U.S. arrests Mexican immigrant activist

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. immigration authorities arrested a Mexican woman in Los Angeles who championed immigration reform while illegally holed up in a Chicago church for a year.

Authorities said Elvira Arellano, 32, was deported to Tijuana, Mexico, after Sunday's arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Arellano is a single mother of an 8-year-old son, and had been living in the Chicago church for a year, making public calls for immigration reform that would allow her to be with her son, who was born in the United States.

A 2006 report released by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated there are 3.1 million children in the United States who have one or more parents in the country illegally.

Arellano first entered the United States in 1997 and was later deported. Days later she re-entered, and was arrested and convicted in 2002, but ignored the deportation order, the report said.

Joseph Turner, Western regional coordinator of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Times Arellano deserved no special attention.

"She broke the law. You cannot use your child as a human shield to ignore immigration laws," Turner said.