TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — A Mexican immigrant rights advocate who gained international attention when she took refuge in a Chicago church before being deported asked Tuesday for refuge in the United States on humanitarian grounds.

Elvira Arellano crossed into the United States with her U.S.-born teenage and 4-year-old sons along with a group of Mexican and Central American migrants from the border city of Tijuana, many of them deported mothers with U.S.-born children.