AURORA, Colo. — An 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 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 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.
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."
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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