Elvira Arellano

Who is Elvira Arellano?

Elvira Arellano is a Mexican citizen who has become a symbol of illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Elvira Arellano was deported on August 20, 2007 for living in the U.S. illegally. After evading a deportation order she took refuge at the United Methodist Church of Adaberto on Division Street, in Chicago, where she remained for 12 months.

She was arrested in Los Angeles by ICE agents, when she went to lecture at the church Our Lady Queen of Angels. Her son Saul remained in the U.S. but later on he joined his mother in Mexico.

On August 29, 2007, Elvira Arellano asked Mexican President Felipe Calderon to request the U.S. government for a special visa to visit her son, and called for assistance to the 600,000 Mexican mothers who are in similar circumstances, as well as the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

On February 9, 2008, Elvira Arellano was denied entry into Canada where she was scheduled to arrive in Vancouver to speak at a public forum on Sanctuary and Migrant Justice on Sunday Feb 10th and to join the US-based Marcha Migrante on Tues Feb 12th at the border.

Elvira Arellano has been unable to return to U.S. and she lives in the Mexican state of Michoacan, where she has created the organization La Familia Latina Unida - Sin Fronteras, which supports families divided by mass deportations in the U.S. and Central American immigrants detained or affected by the violence in Mexico.