CommUNITY Vigil to Denounce Elvira Arellano’s Deportation and Celebrate Her Courage

CommUNITY Vigil to Denounce Elvira Arellano’s Deportation and Celebrate Her Courage
Immigrant Mother Inspires us to continue the struggle for Human and Civil Rights.


Come to show your solidarity for Elvira Arellano and all of the other families in risk of separation because of our inhumane immigration system! We will come together to offer community support, Know Your Rights pamphlets regarding ICE (Immigration Custom Enforcement) Raids, and gather strength for the road ahead.

Community members will join us on Friday, August 24 at 8:00pm at the Beach Flats Community Park.

Multiple community organizations and leaders will sponsor a CommUNITY Vigil to call attention to a nation-wide violation of human and civil rights. Together, M.E.Ch.A. de La Tierra, Barrios Unidos, The Resource Center for Non Violence, La Familia Center, Pajaro Valley Branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the Organizing Director, Commissioner of Diversity, Commissioner of Academic Affairs, Chair and External Vice Chair for Undergraduate Student Assembly and the Chair of the Graduate Student Assembly at the University of California Santa Cruz, will be supporting undocumented families everywhere by calling the community to come together on a Friday night to show strength and UNITY within the Santa Cruz and Watsonville Community. Together, the organizers hope to spread mass awareness about the current im/migration issues that we are facing and activate some strong community members into even stronger community leaders. Organizers are urging community members to join in the movement for human and civil rights and most importantly stand in SOLIDARITY with Elvira Arellano and all families experiencing similar inhumane treatment.

As an undocumented immigrant mother facing deportation for the past year, Elvira Arellano had been given sanctuary by one of Chicago’s Methodist congregations. She had traveled to Los Angeles with community and faith leaders from Chicago as part of a nationwide advocacy campaign calling for humane immigration policies and an end to immigration raids in worksites and homes across the country. She was arrested on Sunday following a presentation in Los Angles and deported later that day, leaving behind her eight-year-old citizen son. She has shown tremendous dignity and courage and has called on the immigrant rights community to continue the struggle for a fair and humane immigration system.

Parking available in the meters on Riverside Ave. or the Boardwalk Parking Lot.

For more information Elvira Arellano’s case or about the vigil, please contact David Partida at un_xikano_culixi(at)yahoo(dot)com.

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