In Colorado, dozens of people gathered for a rally Tuesday evening demanding the release of longtime immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra, who was ambushed during a work break on Monday and taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. She is now being jailed at an ICE detention center in Aurora run by the private prison company GEO Group. In a phone call from inside detention, Vizguerra shared this message with supporters who held a vigil outside the ICE jail Tuesday. 

Jeanette Vizguerra: “I want you to know I’m not going to surrender. I’m going to keep fighting. And even if they remove me, I’m going to continue doing binational work, and they are not going to silence my voice.”

Jeanette Vizguerra drew national attention in 2017 when she took sanctuary at a Denver church along with her four children, three of whom are U.S.-born, to avoid deportation. She’s lived in the United States for nearly 30 years since fleeing Mexico City in 1997 with her husband and her then-6-year-old daughter.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston condemned her arrest as a “Putin-style persecution of political dissidents.” Later in the broadcast, we’ll go to Colorado to speak with Jeanette Vizguerra’s daughter, Luna Báez Vizguerra.