Federal prosecutors defend ICE's ability to deport Colorado immigration advocate Jeanette Vizguerra

Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, The Denver Post on Mar 25, 2025

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DENVER — Federal prosecutors defended U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to deport Jeanette Vizguerra in a new legal filing this week, but argued the petition challenging her detention is being litigated in the wrong court.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado filed its response to the immigration advocate’s petition for habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in Denver on Monday evening; a hearing on the case is set for Friday.

Vizguerra, 53, was detained by ICE agents on March 17 at her workplace, a Target store in metro Denver. The next day, her legal team filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which is a request for a court to determine the validity of a person’s detention.

Vizguerra is currently being held at the agency’s detention facility in Aurora, which is run by private contractor GEO Group.

The government’s response, obtained by The Denver Post on Tuesday, argues the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has exclusive jurisdiction over these types of cases. Vizguerra’s lawyers have also filed a petition for review in the 10th Circuit.

President Donald Trump’s administration is asking U.S. District Judge Nina Wang, who ordered ICE not to deport Vizguerra or move her out of state while the court considers legal arguments, to deny Vizguerra’s challenge to a removal order that was reinstated in 2013.

The U.S. attorneys’ response says that, in the years since the removal order was issued, Vizguerra and ICE “have acted on the understanding that an order of removal exists” because she has sought and received stays of removal.

“At no time during all those years did she object to or challenge the reinstatement order,” the government attorneys wrote.

Federal prosecutors also contest that Vizguerra’s then-lawyer declined to respond to the 2013 reinstatement order.

Laura Lichter, Vizguerra’s lead attorney, counters that any removal order is invalid because ICE didn’t follow procedural standards, including informing Vizguerra about her right to challenge it.

“The government wants to litigate around the edges,” Lichter said in a Tuesday statement. “But the center cannot hold. There is no valid removal order. There never was.”

A declaration by ICE deportation officer Damian Morales, an employee of the Denver field office, was also submitted by the federal prosecutors. He outlined a timeline of Vizguerra’s immigration records, beginning with her conviction of attempted possession of a forged instrument — a fake Social Security card — in 2009.

That year, an immigration court started Vizguerra’s removal proceedings, although she was released from ICE custody after paying bond, Morales said. Vizguerra’s application for cancellation of removal was denied in 2011, and a judge granted her voluntary departure from the U.S., according to Morales.

Vizguerra filed another appeal, and, while it was pending in 2012, she traveled to Mexico — leading to the dismissal of her appeal in 2013, Morales said. Then Vizguerra was arrested for illegally crossing the southern border again in April 2013, but she was released in June under an order of supervision, the declaration reports.

After being detained again by ICE in July 2013, Vizguerra filed a stay of deportation, which was denied, Morales said. He added that ICE issued a decision to reinstate a prior removal order and sent it to Vizguerra’s lawyer, who declined to respond.

The next month, the agency reconsidered Vizguerra’s stay of deportation and granted it, Morales said. It went on to grant her next five applications for stays of deportation, submitted from 2014 through 2016, according to the declaration.

However, the agency denied Vizguerra’s seventh stay of deportation in 2017, which resulted in her decision to shelter in two Denver churches to avoid deportation during Trump’s first term. The move made her a nationally recognized figure.

In 2021 and 2023, ICE granted two more stays of removal filed by Vizguerra, with her last one expiring in February 2024, Morales said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado declined to comment on ongoing cases. The office is representing the respondents to Vizguerra’s petition, including Aurora ICE processing center warden Dawn Ceja, ICE field office director Robert Guadian, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

“This is why we are fighting this case: Jeanette is being detained without lawful basis and denied her right to due process under the law,” Lichter said.