AURORA, Colo. — A Colorado immigrant rights activist who sought sanctuary at a Denver church to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Aurora "without warning" on Monday night, according to an immigrant advocacy group.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) said in a Facebook post that ICE detained Jeanette Vizguerra "without warning" and appears ready to deport her back to Mexico. Vizguerra is the founder of the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition.
AFSC and Coloradans for Immigrant Rights said Vizguerra is not allowed to contact her family from the ICE facility, and her family said they are concerned for her safety. They protested her detention outside the Aurora ICE Processing Center Tuesday morning.
The organization created a petition and set up a GoFundMe to reunite Vizguerra with her family. One of Vizguerra's four children wrote in the fundraiser's description that their mother was detained outside her job at Target.
In a statement later Tuesday, Vizguerra's family said she was still inside the GEO Aurora ICE Detention Facility.
"We are relieved to know our mom is still inside the detention facility and appreciate her calls being restored. We hope ICE will work with her attorney to release her immediately," a spokesperson for the family said.
Supporters gathered outside of the Aurora ICE facility for a rally Tuesday evening, hoping their chants and stories of Vizguerra's impact could be heard inside the facility.
Aurora
Supporters of immigrant activist reportedly detained by ICE rally in her defense
On Wednesday morning, an ICE spokesperson confirmed with Denver7 that Vizguerra had been arrested without incident on Monday by immigration enforcement agents and will remain in custody of the agency pending removal from the U.S.
"Vizguerra is a convicted criminal alien from Mexico who has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge. She illegally entered the United States near El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 24, 1997, and has received legal due process in U.S. immigration court,” the ICE spokesperson said.
A day after her arrest, Vizguerra filed a petition in U.S. District Court of Colorado to ask a judge to determine whether ICE acted within the law, according to the timeline provided by ICE.
Fighting deportation since 2009
Vizguerra, who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years after escaping violence in Mexico City in 1997 with her husband and her then-6-year-old daughter, has been previously convicted of two misdemeanors during her time in the country.
In February 2009, Vizguerra was convicted of criminal possession of a forged instrument for having a fake Social Security card. At the time, Vizguerra said her Social Security card was made up of digits from her birth date, and did not belong to another person. She ended up serving a 23-day sentence after her conviction.
Four years later, in May 2013, she was convicted of illegal entry after going back to Mexico for her mother's funeral and returning to the United States. Her attorney said she was sentenced to a year of supervised probation for that case.
Vizguerra was forced to seek sanctuary at a Denver church in 2017 under the first Trump administration to avoid being deported after a hold on her deportation was not renewed.
She was given a two-year reprieve which allowed her to stay in the country until March of 2019 after Sen. Michael Bennet and then-Rep. Jared Polis — now Colorado’s governor — introduced so-called private bills to give her a path to become a permanent resident. But her two-year stay was not renewed and Vizguerra was further denied a U Visa — which allows undocumented victims of certain crimes to live legally in the U.S.
Vizguerra again entered church sanctuary but then left in 2020, according to a timeline provided to The Associated Press by the American Friends Service Committee.
A timeline provided by ICE showed Vizguerra was twice granted a stay of deportation starting in 2021 that would expire in February 2024. It is not clear where Vizguerrra stayed after that deadline had passed up until her arrest.
Colorado democratic leaders respond to Vizguerra's arrest
In response to news of Vizguerra's detention, Sen. Bennet said in a social media post he was "deeply concerned" about the actions by ICE.
Jeanette Vizguerra is a mother and pillar in her community. I am deeply concerned about ICE's actions to detain her without any due process, like a deportation order. ICE should ensure Jeanette has legal counsel and immediately release her.
Sen. John Hickenlooper also raised "serious concerns" about ICE's actions, saying targeting Vizguerra will not fix the country's broken immigration system.
There are serious concerns about ICE’s actions to detain Jeanette Vizguerra. Targeting a mother who has been an active part of our Colorado community for nearly three decades will not fix our broken immigration system or secure our border.
Speaking during a meeting in the legislature involving the Latino Democratic Caucus, Rep. Yara Zokaie, who represents Larimer County, demanded the immediate release of Vizguerra.
"An attack on her is an attack on all us," Zokaie said, as she announced she was introducing HB25-1239, which updates the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. "We will not stay silent while our constituents are vilified for political gain. We will not stand-by while people try to diminish our contributions, our dignity and our rights."
Under the U.S. constitution, people — including undocumented immigrants — have the right to due process, the right to legal counsel, the right to be with family, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to education.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who recently faced a Congressional committee to justify the city's immigration policies, called Vizguerra's arrest a "Putin-style persecution of political dissidents."
Let’s be clear what happened today. This is not immigration enforcement intended to keep our country safe. This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents. Jeanette Vizguerra is a mother of U.S. citizens. She works at Target. She’s the founder of a local non-profit.
This is the great lie of the Trump Administration. This is not about safety. This is about political theater and political retribution. This doesn’t make this country safer. It makes this country lawless, which is the most unsafe thing any president can do.
Arresting Jeanette is a plain abuse of power to go after someone for their political views without the due process that is a cornerstone of our American values. Now is the time to stand up and demand that ICE and the Trump Administration release Jeanette and give her the due process and legal rights she deserves.
In a statement later Tuesday, Gov. Polis called on the Trump administration to follow due process and be more transparent about ICE operations in the state.
I have met with and know Jeanette Vizguerra. Jeanette is a mother and grandmother, has spent decades in our country, helping the community, has a job, has no history of violence, is not a threat to the community, and above all else, deserves due process pursuant to the law. I continue to urge President Trump and ICE to focus their actions on violent offenders and be more transparent with states they are operating in, including being transparent about the cost and impact of detentions, raids, and the cost to taxpayers. The state has not seen any transparent accounting of ICE operations in our state and has not been notified beyond press reports of the apprehension of Ms. Vizguerra.
And in a joint statement, members of Colorado's Democratic Congressional delegation, including Congresswomen Diana DeGette and Brittany Pettersen, as well as Congressmen Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, called reports of Vizguerra's arrest a "shredding of the Constitution and disregard for the law."
The Trump administration's shredding of the Constitution and disregard for the law is outrageous. Due process is foundational to our democracy, and the abrupt nature of Ms. Vizguerra’s detention, without transparent justification, exemplifies a troubling pattern of civil rights violations and disregard for due process under this administration. This will only further erode the essential legal protections that ensure fairness and justice for all individuals, regardless of their immigration status.
Furthermore, news of Ms. Vizguerra’s removal order shows a continuation of the administration’s reckless and bigoted immigration policy. They claim they are targeting violent criminals, but instead they are going after mothers with U.S.-born children and immigrant advocates, like Ms. Vizguerra.
This is wrong, and the administration must stop these hateful and unjust actions immediately.
Former ICE director fires back, says Vizguerra "has had more than due process"
In an interview with Denver7's Jessica Porter, John Fabbricatore, the former director of the agency's field office in Denver, fired back at the claims made by Colorado's Democrats, saying Vizguerra "has had more than due process" in her fight against deportation.
Fabbricatore told Denver7 that Vizguerra, "has gone through the process multiple times.... has seen the immigration judge, had the ability to go through the Bureau of Immigration Appeals. She threw her appeals claim out by leaving the United States and then trying to re-sneak back into the U.S."
"Do we just put our hands up in the air and say, 'Oh, it was only a couple of small, minor infractions?' No, we can't allow this to happen, because then we say, 'we just don't need immigration laws,'" Fabbricatore said. "That's not what most of the voting electorate wanted when they elected President Donald Trump. So it's about time that our immigration laws are looked at and taken seriously, as they should be, and she's deported from the United States."
Politics
Former ICE boss on history with Jeanette Vizguerra: ‘More than due process'
Fabbricatore, who ran through a litany of crimes allegedly perpetrated by Vizguerra, said Tuesday the woman was ultimately prosecuted for violating federal law, but was let back into the U.S. anyway.
"She was one of our six sanctuary cases that we had here in the state of Colorado while President Trump was president the first time around, so she's been through the process," the former ICE director for the Denver field office said. "So, you know, we have a lot of people on the left, a lot of politicians, saying that she has not had due process. This woman has had more than due process."
Fabbricatore also told Denver7 he had a plan in place to have Vizguerra removed, but "the Biden administration stepped in and gave her a stay of deportation. The Biden administration really protected her."
"Let me be clear: What is coming out of politicians on the left right now is wrong. For them to say that she has not had due process is a lie. For people like Mayor Mike Johnston to come on and say that ICE is holding her in an abhorrent conditions, that she has not had due process, that we kidnapped her in the middle of the night — this is what comes out of the left's mouth when they don't like something."
Neither Johnston nor any of Colorado's democratic Congressional delegation have claimed that ICE is holding Vizguerra in abhorrent conditions.
"She has had legal due process," Fabbricatore said. "ICE is doing their job, the lawful job that Congress has given them."
Related coverage:
- Woman who sought sanctuary in Denver church reacts to Trump's removal of 'sensitive areas'
- Immigration rights advocates in Colorado react to DEA raid in Adams County
- Woman taking sanctuary in Denver is hopeful Biden administration policies will bring change
- Jeanette Vizguerra, activist seeking sanctuary in Denver, denied visa application to avoid deportation
- Undocumented Colorado mother of 3 U.S. citizens on deportation fight: 'It will not end today'
Denver7 anchor Jessica Porter and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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