Federal judge to consider releasing immigration activist who took refuge in churches

DENVER — A federal judge in Denver is set to hear arguments Friday over whether an immigration and labor activist who took refuge in Colorado churches to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration should be freed from detention.

Jeanette Vizguerra was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 17 and is being held at its immigration detention facility in suburban Denver.

ICE says Vizguerra entered the U.S. from Mexico illegally in 1997 and is being held pending deportation. In a statement shortly after her arrest, ICE said the mother of four has a final deportation order and “has received legal due process in U.S. immigration court.”

But her lawyers say the order is not valid. They have filed a legal challenge asking U.S. District Judge Nina Wang to order federal authorities to release her.

Wang issued an order halting Vizguerra’s deportation while the legal challenge plays out.

ICE began trying to deport Vizguerra in 2009 during the Obama administration after she was pulled over in suburban Denver and found to have a fraudulent Social Security card with her own name and birth date but someone else’s number, according to a 2019 lawsuit she brought against ICE. Vizguerra did not know the number belonged to someone else at the time, the lawsuit said.

While a judge issued an order of removal against her, she also was given the option to leave the country voluntarily, which she ultimately did to try to see her mother before she died in 2012, her lawyers said in the current petition before Wang.

Since Vizguerra left on her own before later re-entering the U.S., there is no removal order for ICE to reinstate, the petition says.

It is not clear how soon Wang could rule. But she has noted the case raises “complex issues” about immigration law and she could not find a similar case.