Jeanette Vizguerra, who became a symbol for the immigrant rights movement during the first Trump administration, was detained by federal authorities on Monday, March 17, and now faces deportation.
Vizguerra is perhaps best known for taking sanctuary in a Denver church for nearly three months in 2017, allowing her to avoid potential deportation.
Now, she is the target of the Trump administration’s latest high-profile immigration case. Here’s what we know about Jeanette Vizguerra’s background.
When did Jeanette Vizguerra first come to the US?
Vizguerra came to the U.S. in 1997 from Mexico without authorization.
She lived in the country undocumented for more than a decade before she was arrested during a 2009 traffic stop for possessing a fake ID.
She returned to Mexico in 2012 to visit her dying mother, then was arrested again when she attempted to re-enter the U.S. Authorities let her stay in the country, but she was required to check in with immigration officials regularly.
She is the mother of three U.S. citizen children and an adult daughter who has had status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
She filed for a U-Visa, a special immigration allowance for people who have been the victim of crimes, and was waiting for a decision on that claim when Trump took office in January 2017. She received temporary protections through “stays” of deportation at the time.
Deportation was always possible during her regular check-ins with ICE. But it wasn’t until Trump took office, and quickly attempted to curb both legal and illegal immigration, that she and her supporters suspected it would actually happen.
Why did Jeanette Vizguerra take sanctuary in a Denver church?
Vizguerra had been living in the Denver metro for nearly two decades when she entered sanctuary, first in Denver's First Unitarian Society and then in First Baptist Church, on Feb. 15, 2017, just more than eight years ago.
Vizguerra feared that she would be deported at a scheduled check-in with immigration authorities, which had recently happened to other immigrants. She did not attend the check-in, and instead walked through the doors of immigration authorities. Immigration authorities then denied her request for another stay of deportation
Hans Meyer, her attorney at the time, said her resistance was the result of “the brutality and the stupidity of Trump's immigration enforcement plans.”
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock released a statement in support of her within hours of Vizguerra taking sanctuary.
Then-U.S. Rep. Jared Polis joined Vizguerra’s supporters in calling for a reprieve in her case. At the time, he said she was being targeted by a “rogue ICE agent” with a personal vendetta against her.
Why did Jeanette Vizguerra leave sanctuary?
Vizguerra was granted a new stay of deportation that allowed her to leave the church on May 12, 2017, after 86 days in sanctuary.
It wasn’t clear exactly what changed, but she likely benefited from a public campaign to help her and other immigrants seeking sanctuary That included private bills introduced in Congress by Polis, who was then a Congressman, and by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Those bills were meant to grant Vizguerra some time to work through her U-Visa case.
Her sanctuary stay made Vizguerra perhaps the best-known undocumented immigrant in Colorado. She had become a new face of the sanctuary movement. Others seeking sanctuary locally included Ingrid Encalada Latorre and, in earlier years, Arturo Hernandez Garcia.
Immigrants began seeking protection in churches in the 1980s, with the movement focused at the time on Central Americans seeking to escape mass violence and civil wars in their home countries. The Reagan administration had refused to grant asylum.
What happened next?
Vizguerra’s stay of deportation expired in early 2019. She tried raising money to hire new lawyers. Despite her ardent supporters and the coalitions she's worked with across the country, Vizguerra said at the time that she still struggles with her situation.
"I was feeling very emotional because I've been in this for a very long time and, oftentimes, despite being in community, I feel alone," she said in February 2019. "Everybody always tells me I'm so courageous, that I'm so valiant to be out there, but it's been difficult."
But in June 2019, ICE denied her application for a “U-visa,” and she took sanctuary at First Unitarian Society of Denver once again.
Though she left the church in 2020, her legal status has remained in limbo.
Vizguerra has been a regular face at protests in the years since. She has also been a vocal advocate in Facebook groups meant to spread the word about ICE’s actions in the metro area.
How was her activism received?
Vizguerra became famous for her activism.
Hundreds marched to support her after she entered sanctuary.
She was named one of Time Magazine’s “100 most influential people” in April 2017. Actress America Ferrera wrote her blurb on the list.
"Jeanette moved to the U.S. to be a janitor, working as an outspoken union organizer and building her own company before becoming an advocate for immigration reform — a bold and risky thing for an undocumented immigrant,” Ferrera wrote at the time.
Vizguerra accepted the honor on the front steps of the church where she was living in sanctuary.
