November 15, 2006 in Nation/World

Boy persuades Mexico to help keep mom in U.S.

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Associated Press photos photo

Saul Arellano, 7, of Chicago, appeared in the lower house of the Mexican Congress in Mexico City on Tuesday to plead for lawmakers’ help to stop the deportation of his migrant mother.
(Full-size photo)

MEXICO CITY – Saul Arellano fidgeted with his lucha libre wrestling toys Tuesday as he walked through the halls of Mexico’s Congress. Alongside him was the small retinue of U.S. activists who have helped make him a cause celebre of the immigration debate.

The shy but persuasive U.S.-born son of a Mexican immigrant told his story to legislators in spare, American-accented Spanish.

“It’s hard to talk to a 7-year-old,” Congressman Edmundo Ramirez said. “But he’s made it clear he doesn’t want to be separated from his mother. … There are millions of undocumented families in the United States that are in the same position.”

Saul persuaded the factions in Mexico’s divided Congress to unite behind his plea: They voted unanimously to ask the U.S. government not to deport his mother, an illegal immigrant holed up in a Chicago church.

The saga of “Little Saul” (“Saulito” in Spanish) has captivated Mexico since he arrived Sunday on a mission to draw attention to the plight of thousands of Hispanic families that could be divided by stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.

Interviewed Tuesday morning in the Televisa studio by one of Mexico’s most famous television personalities, Carlos Loret de Mola, Saul offered the poignant image of a child far from home. His small body barely filled the swivel chair. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. “Do you feel a little bit Mexican?” Loret de Mola asked.

“I don’t know,” the boy answered in Spanish. “No sé.”

“How did you learn Spanish?”

“I don’t know.”

When Loret de Mola asked Saul if he wanted to live in Mexico, the boy answered simply, “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because over there in Chicago is where my school is, my friends,” the boy said.

Saul’s visits with Mexican lawmakers are the latest chapter in a story that began with Elvira Arellano’s illegal border crossing and move to the Northwest, where she gave birth to Saul. She settled in Chicago, where she received a deportation order by mail three months ago.

In Chicago, New York and other U.S. cities, a growing “sanctuary” movement seeking to protect illegal immigrants from deportation has made Saulito and his mother its poster family.

There are at least 3.1 million children like Saul in the United States, with one or more parents in the country illegally, according to a 2006 report released by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Elvira said her trouble began in December 2001, when she was arrested and later convicted of using a fake Social Security number to land a job with a cleaning crew at O’Hare International Airport.

After several extensions that allowed her to stay, and a failed legal appeal, she was told to report for deportation proceedings Aug. 15.

“I could have run, taken Saulito to another town, found another Social Security number and another job,” Elvira said. “I got tired of running and hiding. I wanted a better life for us, even if it meant that we’d both have to make sacrifices.”

A somber boy who dreams of becoming a firefighter, Saul has traveled to Los Angeles, stopped by the White House twice to deliver letters to President Bush and spoken at public rallies in Chicago.

The pressure has taken its toll on her son, Elvira said. Saulito has broken out in hives from stress and is seeing a therapist to deal with nightmares of his mother being dragged out of the church.

“Some people have said I’m asking too much of Saulito,” Elvira said. “But he wants to do this. He wants to fight this as much as I do.”

Upon hearing of the vote Tuesday in the Mexican Congress, Elvira joined several friends and congregation members in her church’s cramped kitchen to celebrate with grape juice and a prayer.

“We want to thank you, God, that three parties that can’t agree on anything … can agree that a mother and her child should not be separated,” said Beti Guevara, a family friend and associate pastor. Then, the group raised their glasses and cheered: “To Saulito! Our lobbyist!”

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