Trump exacts revenge on Jeanette Vizguerra, a prominent Colorado migrant advocate

Mexican activist Jeanette Vizguerra was arrested Monday morning by immigration authorities in Aurora, Colorado. “My mother was detained on March 17 outside the Target store where she works by a handful of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, while they laughed in her face,” confirmed Luna Baez, one of Vizguerra’s four daughters. The undocumented migrant has been fighting deportation since 2009, when she was detained for a minor trafficking incident in the Denver metropolitan area. Vizguerra has since become an advocate for people in her same situation. She created a network of sanctuaries within several area churches, providing protection to dozens of migrants charged with minor offenses who faced the risk of being expelled from the United States.

The arrest of the activist, who has been in the country since 1997, when she arrived to work as a janitor, has sparked small demonstrations outside the private detention center in Aurora where she is being held. Her family says Vizguerra was held incommunicado for several hours until they were able to speak with her for the first time since her arrest on Tuesday morning. “Without hate and without fear, immigrants are welcome here!” the protesters shouted in support of the activist.

The nonprofit American Friends Service Committee has questioned the legality of the arrest, as Vizguerra was allegedly detained by ICE agents without a deportation order signed by a judge. The case, the group said in a statement, “has serious legal errors, and there is grave concern that her right to due process is being violated.”

ICE, however, rejects the claim and points out that the activist has a deportation order against her issued during the Barack Obama administration. This order was issued after Vizguerra was arrested in 2009 for driving a vehicle with an expired license plate. During that incident, she refused to answer whether she was legally in the country. Agents found a fake Social Security number in her purse during a search, and she was charged with a misdemeanor charge of possessing a falsified ID. This is the only crime on her record in nearly 30 years in the country, and for which she spent 21 days in prison.

The authorities then began a tug-of-war to remove her from the country. She went to court to stop her deportation. Her criminal record, however, shows that she self-deported to Mexico in September 2012 to visit her dying mother. She crossed back into the United States in April 2013, which renewed her persecution.

In February 2017, ICE authorities rejected Vizguerra’s request to extend her stay in the U.S. Her lawyers informed the immigration service that she would not present herself to agents for detention and would instead seek refuge in the basement of the First Unitarian Society Church in Denver. ICE officials at the time advised against conducting arrest operations inside so-called “sensitive locations”: schools, churches, and some workplaces. Donald Trump overturned these considerations upon returning to the White House in January.

Vizguerra spent 86 days inside the church to avoid deportation. She abandoned her sanctuary in May 2017 when a court granted her legal protection from expulsion for two years. Some 33 people received this same benefit. The activist’s story spread beyond Colorado and became national news amid the fight against Trump’s policies during his first presidency.

Time magazine named Vizguerra one of America’s most important voices of 2017. “The Trump administration has scapegoated immigrants and scared Americans into believing that undocumented immigrants like Jeanette are criminals,” actress America Ferrera wrote about the activist in that year’s issue.

In 2019, Vizguerra also applied for a visa. Her application was denied for several reasons, including her criminal record, the fact that her Mexican passport had expired a couple of years earlier, and her work as an activist. The denial cited an interview she had given to The New York Times advocating for migrant rights.

Her arrest has sparked mixed reactions in Colorado. Mike Johnson, the Democratic mayor of Denver, condemned the incident. “This is not immigration enforcement intended to keep our country safe. This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents,” Johnson said at a city council meeting. “She is a mother of American citizens, a Target employee, and the leader of a non-governmental organization with no history of violent crimes,” he added. Similar messages have been issued by Colorado Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, who underscored their concern that the activist’s rights are being violated.

Trump supporters, on the other hand, have celebrated the arrest of one of the most visible activists in Colorado. “Finally!” said John Fabbricatore, a retired agent who worked for the U.S. government’s deportation services. “The Biden administration kept me from deporting Jeanette Vizguerra four years ago […] She is a criminal, hates Trump and is an open-borders, abolish-ICE advocate. Bye!!!!” he wrote on X.

Most voices, however, have expressed their gratitude for Vizguerra’s work in highlighting the problems undocumented immigrants face every day in the United States. “She is one of the most important voices in this country demanding fair and humane immigration reform,” said Rudy Gonzalez, president of Servicios Sigue, a Denver-based migrant advocacy organization. Another activist, Raquel Lane-Arellano, called the arrest “an attack on all immigrants who defend dignity and justice.”

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