Pandering to Whom?

The deportation of the convicted illegal immigrant Elvira Arellano has provoked outpourings of support and outrage across the board:

• Arellano and her son now represent "the human face, the human suffering" caused by immigration law that "rips good families apart," said a spokesman for Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). But Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Arellano was a blatant lawbreaker. "They are trying to portray her as a modern-day Rosa Parks," said Mehlman, whose group wants tighter border enforcement.

And the emotion is especially running deep in the Latino community:

• The Latino community also seemed divided over Arellano, with some viewing her as a less-than-perfect icon for the plight of the undocumented. At Taqueria Aguascalientes, a restaurant on Cermak Road in Cicero, Miguel Alvarez shrugged when asked about the Arellano deportation. "It's messed up," said the U.S.-born Alvarez, 19, whose parents are both immigrants. "Let her stay. Doesn't she have kids or something?"
  
  Waiting for work with other day laborers down the street outside a Home Depot, Ricardo Garcia Perez said he was happy to hear of Arellano's arrest. "She reflects badly on all Mexicans," said Garcia Perez, a Mexican native. "It seems fair. She got caught. It was terrible that she stayed in that church. There are many people who get caught. They go."

Disregard for the law, especially in a nation supposed to have been built on the rule of law, reflects badly on everyone, especially those who actually made the effort to follow the rules and become legal, productive citizens.