Sunday, January 27, 2008

Here we go again!

Meet Flor Crisostomo. She is moving in to Elvira’s old room at the Methodist Church in Chicago. Same old story. She was ordered deported and is supposed to report tomorrow. But she’s going into sanctuary mode in Slim Coleman’s church instead.

And I suppose Emma Lozano, Slim’s wife and Sin Fronteras Latino advocacy group leader, will be there for all the press coverage as well.

Now, Flor’s situation is a bit different than Elvira’s. She was arrested in 2006 with 26 other people at IFCO, a pallet company. She came to Chicago in 2001 and got a job using a fake ID.

Flor has three children back in Mexico and was sending home $300 a week to her three children. (If that is true, her children in Guerrero are well-off indeed. A Mexican worker only earns about $4,500 a year.) Flor is unmarried.

ICE is giving the same statement as before. They will take her at the time and place of their choosing, which meant NEVER for Elvira and our ICE agents. She had to move to California first; then Immigration took her into custody right away.

Part of me wants her picked up right away. The other part of me hopes she gets some press coverage. Elvira elicited very little sympathy and all sorts of criticism.

And in Flor's case “family unification” means that she should be back in Mexico with her kids. No discussion about the 14th Amendment this time – Flor’s kids all read “Made in Mexico.”

So, what makes her a good poster child? Nothing really. But it does point out that the Latino activists have a very poor hand to play. It is really hard to justify crime, isn’t it?

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