March 18 (UPI) -- This story is updated to include comments and information provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra is being held at the Aurora, Colo., Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility following her arrest by ICE agents.
ICE agents arrested Vizguerra on Monday afternoon in the parking lot of a Target store, where she is employed in Aurora, and her family told local media they will remain outside the Aurora ICE detention facility for "as long as it takes."
"Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, 53, was arrested without incident March 17 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement," ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki told UPI in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
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"She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States" and "is a convicted criminal alien from Mexico who has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge," Kotecki said.
"She illegally entered the United States near El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 24, 1997, and has received legal due process in U.S. immigration court."
Kotecki said Vizguerra was convicted on a "forged instrument possession" charge on Feb. 26, 2009, and was released from ICE custody on March 11, 2009.
The Arapahoe County Court in Colorado convicted and fined Vizguerra for failure to display proof of insurance and driving without a license on March 27, 2009.
She filed for relief from immigration proceedings in 2011, but a federal immigration judge denied her petition and allowed her to voluntarily leave the United States.
Vizguerra in 2012 "self-removed" to Mexico in 2012 but was arrested in Candelaria, Texas, after illegally re-entering the United States, according to ICE.
Her re-entry is a felony offense that ICE officials referred to the U.S. District Court for Western Texas, where she was convicted of a misdemeanor violation for illegal entry into the United States and sentenced to unsupervised probation for a year on May 1, 2013.She entered ICE custody in El Paso, Texas, the following day and was subject to deportation, but the ICE facility released her a month later on a supervised status pending removal from the United States.
Vizguerra remained in the United States with the help of several stay orders, but in 2017 moved into the basement of the First Unitarian Society Church in Denver.
She remained there for three years to prevent being arrested by federal agents after the stay orders expired and immigration courts denied subsequent stay requests.
ICE lists five ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decisions against Vizguerra in 2019, but she obtained a one-year stay on Dec. 20, 2021, by the Enforcement and Removal Operations -- Denver, office.
ERO Denver renewed her stay order on Feb. 8, 2023, which expired in February 2024 and led to her arrest on Monday, according to ICE.
While the stay orders were in effect, Vizguerra used her experience to become a pro-immigration activist in the Denver area and founded the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition.
The coalition is a network of churches that harbor migrants who illegally entered the United States.
Vizguerra early Monday afternoon in a Facebook post shared a story by the Denver Post titled, "Denver ICE field office seeks to expand detention space by nearly 1,000 more beds."
She also shared information written in Spanish, but translated to "The Fifth Circuit issued the DACA injunction: Here's what you need to know."
Vizguerra has lived in the United States for 30 years and has four children. Some Colorado lawmakers want her released from custody, The Independent reported.
"There are serious concerns about ICE's actions to detain Jeanett Vizguerra," U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., wrote in a social media post. "Targeting a mother who has been an active part of our Colorado community for nearly three decades will not fix our broken immigration system or secure our border."
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., called Vizguerra a "mother a pillar in her community.:
Bennet said he is "deeply concerned" about her arrest by ICE agents without any due process and called on ICE to immediately release her and provide her with legal representation.
The pro-immigration American Friends Services Committee said ICE "acted without a valid deportation order and without notifying Ms. Vizguerra or her lawyers" when they took her into custody.
AFSC officials said ICE appears to be readying her to deport her without a deportation order in place, KDVR reported.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston called her arrest a "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin-style persecution of political dissidents."
"This is the great lie of the Trump administration," Johnston said. "This is not about safety. This is about political theater and political retribution."
He said her arrest and potential deportation does not make the United States safer, but instead makes it "lawless" and called the matter an "abuse of power."Vizguerra on Tuesday filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with the U.S. District Court for Colorado.
