The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to deport Janet Vizguera, a well-known immigration activist who has confirmed it is in custody and has turned his attention to the light-form of undocumented people around the country.
Immigration advocates, lawmakers and human rights groups have condemned the move, referring to the four mothers with deep connections to the Colorado community she lived in for 30 years.
The arrest appears to be the first time US authorities have targeted prominent immigration activists who were deported during President Donald Trump’s second term.
Supporters say Vizguera’s detention is intended to silence the objection. It is amid the Trump administration’s wider push for deportation, which is working to rewind enforcement protections, evoke 18th century law and to emit undocumented people from the United States.
In a social media post Wednesday, Ice’s office in Denver, Colorado, justified Vizguerra’s arrest by pointing to her past conviction.
She owes a 2009 misdemeanor to find work using a forged Social Security number. He also had a second misdemeanor in 2013, and briefly returned to Mexico to visit his dying mother. She was convicted upon illegal entry.
“She will remain in ICE custody until she removes her from the US,” Ice said in the post.
However, Aaron Reichlin Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Council of Immigration, question whether Vizguerra’s slight arrest record justifies such treatment.
He admitted that she “has had some low-level crimes as a result of which it has not been documented.” “But she’s not a dangerous extremist. It’s just ridiculous,” he wrote on social media platform X.
Instead, he pointed out that she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2017.
“She is a respected advocate in Colorado and across the country,” said Reichlin Melnick. “The literal US president has a more serious criminal history.”
Who is Jeanette Vizguerra?
Vizguerra came to the US in Mexico City from Mexico City to Mexico in the 1990s. She settled in Colorado, where she began working as a janitor and was involved in labor organizations.
Her first brush with US law enforcement came during a traffic stop in 2009.
Her conviction launched a long-standing fight against her deportation and sought to protect other undocumented people in Colorado, which prompted her to take on more immigration advocacy efforts.
She became associated with groups like the Colorado Rights of All People and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Union, and established the Colorado branch in the action of the mother of the organisation Dreamer.
However, in 2017, President Trump took office for the first time and pledged to implement a radical immigration crackdown.
Fearing an impending deportation, Vizguerra sought refuge in two Denver area churches. Long-standing government policies prohibit migrant attacks in sensitive places like the churches of the time.
“I decided not to hide my fight against deportation, but to publicly fight to focus my attention on injustice in the system,” Vizguerra wrote in the 2017 OP-ED published by The New York Times.
“I wanted to encourage my community to get out of the shadows and speak up.”
In May 2017, she was temporarily deported and was able to leave the church sanctuary. However, she felt forced to return to 2019 after her visa application was reportedly denied.
She eventually moved out of church in 2020. US President Joe Biden’s administration later granted a temporary “deportation stay.”
In Time Magazine’s 2017 Vizguerra profile, actress American Ferrera praised the activists for making the “bold and dangerous” decision to be released in her struggle.
“The current administration has made immigrants scapego-go and scared Americans by believing that undocumented people like Janet are criminals,” Ferrera wrote.
“She sheds blood, sweat, tears, she becomes a business owner and strives to give her children more opportunities than her. This is not a crime. This is an American dream.”
Vizguerra was arrested Monday in the target parking lot where she worked.
Pushing the deportation
Vizguerra’s arrest comes amid a massive deportation under Trump.
Since taking office, Trump has quickly stepped away from the Biden administration’s policy, which abolished immigration actions against low-level and non-violent criminals.
A recent sweep of ice enforcement saw the arrests of thousands of individuals without criminal history, despite Trump claiming to focus on those seen as a threat to public safety and national security.
In January, the Trump administration also reiterated a long-standing policy of banning immigration enforcement in sensitive places, such as churches, schools and medical facilities.
Earlier this month, a federal judge temporarily suspended its use, but began calling the 1798 alien enemy law to increase expulsion. The law was used only three times earlier, and only in the case of war.
Critics also accused the Trump administration of targeting foreigners, including legal permanent residents, because of their political views.
This includes attempts to expel Mahmoud Khalil, the green card holder who led the pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University, and the expulsion of Professor Lasha Alawie of Brown University, who taught work visas in the United States.
What was the response?
Some of the harshest accusations of Vizguerra’s arrest come from local elected officials.
In a widely shared video statement Tuesday, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said her detention was “not intended to keep our country safe.”
“This is a Putin-style persecution of political opposition,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the leader accused of human rights abuse.
US Senator Michael Bennett praised Vizguera as “the pillar of the community.” Meanwhile, Gov. Jared Police said the Trump administration owes public transparency in the lawsuit.
“I met and know Jeanette Vizguerra,” Police said in a statement. “Janet is a mother and grandmother, spending decades in our country, supporting the community, having a job, having no history of violence, not a threat to the community, and above all deserves legitimate procedures according to the law.”
Groups that worked closely with Vizguerra, including the Quaker American Friends Service Committee and the Domestic National Workers’ Union, are also gaining public support for her case. Dozens of organizations have signed letters calling for her release.
“Let’s be clear. These attacks aim to create fear and silence us, but we will protect each other,” the National Workers Union posted on X.
Supporters gathered outside the Aurora Detention Center, where Vizguerra was being held on Tuesday. Another protest was planned for Denver on Wednesday.
On the GoFundMe page, to raise legal funds, Vizguerra’s daughter Luna Baez sued for community support.
“My mother has fought relentlessly for her community, and now it’s time for us all to come together and show all her support as she did to us,” she said.
What’s coming next?
Vizguerra’s attorney filed an emergency appeal, saying her detention violated her rights to the legitimate process.
In a statement to the Washington Post, lawyer Laura Richter said immigration officials rely on a 2013 removal order “full of procedural flaws.”
“There is no legal removal order and Ice would have known this for years. If ice were to try to remove her without legal authority, it would send a horrifying message about legitimate procedures and the agency’s disregard for the rule of law,” she said.
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