hypocrisy. But most of all, it is time to be more pressing that fundamental morality be part of the political process at the inception of any proposed idea, policy or legislation, not simply a “I’m sorry” afterthought. I asked it one time and I will ask it again.

How many more atrocities must be committed before any of this madness is brought to an end? More importantly: How can we see another’s woe and not be in sorrow too? How can we see another’s grief and not seek to ease their pain? How can we see a falling tear, and not feel for their sorrow?

America today finds herself in a unique situation because this government has abandoned us. If Elvira is deported, it will be a blow for immigrants and the immigrant rights movement must be prepared to respond massively. We have a chance to make sure it does not happen. Mi blogmigo and ‘mano, Nezua has made a call to action on what we can do to help.

According Magniloquence, who commented on Nezua post, only emails from people live in the 16th district are allowed. But I have found another way around this, go to this site and where it says e-mail, click “Contact Via Web Form.” Even though she may not be our district, her decisions affect us.

This my email/letter. I changed it up because, the advice on the the web site, that shorter letters get read and responded to faster.

Dear Representative Lofgren:

Given your background and your experience as an immigration lawyer, I am sure you know the problems many immigrants face trying to keep their families together and their determination to stay in the United States to step in and help Elvira. You once told a crowd in a town hall meeting back in January, “If we are just punitive to those who have started to make a life here, who we will really punish is America.” I hope what you that day was out of compassion and not some political rhetoric just to give people false hopes.

I am writing to beg you to act on HR (1557) and HR (2182) to provide a “stay of deportation” for Elvira Arellano. I understand you that you are not in favor of supporting these types of private bill and would prefer to wait until a Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill is passed. This is the third attempt Rep. Luis Gutiérrez has tried to step in and help Elvira Arellano. She has become the voice and the symbol of the immigration reform movement. She has sacrificed everything not for her son and those she represents. She could do a lot for immigration reform if she is allowed to leave the church.

It is my understanding that Elvira can receive a temporary “Stay of Deportation,” if the Sub Committee on Immigration (which you chair), would mark up these bills and call for a report from ICE. It is my hope that you can find it within you to reassess your previous decision and exercise whatever discretion you have on this matter to provide this stay of deportation.

Technorati Tags: Saúl Arellano, Elvira Arellano, nativist

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