Woman marks year holed up in church

CHICAGO, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Wednesday marked a full year an illegal Mexican immigrant has spent defying U.S. immigration officials holed up in a Chicago church with her child.

Elvira Arellano, 32, and her 8-year-old son Saul have been living at the Adalberto United Methodist Church church since Aug. 15, 2006. She told the Chicago Sun-Times she's prepared to spend another year there until Congress passes immigration reform.

"We can't ignore the 4 million U.S. citizen children whose families are here illegally. We need to change the laws," she said.

Arellano was first deported from the United States in 1997 after attempting to cross the border with phony papers. She then re-entered the country and was arrested in December of 2002 while working under a false Social Security number, the newspaper said.

Her son was born in the United States.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said they will arrest Arellano at a time and place of its choosing, the report said.