Vows to keep fighting for her rights and for others
Longtime immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra was released Monday from an ICE jail after nearly 10 months in a Colorado detention center.
Vizguerra, 54, an immigrant woman who became a national symbol of resistance to forced deportation during President Trump’s first term was arrested by ICE agents in Denver on March 17.
The Denver Post reported that Vizguerra’s family posted $5,000 bail for the detained activist following a Sunday order by an immigration judge opened the door to Vizguerra’s temporary release. She was released without monitoring after the judge found she posed no flight risk or danger to the community.
She was seized by ICE agents during her work break. A judge ordered her detention was unconstitutional.
Vizguerra said she is “very emotional” and glad to be reunited with her children, and plans to keep fighting for her rights and for others.
Her supporters have said her detention was intended to try and silence people across the country, not only immigrant leaders, but also US citizens.
Vizguerra spoke at Pueblo’s Cinco de Mayo celebration in 2024. She drew national attention in early 2017 when she and her three children moved into a church basement in Denver seeking protection from deportation. Under President Biden, she received a one-year stay of deportation in 2021.
“For many years, we have been used as a hook in their immigration policy,” Vizguerra said in Pueblo in 2024 through a translator. “We are tired, that is enough. We need to stop that. In the 30 years that I have been in the United States, I worked hard and paid taxes — often more than most Americans.”
In 2017, Visquerra was named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Wow! Thank God! Thank you, Cuc, for the story. No TV channels even mentioned it. This is so important, not only for Jeanette, but also for other. There was no warrant for Jeanette’s arrest, like many others.