DENVER — About 200 people gathered for a rally at Auraria Campus Wednesday to protest the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The rally was originally scheduled to condemn the ICE arrest of two pro-Palestine activists Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Kordia, students at Columbia University in New York. The administration has said those arrests are part of an effort to deport supporters of the terrorist organization Hamas.
Then on Monday, ICE arrested well-known Colorado immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra outside her job at Target. Her story, and anger over her arrest, became part of the rallying cry at Wednesday’s protest.
“These are people who speak out bravely against injustice,” Wynn Howell, state director of Working Families Power, said of those recently arrested by ICE.
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Howell has known Vizguerra for years. Both have worked as union organizers in the Denver metro area.
“She's incredible in the way she stands up for justice, in the way that she refuses to be cowed by fear,” Howell said of Vizguerra.
Justin Rolfe-Redding didn’t know who Vizguerra was until he read about her arrest in the news Tuesday. Now, he feels the need to speak out against it.
“When you've got this, like, mother and grandmother in our community who's just trying to help other people and was snatched after shift at Target on Monday, like, what's going on there?” he said, calling the Trump administration’s immigration policies a “bait and switch.”
“What are our tax dollars doing to, like, take these people out of our community and not, like, the violent criminals?” Rolfe-Redding asked.
“We know that this action is intended to create fear,” Howell said. “It's intended to create fear of what it means to speak up in this country, and it's about the most profoundly un-American thing I can think of.”
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The protesters said they will continue exercising their freedom of speech, something they say is under attack.
“I believe she was targeted because of what she believes and what she's said and done in our community,” said Rolfe-Redding. “To me, this isn't about immigration. This is about the First Amendment.”
“I think this is an incredibly slippery slope in America,” Howell added. “If we believe that voicing a different political opinion is grounds for abduction by federal agents, where does that stop?”
Legal battle between ICE and Vizguerra
Vizguerra has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years. More recently, she sought sanctuary living in Denver churches to avoid deportation.
In a statement Wednesday, ICE said Vizguerra has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge and has received legal due process in immigration court. ICE said Vizguerra “will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States.”
In 2009, Vizguerra faced seven counts, including identity theft, relating to her carrying a fake Social Security card. She ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery and served 23 days in jail, according to court records.
In 2013, she was convicted of a second misdemeanor, illegally entering the country, and was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation, according to ICE. The agency also said Vizguerra’s most recent “stay of deportation or removal” expired more than a year ago, in Feb. 2024.
In a press release, Vizguerra’s legal team calls the removal order “invalid,” based on a 2013 reinstatement order “rife with procedural flaws.” The statement added “no one is above the law — not even ICE.”
- Read the full press release below
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