Mexican activist Elvira Arellano led the fourth and last group of immigrants that comprise the campaign "Bring Them Home" which in the last week has gathered over 100 deportees to return to the United States through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, with the intention of asking for asylum or humanitarian visas to be able to reunite with their families.
The renowned defender of the rights of Mexican immigrants, who became news in 2007 when she took refuge in a church in Chicago before being deported from the United States, crossed the border with her children, 15 year old Saúl and 4 months old Emiliano, along with 20 other immigrants as a part of a series of protests to demand the end of deportations in the US.
According to a report by the Associated Press, quoted by The Huffington Post, 38 year old Arellano was deported in 2007 without her son Saúl, born in the United States, and thus has joined the efforts of various dozens of immigrants who have been separated from their families, which are still in the US.
"I'm requesting asylum in the United States for humanitarian reasons, because I am a defender of human rights in Mexico and have received threats of death and kidnapping, but the most important thing is that they have separated my son from his opportunity to receive a good education," the activist told the media before crossing the border.
According to a recent report by The Chicago Tribune, in 2007 Arellano attracted international attention and named person of the year by Time magazine after she took refuge inside the walls of the Methodist church Adalberto United for one year, requesting protection.
In August of that year, Arellano left the church to join a protest in favor of immigration reform and was finally deported to Tijuana on August 19. In Mexico, she founded a home for deported immigrants and began to talk in public about the reality of immigrants and how deportations have separated hundreds of families.
Now, the activist awaits, along with 30 other people, most of them mothers and undocumented students, the ruling of US authorities and the eventual humanitarian visas or new deportation.
Video via Univisión.