I can always handle a little good news -- and getting this immigration scofflaw out of the country definitely qualifies.

An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor said.

Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference last week to announce that she would finally leave the church to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.

She had just spoken at a Los Angeles rally when she was arrested Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church and deported, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano had been living.

"She is free and in Tijuana," said Coleman, who said he spoke to her on the phone. "She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."

Personally, I believe that the doors of Adalberto United Methodist Church should have been kicked off their hinges a year ago so that she could be removed pursuant to a long-standing deportation order -- and that Coleman and his co-conspirators should have been taken into custody and charged for their part in this sham as well.

And if anything, this story points out to the need to do away with automatic birthright citizenship for the children of border jumping immigration criminals like Arellano -- for without it, she would have had no basis for even making a claim to stay.

More At Malkin, Surber, Stop the ACLU, Stix, Jammie Wearing Fool, Captain Ed

Posted by: Greg at 09:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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