A federal judge in Denver ruled Friday that immigration officials cannot deport Jeanette Vizguerra, a well-known immigrant rights activist who was detained earlier this week, without a court hearing.
U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang sided with Vizguerra, who once took refuge in a Denver church for three years to avoid deportation, and said that the defendants — the warden of the ICE detention center in Aurora, ICE Denver field office interim director Ernesto Santacruz, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi — could not deport her as planned.
Vizguerra was picked up during her work break at Target on Monday, chained around her waist and taken to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora. ICE officials said this week that they planned to deport her.
In the federal court filing, Vizguerra’s attorneys argued that she had not been placed in removal proceedings and that reissuing her prior removal order from years ago was not sufficient under the law to justify her detention.
After nearly 30 years in the United States, Vizguerra, 53, was still involved in a years-long legal battle to stay in the country. Her visa application had been denied and she was appealing. The court filing was a writ of habeas corpus, a request that authorities bring her to court for a hearing, and argued there were no legal grounds to detain her while her immigration case is ongoing.
A hearing in her case has been set for March 28 in federal court.
In the ruling, the judge said that the case “raises complex issues” about the legality of Vizguerra’s arrest. In addition, Vizguerra’s attorneys also filed for relief in another federal court, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which raises questions about how rulings in both courts would “interplay,” Wang wrote.
“This Court respectfully concludes that an injunction is necessary to preserve the status quo and permit this Court the opportunity to thoughtfully consider the issues raised by both sides to achieve the ends of justice,” she wrote.
Wang also said that she determined that ICE’s reinstatement of a previous order to remove Vizguerra from the country was “procedurally flawed.”
Vizguerra’s supporters said they would “remain vigilant” in their efforts to help her and scheduled a rally for Monday to call for her release.
“We are relieved and cautiously optimistic in the wake of this order,” Jordan Garcia, program director for the faith-based nonprofit American Friends Service Committee, said in a news release. “The order gives Jeanette’s lawyers and the government, if they choose to come to the table, time to resolve Jeanette’s case without imminent removal or transfer hanging over her.”
More than 180 organizations from across the country and 78 elected officials and local leaders have called for Vizguerra’s release, said Raquel Lane-Arellano of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “We received an incredible outpouring of support,” she said.
Vizguerra crossed into the country from El Paso, Texas, in 1997. Her fight against deportation began in 2009, when she was pulled over by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and was later convicted in Arapahoe County of driving without a license and not having insurance.
Vizguerra’s last stay of deportation expired in February 2024, ICE said, leading to her arrest Monday.
Vizguerra’s time in the church, where federal agents were prohibited from arresting her, garnered international attention. She was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2017, and in the past few months, has spoken out in the media against President Trump’s immigration policies.