"ICE acted without a valid deportation order and without notifying Ms. Vizguerra or her lawyers," the American Friends Service Committee, a national religious organization, says in a March 18 statement. "She was suddenly taken into ICE custody and placed at the GEO Group for-profit detention facility. ICE appears to be readying to possibly deport her even though the agency knows they don’t have a valid deportation order. Her attorneys have raised serious legal errors and concern her due process rights are being violated."
Vizguerra is believed to be facing swift deportation.
Best known for resisting deportation orders and taking sanctuary in the First Unitarian Church in 2017, Vizguerra has since become the most high-profile undocumented immigrant living in the United States, leveraging her public plight against ICE into a platform to advocate for immigrant rights from her home in Denver.
Denver and Aurora have been focal points of President Donald Trump's promise for mass deportation. On the campaign trail, Trump visited Aurora in October, and announced that his deportation plan would be named "Operation Aurora." A handful of federal immigration raids have taken place in the Denver metro since Trump took office in January, and his administration has targeted some of Colorado's notable Democratic politicians.
On March 5, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston testified in front of a congressional committee to defend his statement that he would stand off against ICE if the agency tried to deport residents in the city.
At a Denver City Council meeting with Johnston on Tuesday, March 18, the mayor made a statement about Vizguerra's arrest:
“Let’s be clear what happened today. This is not immigration enforcement intended to keep our country safe," Johnston said before calling on Denver to "stand up and demand that ICE and the Trump Administration release Jeanette and give her the due process and legal rights she deserves.”
"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," Johnston said. "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."
According to Vizguerra, she immigrated undocumented from Mexico City in 1997 after her husband was threatened at gunpoint. In 2009, she was pulled over for a license plate violation and arrested when she refused to tell an officer her immigration status. She was placed in deportation proceedings, but her removal was denied by a Denver immigration judge in 2011 after she made her case public.
In February 2017, shortly after President Donald Trump began his first term in office, ICE denied a stay of removal for her to avoid deportation, so she took sanctuary at the First Unitarian Church. ICE wasn't allowed to make arrests in churches due to a 2011 federal policy that prohibited the agency from sensitive areas; however, that policy has been partly changed since Trump took office.
Vizguerra's fight against ICE built her the public profile she has today. She was eventually named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2017, with actress America Ferrera writing her blurb.
According to AFSC, she returned to the church for sanctuary in 2019 after her two-year stay expired and her request to avoid deportation was again denied, but she left the church sanctuary in 2020. A year later, the administration of then-President Joe Biden promised Vizguerra that the federal government would block any deportation orders against her while he was in office.
According to AFSC, she returned to the church for sanctuary in 2019 after her two-year stay expired and her request to avoid deportation was again denied, but she left the church sanctuary in 2020. A year later, the administration of then-President Joe Biden promised Vizguerra that the federal government would block any deportation orders against her while he was in office.
Vizguerra is the mother of four children, with three born in the U.S. Her middle child, Luna Baez, wrote on a new GoFundMe page that ICE agents laughed while they arrested her mother.
"My mom on Monday, March 17th got detained outside of her job at Target, and was arrested by a few ICE officers while they laughed in her face," Baez wrote. "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."
In only a few hours, the GoFundMe has raised more than $20,000 to help Vizguerra's family "reunite," according to the webpage.
Vizguerra's family also led an all-night vigil on Monday, March 17, with her supporters outside of the ICE detention center in Aurora, which is run by the GEO Group, an international private prison company. Supporters continued to demonstrate outside of the facility on Tuesday morning.
According to the AFSC, Vizguerra was not only arrested without a valid deportation order from ICE, but her phone access from inside the Aurora ICE facility was "cut off...for unknown reasons." Her children put out a statement on March 18, saying, "We do not understand why she is detained?"
"It makes no sense when nothing has changed in her case," according to her children's statement. "We are asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to please review what her lawyer sent, allow her phone calls with us and to immediately release her."
