Church rallies around woman battling to stay in U.S.
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A UMNS photo by Kathy L. Gilbert Bishop Minerva Carcaņo speaks on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
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Bishop
Minerva Carcaņo, who leads the United Methodist Church’s Phoenix Area,
speaks on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” Aug. 16 about immigration reform and
the case of Elvira Arellano, a lay leader at Adalberto United Methodist
Church in Chicago, who has sought refuge in the church from federal
officials who want to deport her. A UMNS photo by Kathy L. Gilbert.
Photo #06xxx. Accompanies UMNS story #488. 8/17/06 |
Aug. 17, 2006
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
CHICAGO (UMNS) — Elvira Arellano, a lay leader in Adalberto United Methodist
Church, has taken refuge in the church that has stood by her in her battle to
remain in the United States and to raise her son — who is a U.S. citizen — here.
“Here is an opportunity for a country that says they care about children
to care for a child,” said United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaņo,
on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” show Aug. 16.
Carcaņo, bishop of the denomination’s Phoenix Area, was in Chicago
for the 2006 International Clergywomen’s Consultation. She has been a
spokesperson for the United Methodist Council of Bishops in calling for immigration
reform.
“
The United Methodist Church stands with families like Miss Arellano,” she
said. “It is an issue of justice that she be allowed to stay with her
young son.”
Carcaņo, along with Bishop Hee-Soo Jung,
Chicago Area, and the Rev. James Preston, Chicago Northwestern District superintendent,
visited Arellano
in the church Aug. 16.
“You could see the burden in her eyes,” Carcaņo said. “It
was a very moving moment to see her surrounded by others in the community.
She is acting out of the motives of a mother and her Christian convictions.”
Jung released a statement that Arellano was invoking “the centuries-old
Christian tradition of sanctuary” and “the tradition of civil disobedience.”
“While as Christians we may disagree over the best way to fix the nation’s
broken immigration system, we affirm that the Bible directs us to care for
foreigners in our midst (Exodus 23:9) and reminds us that we too are sojourners
(Leviticus 25:23),” Jung said.
The church has said the current immigration bill
in Congress is “unjust,” Carcaņo
told Dobbs. “We are not talking about partisan politics; this is matter
of moral justice.”
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A UMNS photo by Linda S. Rhodes In
a June file photo, Elvira Arellano receives support from the Rev. Oscar
Carrasco of the Northern Illinois Conference before going on a hunger
strike against U.S. immigration policies.
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In
a June file photo, Elvira Arellano receives support from the Rev. Oscar
Carrasco of the Northern Illinois Conference. She was beginning a
21-day hunger strike to protest U.S. immigration policies. Carrasco is
conference director of connectional ministries. Arellano has taken
refuge in Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago in her battle to
remain in the United States. United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaņo,
Phoenix Area, spoke of Arellano on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" show Aug.
16. A UMNS photo by Linda S. Rhodes. Photo #06905. Accompanies UMNS
story #488. 8/17/06. |
Arellano sought refuge in her church after federal authorities ordered her
to report to the Department of Homeland Security Aug. 15. The Rev. Walter Coleman,
pastor of Adalberto, and church members have been active in seeking comprehensive
immigration reform.
In an interview with United Methodist News Service
in June, Coleman talked about Arellano’s three-year struggle to stay
in this country.
FBI agents raided her home three years ago at 6 a.m. and arrested her in front
of her then-4-year-old son, Coleman said.
Arellano was a cleaning woman at O’Hare
International Airport and was arrested during an immigration sweep in 2002.
She had been
using a fake Social
Security number to work in the United States.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged officials
to let Arellano remain in Chicago to care for her son, Saul, who had health
problems. In
an article in the Chicago
Tribune, Durbin said the boy’s condition has improved.
In a statement released Aug. 15, Durbin said, “It
is an unfortunate truth that scores of people are in the same situation as
Elvira and her family.
We cannot fix the injustices of this system with private bills. Only comprehensive
immigration reform can permanently remedy this situation.”
In fighting to stay in the country, Coleman said
Arellano wanted her son to know “he was a child of God.”
“She said she wasn’t fighting because she was afraid to go back
to Mexico, but she wanted her son to know he was a child of God and not a piece
of garbage that could be used, abused and then thrown away,” Coleman
said.
Arellano is also president of La Familia Latina
Unida, an organization calling upon President George Bush to set an immediate
moratorium
on all raids, deportations
and separation of families “until Congress fixes its broken immigration
laws.”
The church has always stood with the foreigner
and provided a place of refuge, Carcaņo said during the interview with Dobbs. “This
is a young woman who is a leader in her church. We will prayerfully and watchfully
stand
with her.”
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville,
Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
Video Clips of Bishop Carcaņo
on CNN |
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