A federal judge issued an order attempting to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting an illegal alien and anti-ICE activist who avoided being removed from the country for years by living in a church.
Jeanette Vizguerra, a 53-year-old Mexican national and anti-ICE activist, was arrested this week in Colorado after she had successfully avoided deportation for 15 years, hiding out in a church where she was shielded from arrest.
Now United States District Judge Nina Wang has issued an injunction intended to prevent ICE from deporting Vizguerra. Wang is asking the federal government to “show cause” and explain why she shouldn’t grant Vizguerra’s request to be released.
Vizguerra’s attorneys have filed a petition claiming that their client has not been presented with an order of removal from ICE, though the federal law enforcement agency says that a federal immigration judge has issued a final order of deportation for the woman.
“No lawful removal order exists, and ICE would have known this for years. If ICE proceeds with trying to remove her without legal authority, it sends a chilling message about the agency’s disregard for due process and the rule of law,” the illegal alien’s attorneys say.
ICE explained in a statement that Vizguerra has received due process and now faces a removal order. “Vizguerra 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,” the law enforcement agency said in a statement.
“We’ve known about her for years and she’s gone through the whole immigration process,” former Denver ICE Chief John Fabbricatore said, also saying that she led the “abolish ICE” movement in Colorado. “This woman should’ve been removed in 2009,” he added.
Vizguerra, who Time Magazine called one of the 100 most influential people in 2017, was pulled over in Denver in 2009 and found to have a fake Social Security card that included her name, but someone else’s number. She was caught again two months later for driving without insurance or a license.
Vizguerra is now being held at an ICE detention center in Aurora, Colorado.
