An undocumented mother of four who became a symbol of resistance as she fought for immigrant rights during the first Trump administration is now in federal custody, stoking fear and turmoil among fellow immigrants. Jeanette Vizguerra started making international headlines in 2017 when she sought refuge in the basement of a Colorado church to avoid deportation. For a total of three years, she remained holed up in the sanctuary. From the church’s basement, Vizguerra conceived the idea for the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition and helped encourage other churches to house people in situations similar to hers.
But on Monday, March 17, 2025, her activism was muzzled when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers showed up at the Denver-area Target where she worked. The cashier was taking a break outside the store when ICE swooped in and took her into custody. “From there she was put in a truck,” said her daughter Luna Baez, who was able to speak with her mother after the arrest. “The whole time she told me they were laughing at her.”
Vizguerra’s son, Roberto, added that his mother is being treated well at the detention facility. “She’s actually been calling us quite a lot,” he told CNN on Wednesday, noting that inside the facility, officers are “treating her with dignity and respect.” Vizguerra’s attorney is working to negotiate her release, Luna Baez said. “We haven’t gotten any answers from the Trump administration specifically,” he added.
An ICE spokesperson defended Vizguerra’s arrest in a statement to CNN on Wednesday. “Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, 53, was arrested without incident March 17 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States,” the spokesperson said. “Vizguerra is a convicted criminal alien from Mexico who has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge. 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.”
Vizguerra remains in custody at a detention facility in Aurora, Colorado, her attorney Laura Lichter told CNN. Petitions challenging her detention have been filed in Denver’s federal court and the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Vizguerra’s quest for the American dream started 28 years ago when she, her husband, and their daughter left Mexico and illegally entered the US in 1997. The couple would later have three more children, all born in the US. Like thousands of immigrants, the family came in search of safety and a better life. Vizguerra’s husband had been kidnapped three times during his work as a bus driver in Mexico City, the family said.
During their first decade in America, Vizguerra and her husband remained under the radarworking odd jobs and avoiding trouble. Vizguerra worked as a housekeeper, janitor, and house painter. Their obscurity ended in 2009 when Vizguerra was charged with not having a driver’s license or insurance and for having an expired license plate. Those charges were dismissed, court records show. She was also charged in connection with using a made-up Social Security number on a job application, and her then-attorney stated that she pleaded guilty to “attempted possession of a forged instrument.” The case resulted in heightened attention for Vizguerra in the eyes of immigration authorities, her attorney at the time said, and Vizguerra spent the next three and a half years appealing various orders to deport her.
“This all started over some expired stickers; it has developed and grown ever since,” Baez told CNN Tuesday. In September 2012, Vizguerra was in the middle of appealing her “voluntary departure” order from the US when tragedy led her to give up her appeal. Vizguerra learned her mother, whom she hadn’t seen in 15 years, was terminally ill in Mexico. If she left the US to be with her dying mother, Vizguerra would have to abandon her appeal, and she wouldn’t be able to return legally to the US. She chose to go see her mom.
“It was a very difficult decision,” Vizguerra said in 2017. But her mother died while Vizguerra was flying home. Vizguerra was stuck in Mexico for seven months, separated from her husband and children. She eventually paid a smuggler to sneak her across the border, but she was picked up by Border Patrol agents near Presidio, Texas. She was detained for several weeks before activists showed up in Texas to advocate for her release and lobbied politicians in Colorado.”
Since then, Vizguerra has appealed to stay in the country, including on a U visa a type of visa “set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity,” according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Hans Meyer, an attorney who represented Vizguerra, has said the mother should qualify for such a visa and that Vizguerra included testimonials from law enforcement as part of her application for one. CNN had not seen details of the criminal investigation Vizguerra reportedly helped with.
In 2017, Vizguerra’s request to stay in the country was denied, ICE spokesperson Shawn Neudauer said at the time. “Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez, from Mexico, has two misdemeanor convictions,” Neudauer said in a 2017 statement. “On Nov. 18, 2011, a federal immigration judge originally issued her final orders of deportation to Mexico. Based on these factors, Vizguerra-Ramirez is an ICE enforcement priority. Ms. Vizguerra-Ramirez’s request for another Stay of Removal was denied Feb. 15, 2017, by the ICE Denver Field Office.”
However, instead of turning herself in, Vizguerra stayed in the basement of the First Unitarian Society church for the next three years. ICE generally avoids arrests at “sensitive locations,” including places of worship. Vizguerra became an outspoken advocate for immigration reform. Time Magazine featured her as one of the 100 “Most Influential People” in 2017 a list that included Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, John Lewis, and Vladimir Putin.
“Jeanette moved to the U.S. to be a janitor, working as an outspoken union organizer and building her own company before becoming an advocate for immigration reform a bold and risky thing for an undocumented immigrant,” actor and activist America Ferrera wrote in Time Magazine.
“After fighting off deportation for eight years, she decided to go public with her story and sought refuge in the basement of a Denver church,” Ferrera wrote. “The current Administration has scapegoated immigrants, scaring Americans into believing that undocumented people like Jeanette are criminals. She came to this country not to rape, murder or sell drugs, but to create a better life for her family. 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.”
After Vizguerra left the church in 2020, she was not deported under the Biden administration. But now, after Vizguerra’s arrest during Trump’s second term, a former ICE official celebrated her arrest. “Finally! The Biden administration kept me from deporting Jeanette Vizguerra four years ago. She should have been deported in 2009 as well,” John Fabbricatore, a former field office director for ICE’s Denver office, wrote in a post on X.
“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!!!!”
Still, throngs of supporters spoke in Vizguerra’s defense after she was detained including Colorado’s governor and Denver’s mayor. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said Vizguerra “deserves due process” and called for ICE to focus on violent offenders. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, also a Democrat, described Vizguerra’s arrest as “Soviet-style political persecution.”
“This is not immigration enforcement. This is a mother of American citizens, a Target employee, and a non-profit founder,” Johnston said in a Facebook video. “This does not make our community safer. It makes it lawless.”
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition called Vizguerra’s detainment “cruel and unnecessary.” “Jeanette is a pillar of the community and has supported countless families,” the coalition said in a statement. “ICE had no reason to detain her — this cruel and unnecessary action is causing irreparable harm to her family and community.”
On Tuesday evening, March 18, 2025, Baez joined a crowd of supporters to rally for her mother’s release. “Not only is she a community member, but she’s a mother to four kids. Four kids that still depend on her,” Baez told the crowd. “And I just wanted to say that I need my mom back. I need her to come home.”
CNN’s Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.
