Jeanette Vizguerra speaks at a press conference in Denver in 2019. Gabriela Flora / AFSC
DENVER (March 20, 2025) – On March 17, Jeanette Vizguerra – a mother, immigration activist, and community leader – was forcibly taken from her workplace in Colorado by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.. ICE acted without a valid deportation order. She is now being detained at a for-profit detention center run by GEO Group. Communities and organizations in Colorado and across the country are demanding her release.
On Tuesday night, friends and supporters rallied outside the detention center in Aurora, CO. Jeanette was able to call her daughter during the rally and send a message directly to the crowd, saying “I want you to know I’m not going to surrender. I’m going to keep fighting. And even if they remove me, I’m going to continue doing binational work. They are not going to silence my voice.”
Jeanette is the mother of four children – one of whom is a permanent resident, and the other three are U.S. citizens. A long-time Colorado resident, Jeanette is also a grandmother.
Upon her arrival in the United States in 1997, Jeanette soon became involved with labor organizing and immigrant rights. In 2009 she was thrown into deportation proceedings after a traffic stop. Jeanette chose to go public with her deportation case, among the first people in the country to do so. She rose to national prominence as an activist during the first Trump Administration, when her and her family took sanctuary in the First Unitarian Church in Denver. In 2017, she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. After receiving a stay of deportation and leaving sanctuary, Jeanette has continued to be a tireless leader in immigrant rights and social justice movements.
Her attorneys have raised serious legal errors and concerns that her due process rights are being violated. They have also filed a habeas corpus petition with the district court and a Petition for Review at the 10th circuit court. And activists and community members have been mobilizing since Jeanette was detained, holding vigil at the detention center, collecting petition signatures, and encouraging people across the country to call their members of Congress.
“Jeanette’s detention is irregular and illegal. Her lawyers are doing everything they can to secure her release, and we remain hopeful the government will rectify this wrong,” said Jennifer Piper, Colorado Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee and long-time collaborator of Jeanette’s. “But we know that millions of our loved ones and neighbors have been deported from the U.S. by a system stacked against them and their human rights. The courts may not save us, but we can save each other. If there is anything organizing with Jeanette has taught me it’s this: we the people make justice and democracy real with our actions and values. AFSC will continue to work alongside Jeanette and her family in pursuit of their demands – freedom and justice for all.”
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The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine Light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.