Jeanette Vizguerra: Immigrant who defied ICE

Jeanette Vizguerra, an immigrant from Mexico, arrived in the United States in 1997 with her husband and four children. She initially ran a moving and cleaning business. Due to her lack of permanent status, she regularly checked in with government representatives, who only granted six months at a time. In 2016, she received hopeful news of a one-year stay, which gave her hope for obtaining a green card.

After the 2016 election of the Trump administration, Jeanette's fears of deportation resurfaced. She sought sanctuary in the First Unitarian Church in Denver, which was not uncommon as seeking protection in a church dates back to Medieval Europe and regained attention in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. Despite being forced to stay in the church, Jeanette continued to speak out against the Trump administration's immigration policies.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock stated that what was happening to Jeanette was appalling and the result of a broken immigration system, adding that she is not a threat to the community but a mother of four and an active community member. The number of immigrants seeking refuge in churches nationwide doubled to 800 following Trump's election in 2016.

In May 2017, Jeanette and her husband, Arturo Hernandez Garcia, received a two-year stay of deportation just before the Trump administration changed the rules again. They celebrated Mother's Day at home and Arturo could attend his daughter's graduation ceremony. After her stay of deportation ran out, Jeanette sought sanctuary in the church again and filed a lawsuit against ICE for illegally trying to deport her without a judge's order.

In 2019, her application for a three-year visa was denied. After the Biden administration came into office in 2021, federal government announced they would block any deportation attempts for the next year. Despite the start of the second Trump Administration in 2025, religious leaders from various faiths began working together to protect local immigrants.