Federal immigration authorities on Monday detained Jeanette Vizguerra, a Colorado immigrant rights activist whose efforts to avoid deportation over the past decade made national headlines.
The American Friends Service Committee said in a news release announcing her arrest that Vizguerra is being held at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora, which is operated by the GEO Group, a private prison contractor.
ICE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Colorado Sun.
A GoFundMe organized by Vizguerra’s family said she was detained outside of her job at a Target.
“My mom has fought relentlessly for her community and it is time for all of us to now come together and show all the support for her like she has done to us,” one of her daughters wrote on the GoFundMe.
Vizguerra was first targeted for deportation in 2009 after being pulled over in Arapahoe County. She returned to Mexico voluntarily in 2012 to visit her dying mother, returning to the U.S. in 2013.
In 2017, the First Unitarian Society church in Denver allowed her hide in its building. Vizguerra, a housekeeper who was accused of using a made-up Social Security number on a job application, lived in the sanctuary for more than three years before deportation proceedings were halted by the Biden administration.
Colorado’s Democratic members of Congress introduced legislation to prevent her from being targeted by immigration agents, which resulted in a two-year reprieve. That reprieve ended in 2019 and wasn’t renewed. She returned to sanctuary and left in 2020.
The timeline is according to AFSC, which has played a central role in Vizguerra’s case. Vizguerra has been featured in many local and national news articles.
Vizguerra was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2017.
“Right now, we’re living in a climate of great anxiety; people are panicked,” Vizguerra told the bilingual newsletter La Ciudad in November after Donald Trump was reelected. “I really felt this when people began to realize that former President (Donald) Trump had won. My social networks, especially my profile, which I use precisely for this purpose, were flooded with messages. People, not only from Colorado but from all over the country — even outside the country — started asking: ‘What are we going to do if Donald Trump fulfills his threats of mass deportations?’”
Vizguerra first entered the U.S. unlawfully from Mexico in 1997 after, according to AFSC, her husband was threatened at gunpoint. She has four children, three of whom were born in the U.S.
Her detention Monday set off panic and anger in the immigration community.
“ICE’s attempt to deport Jeanette is an attack not just on her, but on every immigrant who has stood up to fight for dignity and justice,” said Raquel Lane-Arellano with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “Jeanette has spent decades building community and standing up for others.”
The coalition said it feared Vizguerra would be moved from the Aurora detention center to one out of state “because of her strong activist ties in Colorado.”
“We demand her immediate release and an end to ICE’s unjust targeting of immigrant leaders,” Arellano said.
This is a developing story that will be updated. Staff writer Jennifer Brown contributed to this report.
Type of Story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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