TIME journal reported one in all its 2017 TIME100 listees, an unlawful immigrant who crossed into the USA on Christmas Eve in 1997, has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“In 1997, Jeanette Vizguerra left Mexico City for Colorado, where she became a janitor and immigration reform advocate,” the Wednesday article in TIME learn. “Twenty years later, she was one of the most influential people in the world.”
On Monday, Vizguerra was reportedly arrested by ICE at a Goal the place she was employed within the Denver space.
Jeanette Vizguerra, who’s within the U.S. illegally and took sanctuary at First Baptist Church of Denver, holds her son Santiago on Might 12, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. Vizguerra was arrested and detained by immigration authorities this week. (Getty Pictures)
She was recognized to remain in church buildings to say shelter from ICE enforcement, a coverage from former President Biden’s administration that allowed unlawful immigrants to remain in church buildings or colleges to keep away from arrest, which the Trump administration revoked on Jan. 21, 2025.
In TIME’s report on Vizguerra’s arrest, it quoted the 2017 TIME100 record profile of Vizguerra that was written by actress America Ferrera.
“Jeanette moved to the U.S. to be a janitor, working as an outspoken union organizer and building her own company before becoming an advocate for immigration reform—a bold and risky thing for an undocumented immigrant,” Ferrera’s tribute to Vizguerra learn.
“The current Administration has scapegoated immigrants, scaring Americans into believing that undocumented people like Jeanette are criminals. She came to this country not to rape, murder or sell drugs, but to create a better life for her family… This is not a crime. This is the American Dream,” the 2017 article continued, referring to President Donald Trump‘s first time period in workplace.
Migrants who had been deported from the U.S. stand on El Chaparral pedestrian border bridge in Tijuana, Mexico, late Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Felix Marquez/AP)
Along with crossing into the USA illegally, Vizguerra was reportedly stopped by police in 2009 and charged with driving and not using a license, insurance coverage, or registration, however these expenses had been ultimately dismissed.
In 2012, Vizguerra “self-removed” to Mexico, earlier than illegally reentering the USA and was arrested April 22, 2013, by the U.S. Border Patrol.
In a put up on X on Wednesday, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston known as Vizguerra “a mom of American citizens, a Target employee, a nonprofit leader and an immigration reform advocate with no violent criminal history.” He then blasted the Trump administration, saying, “Her detainment is not about safety. This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents.”
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Fox Information Digital reached out to ICE, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Colorado, Laura Lichter, who’s reportedly representing Vizguerra, in addition to Johnston, however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
