Official: Government won't enter church to arrest Arellano

[Finder]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ap-il-immigrationactivi,1,6325283.story?coll=chi-news-hed


By NATHANIEL HERNANDEZ
Associated Press Writer
Published August 18, 2006, 10:56 AM CDT


CHICAGO -- Immigration enforcement officers do not plan to enter a storefront church on the city's West Side where an activist has sought sanctuary since she was scheduled to be deported this week, a government official said Friday.

Elvira Arellano and her 7-year-old son have been living in the Adalberto United Methodist Church since Tuesday when the 31-year-old single mother was supposed to surrender to authorities for deportation to Mexico.

[IndependentVoice]

1. hmmm just throwing this out there, but what if they all start doing this?

[Finder]

4. Good question. I think...

it would force congress to actually come up with something that is fair and realistic.

[harlinchi]

2. Is there a hunchback in the area? Is this a Hugo novel?

I didn't know sanctuary applied in this country! I don't know Ms. Arellano's story and mean no harm to her or her son. The post caught my interest in that it seems like 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' sans hunchback.

[Finder]

5. I am glad to see churches involved in Human rights...

once again rather than the political pandering of the last few decades.

[harlinchi]

6. Sounds good to me, too! n/t

[Book Lover]

7. It doesn't

The police are responding not to the rule of law but to public opinion. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing...

There is no law that prevents law enforcement from entering the church and arresting her.

[acmejack]

9. You can find numerous instances where it hasn't.

A notorious example from yesteryear:
snip>
Keith Mather of San Francisco was drafted in September 1967, and, although he knew he “didn’t want any part of the war,” he went along with the process. Shortly after beginning his advanced infantry training, he went home for the Christmas holiday, feeling “like I was walking around with a weight on my shoulders. I decided that I wasn’t going to Vietnam and the weight was lifted.”

Back at the base, Mather soon went AWOL, returning to San Francisco. He quickly became involved with the War Resisters League and with other AWOL servicemen who refused to go to Vietnam. He and nine other military resisters, representing all four branches of the military, sought public sanctuary in a church, chaining themselves to ministers of different denominations. Their action, which received significant publicity, ended with their arrests and incarceration in military prisons.

http://www.warresisters.org/nva0300-3.htm

[thecrow]

3. They enter churches to campaign.....

Would arresting someone in church be any less blasphemous?

[VegasWolf]

8. Bush is afraid of god and the devil. nt

[damntexdem]

12. No, I don't think so ...

he's afraid of losing the votes of church-going people.

[slackmaster]

10. If my name was Arellano I'd seriously consider changing it

A lot of people will read the subject line and think a church is harboring a member of a Mexican drug smuglling cartel.

[damntexdem]

11. It doesn't matter that sanctuary is not technically a legal right.

Appealing to it in this case has made it a de facto right.