There is a reason that the main meeting and worship space of houses of worship is called a sanctuary. It should be hallowed and safe place — a harbor from the storm, a refuge from trouble, a place of asylum, a space where government should keep it boots out of.But look for Immigrant and Customs Enforcement, with the appropriate acronym of ICE, to send its agents soon into Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago and take out 31-year-old Elvira Arellano, then put her in the herd of Mexicans to be deported across the border. Arellano, a plucky woman whose 7-year-old son, Saul, was born in the U.S. and has American citizenship, has been holed up in the church in a Hispanic neighborhood, generating national attention and lots of support, including from some politicians and immigration policy critics.
Complicating things is her sons Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and other health problems. She contends she asked her son to accompany her back to Mexico to comply with the deportation order, but when he said he wanted to stay in the U.S., Arellano said she was staying, too, rather than be separated from her son. She twice came to the U.S. illegally, making it here a second time, in 1997, through Mexicali. After separating from Sauls father, she arrived in Chicago in 2000.
Arellano spoke first-hand with Mexican President Vicente Fox when he visited Chicago two years ago. She started a group for parents of undocumented parents of children with U.S. citizenship. She has been involved in marches in Boston and Chicago and took part in a 24-day hunger strike to oppose deportations, the Washington Post said. Her pastor, the Rev. Walter Slim Coleman believes her activism is what has put her in the deportation sights of ICE.
The womans supporters have taken a defiant stand, plastering the churchs pulpit with signs that it is a holy sanctuary, conjuring memories of the 1980s and the famed Sanctuary Movement. It was strong in Arizona, as Central American refugees found help in churches and undercover transportation to other parts of the country to seek permanent homes and safety. At the time, repressive U.S. foreign policy in places like El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala and civil wars led to a flow of undocumented political refugees north in quest of asylum, and progressive churches were willing to give them protection and help.
According to the Post, Arellano has proclaimed, This is the house of God. What man would enter the house of God to arrest me? An ICE spokeswoman, Gail Montenegro, has answered, ICE is required to enforce the nations laws fairly without regard for a persons ability to generate publicity and support. She had not indicated whether agents would go into the church for Arellano but underscored that her agency has the authority to arrest anyone in violation of immigration laws anywhere in the U.S.
Congress can pass private bills to intercede for individual with compelling situations, and a senator and congressman from Illinois have helped gain her extensions. She was first arrested in 2002 at OHare International Airport using a false Social Security number. The woman had found a job there cleaning aircraft. Her plight adds another human story to the American immigration quagmire and Congress woeful failure to stay on task to find workable solutions.
The Post said that the womans supporters have been crowding the pews and holding vigils outside the church. Not surprisingly another person fighting his deportation, college student Toribio Barreras, 34, has been sleeping at the church to be there if the Feds come to get Arellano. He wants to be among a good-size crowd to protest because they want the world to see images on TV.
Each time I fly across the vast, vast, vast vastness of America and I behold our massive areas of territory — green valleys and ambers fields of grain, I recognized that our hearts can be as big as our geography. We CAN build new towns and cities, neighborhoods and farms — and sanctuaries. There is room for a lot more in America. Lets face it. With the will, we can find enough places to comfortably put people. Certainly Mexico has failed miserably as a nation/society in creating a healthy middle class, with public policies that create cities and towns that can employ and develop its people and keep them home. Corruption and unbreakable aristocratic power continue their grip on the nation, blocking changes and economic democracy.
In the end, we need to find a practical system of documented worker programs in the U.S., show compassion and forgiveness to those already here seeking a honest living and cut a lot of slack to a mother of an American citizen holed up in church and taking a lot of peoples time. No one gains when a woman is sent home to Mexico, leaving her 7-year-old here.
Whatever happens, The Church stands again as a witness to humankinds fumbling through the fog, sorting and separating people into groups while all cling to a fragile planet in a hostile space.
