Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who became a symbol in the nation's immigration wars after she took sanctuary in a Chicago church last year, was arrested Sunday by federal immigration agents outside Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Los Angeles.
Arellano, 32, a single mother, moved into a Chicago church a year ago to prevent being separated from her 8-year-old U.S.-born son.
She was arrested Sunday afternoon as she was leaving the downtown Los Angeles church also known as La Placita with her son and a supporter.
Supporters said the car in which Arellano was riding was surrounded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who took her into custody.
The agency did not say where she was being held but did confirm that Arellano would be deported to Mexico.
For immigrant-rights groups she had become the human face of stepped-up enforcement efforts that frequently separate immigrant mothers and fathers from their American-born children.
But to groups opposing illegal immigrants, Arellano was someone who had broken U.S. laws and` was flouting it by holding press conferences from the Chicago sanctuary church.
There are at least 3.1 million children in the U.S. who have one or more parents in the country illegally, according to a 2006 report released by the Pew Hispanic Center.
"She broke the law. You cannot use your child as a human shield to ignore immigration laws," said Joseph Turner, Western regional coordinator of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "You cannot say: I have a child who is an American citizen. That makes me immune to any law I violated."
Other anti-illegal immigration activists have said that Arellano could remain with her child simply by taking him with her to Mexico.
Arellano entered the United States in 1997. On her first try, she was caught at the border and deported, said Walter Colman, the pastor at Adalberto United Methodist Church, where Arellano had sought sanctuary in Chicago.
She reentered a few days later and in 2002 was arrested -- and later convicted -- of using a false Social Security number at her job cleaning airplanes at O'Hare International Airport.
Last summer, an immigration judge ordered Arellano to present herself for deportation.
Instead, she sought refuge in the Chicago church.
Arellano came to Los Angeles on Friday to speak at four area churches over the weekend. She was pressing for immigration reform that would provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people in the U.S. illegally.
