Send Her Back

Send who back you ask?

Elvira Arellano.

Who's she? To me, she's the poster child of the whole immigration problem here in America.

To paraphrase an article in the Chicago Tribune, "Elvira Arellano illegally entered the United States in 1997, was caught, and sent back to Mexico. She illegally came back again and lived in Oregon undetected. Ms. Arellano moved to Chicago in 2000 where she worked as a cleaning woman at O'Hare before being arrested and convicted of working under a false Social Security Number."

Oh, I might add that she's a single mom of a seven year old son.

Ms. Arellano is now holed up in a Chicago Methodist church where's she's hiding out from Federal Immigration officials who want to arrest her and send her back to Mexico. She'll be there a long time because there is no way in hell that the Feds are going to storm a church to arrest an illegal immigrant. Ms Arellano has been outspoken in the media about her plight. Saying, for the most part, "I'm not a terrorist, I'm not a criminal, I'm a Mom."

You know, you kind of feel bad about sending back a single mom with a seven year-old kid. Even "hard-hearted" individuals would give reason for pause.

I was one of those individuals. I felt bad for this woman. But, one news story changed my mind.

They interviewed Ms. Arellano about her plight. She had an interpreter on hand to answer questions. She struggled with her answers to questions. But more importantly, in my mind, Elvira Arellano has been in America for seven years, and guess what?

SHE CAN'T SPEAK ANY ENGLISH!!!!

Are you kidding me? You would think she could string together a coherent sentence. In seven years, a phrase, a string of words. Nope. All in Spanish

And after than, I thought immediately, she needs to go back. She needs to go back now. Besides breaking immigration laws, she's broken's PS Indy's immigration law which is, "If you live, work, or breathe American air, you had better communicate in ENGLISH!"

Now, you Midwest Blog cynics might argue that we have children in the inner cities of Chicago who can't speak any English. You might have a point. But those kids didn't come here illegally or break any laws. They have the right to be illiterate.

In the mean time, the bells toll for you Elvira Arellano, they toll for you.