Last night, at least one hundred people came together outside of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, GEO Detention Center in Aurora, Colorado to show their support for Jeanette Vizguerra, who was detained by ICE on Monday morning outside her place of employment. KGNU’s Denver Program Manager Dave Ashton attended the rally.
The nationally recognized Colorado civil rights activist is known for her decades of struggle in the immigrant rights movement. She’s been a community voice and immigration activist for more than 20 years since she arrived in the U.S. from Mexico City without documentation in the late 90s. She’s continually sought a path to citizenship.
She famously lived in a series of churches in Denver over many months to remain in this country, while fighting her own deportation. She was eventually granted stay in 2021 by the Biden administration.
Vizguerra was on a lunch break at her job when she was detained. The arrest led to a large pushback from activists, attorneys and the Vizguerra family. Her lawyer filed a petition yesterday morning to stop any deportation actions.
At the rally last night outside of the detention center, Vizguerra’s supporters rallied in the whipping icy wind to share stories of how Vizguerra has touched their lives, and to lend strength to her children as their mother sat in detention within earshot of their chants.
Supporters maintain that Vizguerra is being detained illegally, and that she has been targeted by the Trump administration because of her activism on behalf of migrant and immigrant rights.
You can find Vizguerra’s gofundme here.
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MorningMagazine_2025-03-19 Gabrielle Mendoza
