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The Colorado immigration rights advocate allegedly in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been a target of the agency for years and has “had more than due process” in her fight against deportation, a former ICE boss told Denver7 Tuesday.
Advocacy groups and family members said Jeannette Vizguerra was being held at the ICE detention center in Aurora after they say she was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Denver7 has requested confirmation from ICE throughout the day Tuesday to no avail, but an agency spokesperson said more information would be shared.
Democratic leaders came to Vizguerra’s defense in the hours after her apparent detainment, with Denver Mayor Mike Johnston calling it a “Putin-style persecution of political dissidents” that “makes this country lawless.”
Former ICE Denver field office director John Fabbricatore painted a different picture in an interview with Denver7. He described Vizguerra as a woman with a rap sheet who has evaded deportation for years.
In 2009, Vizguerra faced seven counts, including identity theft, relating to her carrying a fake Social Security card. She ultimately pleaded guilty of second-degree forgery and served 23 days in jail, according to court records.
“At the time she was found deportable,” Fabbricatore said. “She fought that through the system, though, and applied for a [Board of Immigration Appeals] decision.”
He said Vizguerra “threw her appeals claim out by leaving the United States and then trying to sneak back in.” She was caught by Border Patrol and convicted of illegal entry in 2013.
“So, it’s about time that our immigration laws are looked at and taken seriously, as they should be, and she’s deported from the United States,” Fabbricatore said.
He also cited ICE’s history with Vizguerra as an apparent rebuttal to the claim made Tuesday by Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet that Vizguerra was detained “without due process.”
“I had a plan in place to have her removed, and the Biden administration stepped in and gave her a stay of deportation,” he said. “This woman has had more than due process. She’s gone through the process multiple times, had multiple opportunities […] has seen the immigration judge, had the ability to go through the [Board] of Immigration Appeals.”
She was given a two-year stay of deportation after Bennet and then-Rep. Jared Polis introduced so-called private bills to give her a path to become a permanent resident, according to The Associated Press. That stay was not renewed in 2019.
“What is coming out of politicians on the left right now is wrong,” Fabbricatore added. “For them to say that she has not had due process is a lie. For people like Mayor Mike Johnston to come on and say that ICE is holding her in abhorrent conditions, that she has not had due process, that we kidnapped her in the middle of the night – this is what comes out of the left’s mouth when they don’t like something.”
“She has had legal due process. ICE is doing their job, the lawful job that Congress has given them.”
Vizguerra famously sought sanctuary inside Denver churches to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration. Denver7 spoke with her more than two months into her stay at First Unitarian Church in 2017 – the same year she was named to TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world alongside President Trump.
She spoke to Denver7 anchor and social equity reporter Micah Smith in January after the Trump administration removed restrictions on ICE operations in “sensitive areas” like schools and churches.
She said at the time that she was creating a network of undisclosed safe spaces for those who need them.
