Denver Mayor Mike Johnston blasted the Trump administration for conducting what he said is “Soviet-style political persecution of political dissidents” by arresting a high-profile Colorado immigration advocate.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Jeanette Vizguerra, who is undocumented, outside her job at a Target in Aurora on Monday. Vizguerra, a mother of four and a grandmother, gained prominence in 2017 when she took refuge in churches during the last Trump administration, when places of worship were off-limits for arrests by immigration enforcement officers.
In his second term in the White House, President Donald Trump has revoked that policy and now allows arrests at schools, houses of worship or hospital facilities.
Johnston compared Vizguerra’s arrest to Soviet political persecutions “under the guise of immigration enforcement” at a morning news conference. He made similar remarks on social media, calling it “Putin-style” political persecution.
“This is a mom of American citizens, who works at Target and has started a community nonprofit. This is not something that makes our community safer, in my mind. I think it makes our community more lawless,” Johnston said.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to emailed questions about Vizguerra’s arrest.
Vizguerra has been an activist against detention and deportation for years after having taken refuge in the churches in 2017. Her activities have included protesting outside the Aurora detention center. She was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in 2017 for her immigration advocacy in an article written by actor America Ferrera.
“She shed blood, sweat and tears to become a business owner, striving to give her children more opportunities than she had. This is not a crime. This is the American Dream,” Ferrera wrote.
Vizguerra, a resident of Colorado for more than 30 years, also had worked as a labor organizer with the Service Employees International Union and volunteered with several groups, including the Aurora Neighborhood Watch Program and the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition, according to a news release issued by several community groups. She also founded community groups such as Dreamer’s Mothers in Action-Colorado and Abolish ICE Denver, the release said.
“It is clear she is being targeted for her community organizing and critiques of the deportation system as well as her outspoken defense of human rights,” it said.
More recently, she had slowed her protesting and become more active in assisting in workshops teaching immigrants their rights, helping them make family plans in case of deportation and other activities, said Jordan Garcia, a spokesman for the American Friends Service Committee, for which she also volunteered. Three of her children are U.S. citizens, and one is a legal permanent resident.
John Fabbricatore, a former ICE field director, celebrated Vizguerra’s arrest. “Finally!” he wrote on X. “The Biden administration kept me from deporting Jeanette Vizguerra 4 years ago. She should have been deported in 2009 as well. She hid in a church the first time Trump was President. She is a criminal, hates Trump, and is an open-borders, abolish-ICE advocate. Bye!!!!”
Vizguerra was convicted in 2009 of using fake documents. A judge issued a deportation order for her in 2011 but allowed her to remain as long as she checked in with ICE periodically. Nervous about what might happen under the first Trump administration, she took refuge in the Denver churches.
Her arrest follows that of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and a legal resident who engaged in pro-Palestinian protests last summer. Khalil has said in court documents that he was targeted because of his constitutionally protected speech.
