Immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, who was marching against the Trump administration the day before she was detained by ICE nine months ago, won the right to post bond and walk out of the Aurora detention center in time for Christmas.
Immigration Judge Brea Burgie granted Vizguerra a $5,000 bond on Sunday after hearing arguments Friday from Vizguerra’s legal team and a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It likely will take until Tuesday or Wednesday for the government to process the cash bond, Vizguerra’s supporters said.
Vizguerra’s fight to avoid deportation could continue for years, however.
Friday’s immigration hearing was ordered by U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang, who said in a Dec. 17 ruling that federal immigration officials must prove that Vizguerra is a flight risk or a danger to the community if they want to continue holding her in the detention center.
Vizguerra, who was picked up during a work break from her job at Target on March 17 and chained around the waist, gained international attention while seeking sanctuary in a Denver church in 2017 to avoid deportation during President Trump’s first term. She has lived in the United States since 1997, after crossing the border illegally, and has been fighting government efforts to deport her off and on since 2009.
She became a nationally known activist and in 2017 was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
At age 25, Vizguerra crossed the border from Mexico near El Paso, Texas, with her husband and one daughter after her husband was threatened at gunpoint in Mexico, she said. She had three more children who were born in the United States, and she is now a grandmother of three.
Vizguerra initially worked as a janitor in office buildings, becoming a member and organizer for SEIU Local 105, where she helped fight for better pay and benefits for custodial workers, according to the American Friends Service Committee. She also joined Rights for All People, and focused on improving relationships between immigrants and law enforcement. Vizguerra and her husband started a moving and cleaning company.
In 2009, Vizguerra was pulled over by an Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputy, a traffic stop that resulted in a conviction for “attempted possession of a forged instrument” after authorities determined she had a false Social Security number. The incident resulted in a judge’s order to remove her from the United States, and as she appealed, she became “one of the first individuals in Colorado to publicly share the circumstances of her deportation case,” according to the faith-based nonprofit American Friends Service Committee.
In 2017, after President Trump was elected to his first term, immigration authorities denied Vizguerra’s application for a stay of removal. Instead of reporting to ICE as ordered, she moved into First Unitarian Society Church in Denver because federal immigration agents were prohibited from making arrests inside churches.
Immigration authorities have called Vizguerra a “criminal illegal alien” and have said she would remain in custody until her removal from the country.