Bennito L. Kelty
Audio By Carbonatix
Immigrant activist Jeanette Vizguerra can soon leave the Aurora detention facility that has held her in custody since she was arrested in March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Sunday, December 21, U.S. District Court Nina Wang ruled in favor of Vizguerra’s release on a $5,000 bond, according to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a faith-based social justice group. The AFSC says that Vizguerra’s family will pay the bond with money from the Immigrant Freedom Fund, which gathers donations to pay bonds for people held at the Aurora ICE facility.
Vizguerra “can be released as soon as processing allows,” according to AFSC. Her family had previously said that they hope she’s released before Christmas or the end of the year.
Vizguerra was arrested by ICE in March. She is a high-profile immigrant activist who was named one of the most influential people of 2017 by TIME after she avoided deportation during the first term of President Donald Trump by taking sanctuary in a Denver church. She first came to Denver from Mexico City in 1997.
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In September, Vizguerra announced via a video call from inside the detention center that she filed a motion to seek her immediate release.
On Friday, December 19, she had a bond hearing at the detention center. The GEO Group, the private prison company that runs the facility, denied entry to as Vizguerra’s friends and her legal team, according to AFSC, as well as members of the press (including Westword).
“The courtrooms inside GEO are administered by the Department of Justice and are open to the public,” an AFSC press release from Friday reads. “The GEO Group guards violated the public access right and denied members of the legal team access to the courtroom for over forty minutes.”
According to the AFSC, the court found that Vizguerra’s nine-month detention was “unconstitutionally prolonged,” and that ICE failed to prove she’s a flight risk. The court looked at Vizguerra’s “long residence in the United States, consistent compliance with supervision and court appearances, and strong family and community ties.”
Vizguerra’s record didn’t have “any arrests or citations for more than a decade and the lack of evidence showing a present risk of future harm,” the court added.
Although the ruling helps her get out of detention, ICE is now seeking Vizguerra’s removal order from a separate judge, and she is still facing deportation.
Shortly after her arrest in March, Vizguerra had argued that she was targeted by ICE because of her anti-Trump stance and anti-ICE activism. According to the AFSC, Judge Wang found Vizguerra’s “detention may have been motivated by retaliation for her protected First Amendment activity.”
Vizguerra’s legal team is hoping that sentiment from Wang carries into deportation proceedings and bodes well for her effort to stay in Denver.
Every Monday since her arrest, Vizguerra’s supporters have held weekly vigils outside of the Aurora ICE facility. “Free Jeanette. Free Them All,” signs at the vigil often read.
In May, Vizguerra won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. In June, she gave an acceptance speech via video call from inside the detention center, saying that a “new fight for civil rights” was underway.
About 1,400 people are in the Aurora ICE facility at a time under the new Trump administration, up from about 300 last year. Another progressive victory tied to the facility came on Wednesday, December 17, when a federal judge ruled in favor of U.S. Representative Jason Crow’s lawsuit filed after he was denied entry in July. That decision nullified a Trump policy that tried to require seven days’s notice from members of Congress to visit immigrant detention facilities. Crow spearheaded a law passed in 2019 that allows Congress only 24-hours notice.
