Taking Responsibility for Your Actions

Source: Chicago Tribune

A woman who has become one of Chicago's most visible advocates for illegal immigrants now faces deportation herself.

Elvira Arellano, who was arrested in 2002 during an immigration sweep at O'Hare International Airport, has received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security to report to its downtown Chicago offices Tuesday. Immigration officials say they intend to deport her to Mexico as soon as that day.

Arellano had received a stay of deportation after church leaders, immigrant advocates and others had rallied public support for her case.

She received backing from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, both Democrats from Illinois, and other elected officials.

I recently reported on another instance of Illinois politicians elected to represent American citizens taking it upon themselves to advocate for illegal aliens, and on my own Congressman Gutierrez meeting with local DHS officials to ask them not to enforce immigration law.

I don't want to see this woman separated from her child. I also didn't break the law -- she did. If I committed a crime for which the punishment was jail time, I hope you would all wish I wasn't going to be separated from my husband, but acknowledge that I had brought it on myself.

That's what is missing here. Where is the acceptance of personal responsibility? The acknowledgement that there are consequences for your actions, and that, if you bring them upon yourself, shut the #$@! up and take them like an adult.

I'm sure there are some out there who are say "but her poor son!" ME TOO! But don't whine to the government for actually doing what they are supposed to for once -- enforcing the law -- try talking to the person who is ultimately and solely responsible for this situation: MOM.

The outcry comes for a woman who was an anonymous single mother working as a cleaner when immigration agents arrested her in 2002. Coming soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government was working to secure the nation's aviation system.

But Arellano often told crowds that she was no terrorist, and she became a poster child for the state's 400,000 illegal immigrants.

News flash: you don't have to be a terrorist to get deported. Breaking our immigration law is plenty and then some -- at least on the rare occasion that the feds actually do their jobs.

"It's obvious that the government is pushing this very aggressive climate out there against undocumented workers," said Emma Lozano, executive director of Centro Sin Fronteras, a Pilsen advocacy group.

Let me ask you a question, Emma. Do you also oppose a very aggressive climate against child molesters? How about a very aggressive climate against thieves? Maybe a very aggressive climate against deadbeat dads? And may I point out that the government has hardly been aggressive about anything to do with ILLEGAL immigration except being aggressively incompetent?

Deborah Achim, Chicago field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Detention and Removal, said the U.S. government has no basis to extend Arellano's stay unless Congress requests it.

Unless Congress requests it? I wouldn't put it past Gutierrez to try it. But I can guarantee you this much -- there will be a riot in the streets of Chicago if that happens. Even if it's a riot of one: ME.

I wonder if Gutierrez, my very own Congressman, would intercede on my behalf?

Technorati Tags
Illegal Immigration * Responsibility * Luis Gutierrez * Elvira Arellano