While still trying to recover from and explain the controversial execution of its recent mass arrests and deportations of as many as 250 Venezuelan immigrants, President Trump signed off on a single arrest far away from the tempest swirling in Washington and smack in the middle of Denver.
Jeanette Vizguerra, a 53-year-old mother of four, including three who are U.S. citizens and one with permanent resident status, was taken into custody by immigration authorities last Monday, Saint Patrick’s Day, outside of the Denver Target store where she worked. Since then, she has been held in ICE custody in Aurora.
Vizguerra, who first became known in Denver in 2017 when she avoided deportation by seeking sanctuary in a Denver church, has drawn support from both immigration activists and public officials, including Colorado’s Attorney General and Denver’s Mayor.
“Detaining a grandma does not appear to be about public safety,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. Weiser, who often speaks about his own family’s detention in Nazi prison camps, said Vizguerra’s arrest seems to have been made with no regard for “due process.”
“This is not immigration enforcement,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. “This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents.” Vizguerra’s arrest, said the mayor, appears to be more theater than an honest effort to “keep our country safe.”
While ICE’s single arrest of Vizguerra took place in the middle of the country, it also made a full, front-page splash on Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post. The arrest was also a tiny puzzle piece of Trump’s promise to wage an all-out battle against illegal immigration.
ICE’s sweeping arrests earlier this month, however, created as much controversy as it did comfort for the President and his policy.
Before the arrests, Trump signed—though later denied signing—an executive order invoking the Alien and Seditions Act of 1798. The arcane law gives a president the power to detain non-citizens during times of war. It also authorizes arrests without providing a person due process, constitutionally afforded legal rights accorded to all persons being arrested.
The most recent application of the 18th century law was during WWII when the U.S. rounded up and detained Japanese Americans, including detaining several thousand at southeastern Colorado’s Camp Amache near the town of Granada.
Trump’s order targeted individuals identified as members of Tren de Aragua and MS13, both Latin American criminal gangs. But while some of those arrested may have been gang members, critics say a number were detained based on nothing more than tattoos, including tattoos of favorite soccer teams, musical artists and the number “23,” which is more homage to basketball icon Michael Jordan than gang membership.
As the ICE prisoners were on their way to the El Salvadoran mega prison where they remain, a Washington federal judge ordered the flights to return to the country while also ordering another plane full of prisoners to remain on the ground. The administration ignored his order.
U.S. District Judge Jeb Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to explain why it failed to honor his order of having the aircraft carrying the men to return.
But while not responding to the Obama-appointed judge’s order, Trump officials have both pushed for Judge Boasberg’s impeachment and bullishly ridiculed his or any court’s authority to comply.
“This is exactly the situation I thought would come to a head from the (Justice Department) lawyers,” said Bill Lucero, retired Colorado Presiding Disciplinary Judge. They are acting at the behest of Attorney General Pam Bondi and they “have an overriding allegiance to Trump and not the Constitution or their ethical duties.” In the past, said Lucero, “you could not thumb your nose at a judge and expect good things to happen.”
Trump’s immigration czar Tom Homan underscored Lucero’s words in a defiant and fiery response in a recent Fox & Friends interview. “We’re not stopping! I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what they left thinks. We’re coming,” for undocumented immigrants.
As Vizguerra awaited deportation back to Mexico, a federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney General’s office to stay any deportation of her “unless and until this Court or the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacates this Order.”
Vizguerra’s ICE arrest sparked almost immediate reaction with protests outside the Aurora detention center. Former State Board of Education member and Greeley resident Rhonda Solis, in a telephone interview, said Vizguerra’s arrest was a signal to all immigrants.
“They wanted to send a message” with Vizguerra’s arrest, said Solis. Vizguerra has been a long time ICE “target,” said the education and civil rights activist. But arresting and deporting people like the 53-year-old grandmother, she predicted, will have a long range, negative ripple effect.
Too many people, Solis said, depend on immigrants, including in agriculture, a mainstay in Solis’s Greeley and Weld County. “People need to wise up…we’re all interconnected, and we will all pay a heavy price for this.”
Vizguerra, who is being represented by attorneys from the American Friends Service Committee, sent a message to her supporters that was delivered outside the ICE detention center. Through her daughter, Vizguerra said her resolve to fight for immigrant rights, whether here or from Mexico.
“I’m not going to surrender,” she vowed to supporters. “I’m going to keep fighting…They are not going to silence my voice.”
