Jennifer Piper / AFSC
DENVER, CO (December 22, 2025) Today, Jeannette Vizguerra-Ramirez walked out of the for-profit GEO Immigration Detention Center into the loving arms of her family. A federal immigration judge ordered her release on bond after finding that the Department of Homeland Security failed to justify her continued detention. Ms. Vizguerra-Ramirez’s family posted the bond with support from the Immigrant Freedom Fund. She will address her community of supporters at noon on Tuesday, December 23 at the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse at 901 19th Street in Denver.
In a statement prior to her release, Vizguerra-Ramirez wrote, “I need to return home, not only for my family and my grandchildren, but also for my community, which needs me. They need a strong, solid leader to guide them, to direct them, to show them how we must continue this fight. I said it in the past, and I say it now: they will not silence me. No matter where I am, I will continue to defend my values and my community.”
Vizguerra-Ramirez rose to national prominence as an activist during the first Trump Administration, when she 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 continued to be a tireless leader in immigrant rights and social justice movements. On March 17, ICE agents re-arrested her at her workplace and she has been held at a for-profit detention center ever since.
Her release comes after months of advocacy by her family and community. “We will continue to stand with Jeanette and against any administration that tries to jail and deport our communities and families,” said Jordan Garcia, Co-Director of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Colorado. “Jeanette – and many others – have been deprived of their freedom for the simple act of speaking truth to power. But their attempts to silence us did not and will not succeed. Today as we welcome Jeanette home we are more united and determined than ever to work for a world where everyone’s rights are respected and we all have what we need to thrive.”
Vizguerra-Ramirez was held for nine long months inside the facility, which has faced extensive criticism for its lack of adequate health care and substandard food. She has lived in the United States since 1997, is the mother of four U.S. citizen children, a grandmother, and has deep ties to the Colorado community. She remains in ongoing immigration proceedings, which will continue while she is released under supervision.
Vizguerra-Ramirez is ex for the federal habeas litigation that led to the bond hearing that was brought with the support of a largely pro bono legal team, including Lichter Immigration, the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law’s Immigration Policy and Law Clinic.
The Court ordered Vizguerra-Ramirez released on a $5,000 bond and explicitly declined to impose electronic monitoring, finding it unnecessary given her history of compliance. Electronic monitoring in the immigration system is executed by BI, Inc. – a subsidiary of GEO Group, Inc,; the multi-national publicly traded prison company that runs the facility where she was being held. Vizguerra’s legal team argued that to place an ankle monitor, watch or app as a requirement of supervision would hamper her associations and free speech.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado ruled that Ms. Vizguerra-Ramirez’s detention had become unconstitutionally prolonged and required a custody hearing. The court also noted serious constitutional concerns raised by Ms. Vizguerra-Ramirez, including whether her detention was impermissibly motivated by retaliation for her longstanding and highly visible community activism protected by the First Amendment. The bond order does not resolve Vizguerra-Ramirez’s underlying challenges to her removal, which remain pending.
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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.