Jeanette Vizguerra, Colorado immigration activist, detained by ICE

A Colorado immigration activist who previously took sanctuary in Denver churches to avoid deportation has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the American Friends Service Committee.

Jeanette Vizguerra was detained by ICE agents Monday without a valid deportation order and placed at the agency’s detention facility in Aurora, which is run by private contractor GEO Group, according to a news release from the committee.

The social justice group said in the news release that Vizguerra’s attorneys “have raised serious legal errors and concern her due process rights are being violated.”

ICE officials in Denver have not confirmed Vizguerra’s detention.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Tuesday decried Vizguerra’s detention as an abuse of power and “Putin-style persecution of political dissidents.”

“This is the great lie of the Trump Administration,” he said. “This is not about safety. This is about political theater and political retribution. This doesn’t make this country safer. It makes this country lawless, which is the most unsafe thing any president can do.”

Denver City Councilwoman Jamie Torres called the activist’s apprehension “a grave injustice.”

“We are seeing firsthand further proof that this federal administration is absolutely not focused on those who cause harm or who are dangerous in our community,” she said. “We should all be furious right now.”

Observers who had gathered outside the detention facility on Tuesday morning saw a group of men and women being loaded onto buses and driven away. The American Friends Service Committee initially said it believed Vizguerra was on one of those buses, but Vizguerra’s family later received a call from the activist confirming she was still inside the Aurora facility.

By 10:30 a.m., a group of about 20 people had gathered outside the ICE facility to protest Vizguerra’s detainment, holding up yellow signs that read “Free Jeanette.”

Julie Meyers, 68, decided to participate in the protest because she knows Vizguerra and her kids through their church congregation.

“We just can’t let this go unnoticed from the greater community,” she said.

Karen Derrick-Davis, 62, added that Vizguerra’s “only crime is that she called Trump out and he’s getting his revenge.”

Arnie Carter, 67, said the community has reacted to her detainment in a “huge” way, with Instagram and Facebook blowing up with the news.

Rosie Bettam, 38, stood on the sidewalk along East 30th Avenue waving a homemade sign that declared she was a mom supporting another mom.

The Northglenn resident heard word of the detainment Tuesday morning when she was readying her own child for kindergarten. After Bettam dropped her daughter off at school, she drew a sign and headed to the Aurora facility.

Bettam wants to see Vizguerra released. As for whether the matter will cause a ripple effect that impacts broader immigration issues, she said, “There’s hope for a lot of things always, but all you can do is put your boots on the ground and do something.”

“The government of our country is targeting our mom”

The American Friends Service Committee said Vizguerra’s lawyers have filed a habeas corpus motion with the district court to challenge her unlawful imprisonment.

“It’s clear to us now that the government of our country is targeting our mom in violation of her rights and due process, for her bravery and courage, for her leadership and skill, for her speech,” Vizguerra’s family said in a statement released by the American Friends Service Committee. “She taught us never to be silent in the face of injustice and we will keep fighting for our mom.”

Jordan Garcia, spokesperson for the American Friends Service Committee, said both Vizguerra’s daughters and lawyers were declining media interviews as of Tuesday morning.

Vizguerra’s daughter, Luna Baez, said in a GoFundMe post that Vizguerra was detained outside of her job at a Target store.

“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,” Baez said in the fundraising post.

A news release signed by more than 60 organizations and lawmakers — including state Sen. Julie Gonzales, state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco and Denver City Council President Amanda Sandoval — called for the immediate release of Vizguerra.

The letter said that Vizguerra was able to call her daughter on Monday from the facility before her phone access was disrupted.

A rally is planned for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Tivoli Quad on the Auraria Campus near downtown Denver to support Vizguerra and other detainees who have made recent national headlines.

“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, communications manager at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, in a Tuesday statement. “We demand her immediate release and an end to ICE’s unjust targeting of immigrant leaders.”

Sandoval urged people to contact the offices of Colorado U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper to “demand that they take immediate action… to secure her release.”

“(Vizguerra’s) unjust detainment by ICE is not just an attack on her, it is an attack on the very fabric of our community and a blatant attempt to silence the resistance we have built in Denver,” Sandoval said. “We cannot stand by while our neighbors are torn from their families.”

A resident of the U.S. for nearly 30 years

Vizguerra, a mother of four, has lived in the United States for nearly 30 years after immigrating to Colorado from Mexico with her eldest daughter and husband in 1997, according to the American Friends Service Committee.

She was pulled over in 2009 for driving with an expired inspection sticker. Vizguerra refused to answer when the police officer asked if she was in the country legally and was arrested, kickstarting a years-long fight to avoid deportation and stay in the U.S.

Police searched Vizguerra’s bag and said they found a fake Social Security number. She was charged with misdemeanor identity theft and criminal possession of a forged instrument, later pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count.

She served 21 days in jail and was placed in removal proceedings upon her release, but sued ICE to block her deportation.

The immigrant rights activist was also denied a U visa in 2019 — a type of visa that allows undocumented immigrants to live legally in the U.S.

Vizguerra said the denial cited 11 factors, including having a criminal history, her comments to the New York Times about immigrant rights, a period when she left the U.S. to visit her dying mother in Mexico and letting her passport expire in 2017 while she was in sanctuary.