Immigration Protest Planned for Final Day of Self-Deportation Program

August 21, 2008 – A group called Latina plans to protest outside the Loop offices of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) on August 22nd – the day the federal government’s pilot self-deportation program ends. For the past three weeks, the federal government has given undocumented immigrants the opportunity to turn themselves in to authorities rather than face arrest and jail.

The demonstration is part of Latina’s “war against racism and hatred.” The group is led by two women with much in common – Elvira Arellano and Flor Crisostomo. Both women are Mexican mothers with children born in the U.S. who sought sanctuary at different times in the Adalberto United Methodist Church on Chicago’s West Side.

On the one-year anniversary of leaving the church and being deported, Arellano spoke via videotape from Mexico, while her son Saulito watched from the church’s front pew.

“We must demand an immediate moratorium on all raids, deportations, incarcerations and separation of families,” said Arellano, in a translated transcript of her comments distributed by the church.

“The millions who are here are here to feed their children,” said the Rev. Walter Coleman. “They have suffered only because governments have not found a way to fix a broken system.”

The church is currently providing sanctuary to Crisostomo, a 29-year-old mother of three. Coleman called her “a young woman picking up the torch.” She spoke at the church Friday, wearing a fuchsia beret and brown scarf, as did a group of eight women, some of whom appeared to be as young as teenagers.

Spokeswoman Emma Lozano, the legal American guardian of Saulito Arellano, said fuchsia was a strong, feminine color while brown represented “the brown people and the land where they have worked.”

Some activists who want stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration laws are angry about the tactics Arellano and Crisostomo have used.

“There is a proper procedure for entering our country,” said Rick Biesada, leader of the Chicago Minuteman Project. “We’re being invaded by the country of Mexico. It’s a drain on our economy. It upsets the average American worker.”

Biesada said the Chicago Minuteman Project is not about racism or hatred, but rather protecting the Constitution, the nation’s laws, and its national security. He understands why families want to come to America and says he “can’t blame them for coming here, but you still have to obey the law. People are demanding the enforcement of laws.”

Biesada has little sympathy or patience for the impact that deportation has on a family. “They should have thought about that before entering the country,” he said.

“I think it’s disgusting that parents would do this,” said Jeff Schwilk, founder of San Diego’s Minutemen group, noting that illegal immigrants facing deportation are given the option of keeping their families together when they are deported.

The Minutemen often monitor the U.S./Mexico border with binoculars and notify authorities when they see suspicious behavior.

Latina will travel to Pennsylvania to attend a preliminary hearing for three white teenagers accused of murdering Luis Ramirez, a Mexican immigrant who was beaten to death in the town of Shenandoah. Latina also plans to hold a press conference in Philadelphia.

They hope to recruit a million Latinas, as they push for immigration reform and the re-negotiation of NAFTA in the first 100 days of the next Congress.

“Legal immigration works,” said Schwilk. “Our lifeboat is full.”