CNN
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An undocumented mother and immigration reform activist who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement feared she was being followed in recent days, her daughter told CNN.
Jeanette Vizguerra gained international attention in 2017 when she took sanctuary in a Denver church for three years to avoid deportation during President Donald Trump’s first term. That same year, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
She is now being held at a detention facility in Aurora, Colorado, her attorney Laura Lichter told CNN.
Vizguerra, a mother of four, was arrested Monday at a Denver-area Target store where she worked, Jordan Garcia of the American Friends Service Committee, who has been in contact with Vizguerra’s lawyer and family, told the Associated Press.
Vizguerra has been trying to gain a visa given to crime victims that allows them to remain in the United States since she left sanctuary in churches in 2020, Garcia said. Petitions challenging her detention have been filed in both Denver’s federal court and the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Vizguerra was taken into custody by ICE officers Monday outside the store where she works as a cashier, family friend Judith Marquez told CNN.
Luna Baez, one of Vizguerra’s children, said her mother had noticed unmarked vehicles following her for the past few days when she was leaving work and when she was on break.
Vizguerra called to let her know she had been detained and how officers “surrounded her on all sides” while she was on a shift break.
“From there she was put in a truck, the whole time she told me they were laughing at her,” Baez said.
She said she has spoken to her mother twice since she was detained.
On Tuesday night, dozens of people rallied outside an ICE detention facility in Aurora in support of Vizguerra.
The crowd, which included union members, friends and strangers moved by her story, gathered just beyond the walls of the building where they believed she was being held. Among them was Baez, who grew emotional as she addressed the supporters.
“Not only is she a community member, but she’s a mother to four kids. Four kids that still depend on her … And I just wanted to say that I need my mom back. I need her to come home,” Baez said.
At one point, Baez held up her phone and told the crowd her mother was on speakerphone from inside the detention facility. Translating her mother’s words, Baez said, “She also wanted to say that under this arrest – it was extremely unlawful. None of the proceedings were followed … A warrant was never shown.”
CNN has reached out to ICE for comment.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said Vizguerra is not a threat to the community and “deserves due process.”
He also urged Trump and ICE to “focus their actions on violent offenders and be more transparent with states they are operating in.”
Denver’s Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston denounced Vizguerra’s arrest and described the mother as a hard-working member of the community.
“People should know what this is. This is not immigration enforcement. This is Soviet-style political persecution of political dissidents under the guise of immigration enforcement,” Johnston said in a video posted on Facebook Tuesday.
“This is not someone with a criminal record. This is a mom of American citizens who works at Target and has started a community nonprofit,” the mayor said. “This is not something that makes our community safer, in my mind. I think it makes our community lawless.”
Vizguerra came to the United States from Mexico in 1997 with her husband and eldest daughter. She has been living in the US undocumented since and has three American-born children.
In 2009, Vizguerra was charged with not having a license or insurance and for having an expired license plate, but those charges were dismissed, court records show.
She was also charged in connection with using a made-up Social Security number on a job application, her then-attorney said. She pleaded guilty to “attempted possession of a forged instrument.”
The case resulted in heightened attention for Vizguerra in the eyes of immigration authorities, her then-lawyer said, and she spent the next 3 1/2 years appealing various orders to deport her. After Trump took office in 2017, Vizguerra “took refuge” in the church, Baez said, and her mother’s fears grew once he returned for a second term.
“This all started over some expired stickers, it has developed and grown ever since,” she said.
John Fabbricatore, former field office director for ICE’s Denver office, said in a post on X the Biden administration prevented him from deporting Vizguerra four years ago, and called her an “open-borders, abolish-ICE advocate.”
“She should have been deported in 2009 as well,” Fabbricatore added.
Like thousands of immigrants, the family came in search of a better life. Vizguerra’s husband had been kidnapped three times during his work as a bus driver in Mexico City, the family said.
During her decades in the US, Vizguerra supported “countless families,” the American Friends Service Committee said.
“Jeanette Vizguerra has been a pillar of the community for decades, advocating for immigrant rights and supporting countless families,” the group said in a statement. “There was no reason for ICE to take her into custody – her detention is a cruel and unnecessary action that is causing irreparable harm to her family and community.”
In January, Vizguerra told CNN affiliate KCNC that even long-time residents are at risk.
“Whatever place – I don’t care if it’s a hospital, I don’t care if it’s a school, I don’t care if it’s a church … I don’t care if some people have 40, 50 years here,” Vizguerra told KCNC. “Everybody is at risk.”
She said she wasn’t afraid of the potential consequences of her activism or of being caught in a mass deportation.
If she’s forced to return to Mexico, Vizguerra said, she will continue to organize and speak out.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Sara Weisfeldt, Rosa Flores and Hanna Park contributed to this report.
