The Trump administration eventually caught an immigration activist who ran for years from federal agents and hid in a church where she was protected from arrest.
Jeanette Vizguerra, a 53-year-old Mexican mom of four, was named one of the former members Time's 100 Most Influential People Because he is hiding from Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at Colorado Church.
After chasing her for years, ICE finally got a Vizguerra Another immigration rights activist, Jordan Garcia, told the New York Times Monday, when she was in the parking lot of the Target Store in Denver, where she worked.
Former Denver Ice Chief John Fabricatore spent 15 years trying to choke Vizuguera, known as the “terrifying and self-righteous” criminal who led the “abolized ice movement” in Colorado.
“We've known her for years and she's gone through the entire immigration process,” Fab Bricatore told the Post.
“This woman should have been removed in 2009,” he added.
She is currently awaiting deportation at the Aurora Ice Detention Center.
Vizguerra illegally crossed the Texas border in 1997, an ICE spokesman told the post.
She was first discovered in 2009 to be an ice target when she was drawn to Denver and found out she had a fake Social Security card with her name and date of birth, but had someone else's number.
At the time, Mexicans claimed they didn't know she belonged to someone else.
Two months later, the Vizguerra was driving without a license and insurance, Ice said.
The immigration judge gave Vizguerra the opportunity to leave the United States on her own terms.
The following year, she left for Mexico while appealing for her removal, then again illegally went to the United States, before being convicted of illegal entry.
She was again expelled in 2013. However, the Obama administration suspended the order, allowing her to stay.
However, when Trump first took office, her removal orders were resurrected. But her attorney said, “She would notify the ice that she would take the sanctuary at Denver's first Unitarian Association Church and would not report it to the ice as ordered,” the agency said.
Vizguerra moved to the basement of Colorado Church in 2019 with three youngest children. All of them were born in the United States and sought evacuation for the next three years.
According to the former Ice Chief, she was even given the opportunity to leave herself on a commercial flight herself through a transaction agreed by Fab Bricatore and her lawyer, but her lawyer was unable to leave and once again went into hiding in another church.
“She was supposed to go to Denver airport the next day instead. She went to another church and claimed sanctuary at other churches, completely ruining the agreement.
She later tried to get a visa. She claimed to be a victim of the crime, but her application was denied.
However, when President Joe Biden came to power, the federal government once again suspending her deportation until February 2024.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston responded to Vizguerra's latest arrest, accusing the Trump administration of “putin-style persecution of political opponents.”
“This is not an immigration enforcement aimed at keeping our country safe,” he said in a statement.
Vizguerra's lawyers alleged that Ice was trying to expel her based on an illegal order from her arrest in 2009.
“If Ice tries to eliminate her without legal authority, it sends a horrifying message about the legitimate process and the agency's neglect to the rule of law,” said one of the lawyers, Laura Richter.
