The Trump administration finally nabbed an immigration activist who ran from federal agents for years and hid in churches where she was shielded from arrest.
Jeanette Vizguerra, a 53-year-old Mexican mom of four, was once named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People for hiding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a Colorado church.
After years of chasing her down, ICE finally got their hands on Vizguerra Monday when she was in the parking lot of the Target store in Denver where she worked, according to Jordan Garcia, another immigrant-rights activist, told the New York Times.
Former Denver ICE chief John Fabbricatore spent 15 years trying to collar the Vizguerra, whom he calls a “horrible and smug” criminal, who led the “abolish ICE movement” in Colorado.
“We’ve known about her for years and she’s gone through the whole immigration process,” Fabbricatore told The Post.
“This woman should’ve been removed in 2009,” he added.
She is now awaiting deportation in an ICE detention center in Aurora.
Vizguerra crossed the Texas border illegally in 1997, an ICE spokesperson told The Post.
She first found herself the target of ICE in 2009 during the Obama administration, when she was pulled over in Denver and found to have a fake Social Security card with her own name and birth date but someone else’s number on it.
At the time, the Mexican national claimed she didn’t know the number was someone else’s.
Two months later, Vizguerra was caught driving without a license and insurance, ICE said.
An immigration judge gave Vizguerra the opportunity to leave the US on her own terms, which she failed to do.
The next year, she left for Mexico while she was appealing her removal and then crossed again into the US illegally and was subsequently convicted of illegal entry, a felony which resulted in a year of probation, ICE said.
She again received a deportation order in 2013. But the Obama administration paused the order, allowing her to stay.
But when Trump entered office for the first time, her removal order was reinstated. However, her attorney “notified ICE that she would be taking sanctuary in the First Unitarian Society Church in Denver and would not be reporting to ICE as ordered,” the agency said.
Vizguerra moved into the basement of the Colorado church with her three youngest children in 2019, all of whom were born in the US, where they sought refuge on-and-off for the next three years.
She was even given the opportunity to leave on her own on a commercial flight through a deal Fabbricatore and her attorney agreed to, but she failed to depart and again went into hiding in another church, according to the former ICE chief.
“She was supposed to go to the Denver airport the next day instead of going, she goes into another church and claimed sanctuary in that other church, totally screwing over the agreement. So again, she lies and doesn’t remove herself,” said Fabbricatore.
She later tried to get a visa, claiming she was a victim of a crime, but her application was denied.
But when President Joe Biden came into power, the feds again paused her deportation until February 2024.
In response to Vizguerra’s latest arrest, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston accused the Trump administration of carrying out “Putin-style persecution of political dissidents.”
“This is not immigration enforcement intended to keep our country safe,” he said in a statement.
Vizguerra’s attorneys argued that ICE is trying to deport her based on an illegitimate order from her 2009 arrest.
“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,” one of the attorneys, Laura Lichter, said.
