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Published January 27, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 6, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated
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MICHELLE MALKIN, GUEST HOST: In "The Factor follow-up" segment tonight, a familiar face in the illegal immigration debate is making more waves. Illegal immigration Elvira Arellano is back in Mexico. After taking refuge in the Chicago church for a year, she was deported last week. And now, she has some unkind things to say about the country she fought so hard to stay in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARELLANO: The United States is the one who broke the law first by letting people cross over without documents. By letting people pay taxes. For me it has been very hard, but I know I am not alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALKIN: Joining us now from Chicago, Reverend Walter Coleman, the pastor who gave sanctuary to Ms. Arellano. Reverend, I understand that your wife is the legal guardian of Ms. Arellano's son Saul. Is that correct?
REV. WALTER COLEMAN: That's correct.
MALKIN: And where is Saul now?
COLEMAN: Saul's with us at our house.
MALKIN: And does he have plans to go back to Tijuana to be with his mother?
COLEMAN: We're going to take him to Mexico this weekend.
MALKIN: This weekend. Will he be coming back?
COLEMAN: That's something they have to work out. Obviously, you know, Elvira Arellano has worked for four years on behalf of her son, and on behalf of four million other U.S. citizen children, to try to make this country find a way to fix this broken immigration laws and take responsibility for what it's done.
And she's going to continue to struggle in that. And I know Saul, this is the only life he's ever known. He's a U.S. citizen. And they have to work it out, but the most important thing right now is for them to be together. This is a mother and son that are very close and depend on each other.
MALKIN: Has he told you and your wife that he wants to be with his mother, that he doesn't want to stay in this country if he's not here with her?
COLEMAN: He said he wants to stay in this country. And he wants to be with his mother. He's quite definite about that.
MALKIN: Well, he can't have both things.
COLEMAN: Both things.
MALKIN: Yes, right.
COLEMAN: I understand, but he's 8 years old. And that's what he wants. He wants to continue his life in this country. And he wants to be with his mother. And I think that as a country, we have to take responsibility. We, for years, left our borders open. We invited people to work. They worked. We invited them to pay taxes. They paid taxes. And then all of a sudden, we're swept with a little bit of fear and hate and see the numbers multiplying. And let's see, well let's kick them all out of here. Well, we've got families here that are mixed status. Husbands and wives and U.S. citizen children. And we've got to take responsibility to fix the law. What Elvira did in taking sanctuary...
MALKIN: Well, the Feds are taking responsibility, Reverend Coleman. And this wasn't just some all of a sudden decision. Ms. Arellano, as you know, broke the law twice initially when she entered this country illegally in 1997 and then re- entered it illegally, which is a federal crime, a felony...
COLEMAN: You know, Michelle...
MALKIN: Yes?
COLEMAN: Michelle, before we go through all that because I mean your facts are wrong...
MALKIN: Well, don't you think it's important that people know...
COLEMAN: ...no, your facts...
MALKIN: ...that she stole another person's Social Security card to stay in this country and work?
COLEMAN: Michelle, none of that is true. Those facts are incorrect. But here's what's important: it's that we have four million U.S. citizen children. And our politicians and our government, which left these motives open and created this situation and all of these companies that hired people and paid people and got cheap labor, and you who went into their restaurant and never asked who was cooking your food, we have to take responsibility to fix this thing.
What Elvira did in leaving sanctuary was to say the Congress has got to act in September. You know, politicians get very cowardly around election time. And they've got to have the courage to finish the job that they started. Everybody says it's broken. We need to fix it. And we need to fix it with some compassion for these children and for these families.
MALKIN: With all due respect...
COLEMAN: I think that's a fact.
MALKIN: ...with all due respect, Reverend Coleman, don't you think you're making a tactical mistake in holding up Elvira Arellano as your poster child case? There are many sympathetic cases of people who have had DHS lose their paperwork. People who have applied to get into this country legally, who have waited years and years to get here.
With Elvira Arellano, you're talking about somebody who is a known and committed deportation evader, one of 600,000 deportation evaders who went through the system, who had their chance in court, and then were ordered deported after they had their case considered.
COLEMAN: Well, again, you're wrong. She never had a chance, never had a case in court, never had a chance to get in front of a judge. You don't know really the facts, but she is typical of millions of people...
MALKIN: She had a deportation order issued against her, is that true or not, Reverend Coleman?
COLEMAN: In August 15th of last year, which she refused to admit as an act of civil disobedience agaimst an unjust law.
But that's really not the issue. The fact is not that she's not a poster child. It's that she's a leader, and that she spent four years trying to make you see and America see...
MALKIN: Well, I wish the best for her son.
COLEMAN: ...what is happening for millions of families. And I wish you could...
MALKIN: We're running out of time.
COLEMAN: ...open your hearts and...
MALKIN: We're running out of time. Thank you.
COLEMAN: I understand, you're always running out of time.
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