Latest news with #LunaBaezVizguerra
CBS News
05-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Denver immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra 's daughters accept RFK award while she remains in ICE custody
Denver immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra was honored with a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award on Thursday. Two of her children traveled to the nation's capital to accept the award on her behalf. Vizguerra's detention by ICE is approaching 12 weeks. For Luna Baez Vizguerra, seeing her mother's release from the GEO facility in Aurora would be the best award of all right now. Jeanette Vizguerra was honored with a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the award was accepted by her daughter Luna Baez Vizguerra. RFK Human Rights Award "I'm just very desperate, very frustrated, very eager for her to be out," said Baez Vizguerra. And yet, she's proud her mom now joins the ranks of global leaders recognized for "embodying Senator Robert F. Kennedy's belief in the power of courage to overcome injustice." Baez Vizguerra said, "They have taken some form of risk, some form of repercussion, people that play it safe, people that don't typically risk themselves, they don't go ahead and receive this." Jeanette Vizguerra entered the U.S. without authorization in 1997. In 2009, after a traffic stop, she was convicted of attempted possession of a forged instrument for using a fake Social Security number. Three of her four children were born in the U.S. Vizguerra gained national prominence in 2017 when she took refuge inside a church. Luna Baez Vizguerra accepted the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award on behalf of her mother Jeanette Vizguerra. RFK Human Rights Award "She chose to highlight and look at the injustices that every marginalized group faces in this country," said her daughter Luna. Luna's grown up seeing her mom's work as a union organizer, connecting other immigrants to resources, and speaking out against the immigration system she says is unjust in the way it separates families. ICE said Vizguerra is "a convicted criminal alien from Mexico who has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge. She has received legal due process in U.S. Immigration Court." But Vizguerra and her family believe it's her advocacy that caught the attention of immigration enforcement agents, who picked her up in March outside her job at Target. Jeanette Vizguerra, immigrant rights activist, poses for a portrait at First Unitarian Society of Denver in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday. January 26, 2021. Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images "She is a political prisoner," said Baez Vizguerra. "The reason that she was detained was because she is so outspoken. The typical person isn't posted on the ICE page in shackles because of a traffic infraction." Vizguerra's attorneys have a pending First Amendment free speech claim seeking her release. Baez Vizguerra said, "It's frustrating that they arrested her in the way that they did that. It's still targeted when, within our Constitution, the First Amendment is so highly spoken on. This is a country that was built on that." Last week, Vizguerra's attorneys filed a new motion to obtain her release on bond. In a recent filing, lawyers for ICE said that noncitizens cannot challenge a removal order on the basis that enforcement is selective.
CBS News
30-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Lawyers seek release of Jeanette Vizguerra, Colorado immigration activist, on bond
Lawyers for detained immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra are asking that she be released on bond or by an injunction pending a final judgement of her petition for habeas corpus, which challenges the legality of her detention. In a new filing in the federal district court of Colorado, her lawyers are requesting "her immediate release pending adjudication of her petition." While her case drags out in federal court, they say the harm to her, her family and community outweighs any harm her release would pose to the government. Jeanette Vizguerra ICE Vizguerra was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement more than 10 weeks ago. She is being held at the GEO facility in Aurora. Her lawyers say her activism and promotion of immigrant rights is viewed as a "threat to government overreach" and her arrest is a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. Vizguerra has been in the United States for more than thirty years and has three children who were born here. "I'm just very desperate, very desperate for her to be out, you know, in whatever way possible, it's very scary for her to be in custody," said Vizguerra's daughter Luna Baez Vizguerra. "I never know what they might be capable of doing to her, more so because she does have a little bit more attention towards herself." In the new filing, Vizguerra provides a declaration where she described the effects of her detention, "I am worried about the impact on my kids, grandkids, and ex-partner, all of whom rely on me...I particularly fear for my ex-partner and my youngest daughter, who struggle the most when I am separated from them…Detention makes it nearly impossible for me to be the activist and organizer that I am, and not being able to be there for the community with so many difficult things coming from this administration, so much terror and confusion is devastating." In a recent filing, government lawyer's wrote, "The Supreme Court has determined that noncitizens cannot challenge the enforcement of a removal order based on a selective enforcement theory. Thus, Petitioner does not have a viable First Amendment retaliation challenge here." Upon her arrest on March 17, ICE issued a statement saying, "Vizguerra is a convicted criminal alien from Mexico who has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge. She illegally entered the United States near El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 24, 1997, and has received legal due process in U.S. immigration court." The government has 21 days to respond to the motion for bond.
