Elvira Arellano, an undocumented mom who defied a deportation order and sought sanctuary in a Chicago church for nearly a year back in 2006, is in the news again. She became an activist and an organizer and was vocal about the broken immigration system in this country. She angered restrictionists because she dared to believe that she and her son, Saulito, had rights in this country. She was deported in August 2007. But she won’t be silenced.

Today, Arellano is running for a seat in the Mexican Congress with the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) to represent Baja California, keeping her promises to fight for justice. She kicked off her campaign this weekend in Tijuana.

Central to her platform are, you guessed it, immigrant rights, both for those who come to the United States, but also for Central American migrants to Mexico. She is stressing the particular hardships that women migrants face. “I am going to seek laws in Congress that protect women, and also that protect undocumented Central Americans who are treated like criminals in Mexico,” Arellano said.

Her son, it’s reported, is enrolled in school in Michoacan.