Elvira Arellano Arrested!
Put forth on August 19, 2007 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Immigration
Elvira Arellano was arrested about 3PM by law enforcement officials after leaving Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in downtown Los Angeles, according to Aztlan Electronic News. Arellano was scheduled to fly to Washington D.C. to lobby congress to reach and immigration reform agreement.
The Chicago Tribune is reporting that after talking to news media inside the church, Arellano and her supporters got into their van to head north to San Jose, where she was scheduled to speak at another church, when suddenly an unmarked vehicle stopped them. When the driver of Arellano’s van, Roberto Lopez, poked his head out of the van to see why the van blocked them, several other unmarked vehicles surrounded their van.
Agents came out of all the cars screaming at the top of their lungs for her to get out, Lozano said. Her 8-year-old son, Saul, started to cry, and Arellano said to everyone in the car, “Calm down. Don’t have any fear. They can’t hurt me.”
Then she turned to the people who were about to arrest her and she said, “You’re going to have to give me a minute with my son,” Lozano said. She spent time with her son in the car, and then surrendered.
Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said:
“Everyone knew it was probably a question of when, not if ” she would be arrested … “It just made me feel really sad because she knows she’s looking at time in prison. I feel bad for her and for her child and for all the other people in that situation.”
The church where Arellano sought sanctuary for the last year became the command center where friends and organizers gathered to plan a vigil on Sunday night to show support for Arellano after her arrest.
Those who lived with her and knew her best at Alberto United Methodist Church cried together and hugged each other but quickly brushed aside the tears, channeling their grief into action.
My heart goes out for her and her son.
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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Her Son and supporters are in town today, they’re speaking at CREECEN at 11am. I hope you can cover it, I have to go to class.
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/08/60657.php
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