AURORA, Colo. — A Colorado immigrant rights activist was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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, adding they will be holding a rally on Denver's Auraria Campus at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in response to her detainment.
In 2017, Vizguerra was forced to seek sanctuary after facing possible deportation to Mexico, spending a total of three years confined to Denver’s First Unitarian Church.
Vizguerra was a reported survivor of violence who escaped from Mexico City to the U.S. in 1997 with her husband and eldest daughter, who was then 6 years old.
Colorado democratic leaders respond to Vizguerra's arrest
In response to Monday's detention, Colorado's U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said the following on social media:
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.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper also commented on the reported detention saying:
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.
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.
Denver7 has reached out to ICE for more details and will update this story with the response.
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'
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