A CNN reporter called an illegal immigrant who pled guilty to a charge related to using a made-up Social Security number and who hid out in a church for three years during President Donald Trump’s first term a “pillar of the community” Wednesday.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Jeanette Vizguerra into custody while she was working at a Denver-area Target store Monday, according to USA Today. CNN reporter Gloria Pazmino told “CNN News Central” co-host Sara Sidner that Vizguerra was a “symbol of resistance” to Trump’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants when she hid in a church in 2017.
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“She sort of became a symbol of resistance, if you will, especially in immigrant communities during the first Trump Administration, when she took refuge inside that church in order to avoid being deported,”: Pazmino told Sidner. “Now, this all traces back to 2009, when Vizguerra was stopped by, a during a traffic stop over expired inspection stickers, and during that traffic stop, she was found to have a fake Social Security number on her. That set off a whole series of events for several years, where she has been fighting her deportation order, and it’s in 2016 that she takes refuge in the church.”
“She sort of becomes an international symbol, a big activist in the immigrant community in, in Denver and in recent days, I spoke to her daughter yesterday, Vizguerra told her that she had a feeling that she was being surveilled by law enforcement,” Pazmino continued. “She could tell that she was being followed on her way to work. And it was on Monday night while she was working at a local Target on a work break, that immigration officers surrounded her and took her into custody. Now she’s been in detention in Denver ever since.”
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Vizguerra was charged in connection with the Social Security number and pled guilty to “attempted possession of a forged instrument,” Pazmino reported in an article on CNN.com last updated Wednesday, while charges involving expired license plates and driving without a license or insurance were dropped.
Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston of Denver, who suggested in a Nov. 21 interview with the Denverite that local law enforcement and citizens of Denver could resist efforts by the Trump administration to deport illegal immigrants, denounced the arrest of Vizguerra.
“Jeanette Vizguerra is a mom of American citizens, a Target employee, a nonprofit leader and an immigration reform advocate with no violent criminal history,” he posted on X. “Her detainment is not about safety. This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents.”
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“She is a criminal and has had due process numerous times. She has lied and circumvented our immigration laws for over 15 years. She has a deportation order,” former ICE Denver Field Office Director John Fabbricatore posted on X in response to a statement by Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado condemning Vizguerra’s arrest. “She was ordered deported. Left to ‘visit her mom’ in Mexico and re-entered the US. She is a reinstatement case if she is no longer a final order. She has no right to see a judge as a re-entry. She continuously breaks the law because you and other democrats constantly coddle her.”
Vizguerra also posted an image of Trump being scalped on Facebook, according to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.
“Public officials in Denver are saying that this is not the type of immigration enforcement that Trump said he was going to focus on,” Pazmino claimed. “He said he was going to go after people who had a criminal background, violent people. This is not who Vizguerra is. She’s a pillar of the community, very important in the immigrant community in Denver.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
