VivirLatino

Meet the New Elvira Arellano

10:11 H | Topics: Activism - Chicago - Immigration - Justice - Mexico - Women

Following the footsteps of Elvira Arellano is Flor Crisostomo. Flor took sanctuary yesterday inside of Adalberto United Methodist Church, the same church where Elvira stayed with her son for over a year. Flor had been ordered to voluntarily leave (how can you be ordered to voluntarily do anything) the country by the 28th after being arrested in an immigration raid in April of 2006.

"I am taking a stand of civil disobedience to make America see what they are doing," Crisostomo said in a statement that was translated into English. Speaking in broken English, she said immigrants are not terrorists but hard-working people contributing to the economy.
"The real problem is the color and the language," she said.

The reactions that will come from Flor's case will not be surprising, especially since she has no children in the United States. All three of Flor's children are in Mexico, which will most certainly be used against her in the media. She likely will be painted as an irresponsible mother who abandoned her children while she's living it up in the states because we all know how undocumented workers live it up here on the public's dime.

U.S. Immigration officials vowed that Flor would be arrested and pretty much threatened the church, reminding then that harboring an undocumented immigrant was a crime.

Via / The Chicago Sun Times

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• Schwarzenegger Won't Blame Immigrants for Economic Woes (Thursday, Apr 03 2008)