May 25, 2025 • 28 mins
“I am a political prisoner,” Jeanette Vizguerra said in an exclusive interview from inside a detention facility. She’s been a symbol of resistance for the immigrants rights movement since 2017 when she was recognized as one of Time’s 100 most influential people, after seeking sanctuary in a church to avoid deportation.
She remained an outspoken activist and in March 2025 she was detained by ICE.
In this episode we also hear from others who took sanctuary years ago, but unlike Jeanette, want to remain in the shadows fearing retaliation. What is sanctuary now that churches are no longer protected?
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
One summer afternoon in twenty seventeen, Maddy was driving down
the main highway into her small town. And that's all
we're going to tell you about where she lives, because
we're trying to protect her.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I was looking at the mountains, the landscape.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Even after living in this small town for thirty years,
she still admired the views.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Just that sense of physical freedom, being able to see
all this beauty.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
She'd made the drive hundreds of times to attend her
local church or to sell her well known homemade damalis,
but this time the drive felt different.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I was afraid. I was really really afraid. What if
they were following me? I got just into thispanic mode.
What if they're are seeing what am I doing? Seeing
what am I packing up?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Maddy had her clothes packed in suitcases and boxes inside
the car because she was on her way to move
in to a church to live on the church grounds
in order to avoid an imminent order of deportation. Mighty
was one of almost fifty people, mostly women, who took
refuge inside churches across the United States during the first
(01:16):
Trump administration.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Houses of worship are stepping up to offer sanctuary to
undocumented immigrants. The force behind this effort is the fear
of deportation in light of President Trump's executive orders.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
They were part of what's known as the second wave
of the sanctuary movement, which was revived in twenty fourteen.
It's a movement that started in the nineteen eighties when
places of worship provided shelter for Central American migrants fleeing
civil wars, and all of this was inspired by the
underground Railroad.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
It is the concept of religious sanctuary churches giving refuge
to undocumented Salvadorans and Guahamalans, two hundred and seventy churches
in thirty three states using an underground network.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Now, the church couldn't offer mighty absolute safety from deportation
in twenty seventeen, but back then there was internal guidance
from the Obama administration that essentially told ICE agents, Hey,
you should not be going inside schools or hospitals or
places of worship. The directive called these places sensitive locations
(02:23):
and that they should be avoided unless absolutely necessary in
a matter of national security. Knowing this, Madi and others
across the country made the choice to seek refuge by
living inside the church grounds.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I was spraying about the right decision.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
The minute she arrived at the church in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I just had the tension every day from people in
the community. Different news stations all over the country were
coming every day.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And almost every night, someone from the country would volunteer
to spend the night on a mattress, sleeping next to
the door.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I was always feeling safe during.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
The Biden administration, like many others who had taken sanctuary,
Madi eventually moved out of the church. Her legal status
hadn't really changed, but it seemed like she was no
longer a priority for deportation. But on day one of
the second Trump administration, that sense of safety disappeared. The
(03:33):
new order from President Donald Trump reversus a policy that
barred ICE agents for making arrests and what are considered
to be sensitive areas.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
And that means immigration officials can now target undocumented immigrants
in churches.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Every time I have to step out, I just pray.
I'm like telling myself to be watchful and alert. I'm
constantly alert, but always afraid. I barely go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And here is what made her fear even worse. The
Trump administration has made it clear that it will seek
outright revenge against anyone who has defied his authority. Maddy
knows this because she's seen how the government targeted another woman.
The most visible face of the sanctuary movement in the
(04:21):
entire country.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
A Denver woman who's font de importation for decades, is
then the custody of immigration and customs enforcements in Aurora.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Jeanetteiscertta is an activist for immigration rights, and back in
twenty seventeen, she was recognized as one of Time Magazine's
one hundred most Influential People.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I heard about Janet that same night at midnight. I
was getting ready to go to sleep, and then I
watched the news and I was like, oh my god,
this is so scary. I mean, you start feeling like
they are watching you, like they are looking for you.
I couldn't even sleep that night. I was remaining locked
in my place a whole week.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He lives in constant vigilance. In fact, you should know
Madi is not her real name, and the voice you're
hearing is someone recreating Madi's recorded interview word for word.
Madi has a very real fear of being deported.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I feel trapped, like I've been cornered.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
From Futuro Media and PRX It's Latino USA. I'm Maria
Jossaan on today's episode, an exclusive interview with Janette Visguerra,
the activist once named one of Time one hundred's most
influential people. We hear from her inside the immigration detention
facility where she is being held. Plus, we're going to
(05:49):
take a look at the sanctuary movement today. What happens
when undocumented people who once put themselves in the public
eye in order to avoid deportation are fearing revenge from
the Trump administration.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
I'd just like to pray for the people in our
community when are saying people in the darkness and no one.
Speaker 7 (06:13):
Has to play.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's a Sunday afternoon in North Philly. Mass is wrapping
up at Kensington Ministries and community members are passing around
the mic. It's a small group, but it's a classic
scene in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city.
The parishioners are black, Latinos and Latinas. Reverend Adan Marina
(06:38):
is sitting at the front of the room. He's listening
to the members of his congregation.
Speaker 8 (06:43):
That's prayer.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
From world people who are free.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
He's a staple in this community, the kind of guy
who knows what's going on with everyone.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
I've got folks named demm.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
His church is in the heart of Philadelphia, the city
that under the first Trump administration saw more people take
sanctuary in churches than any other major US city. But
today things look different.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
I'm worried about folks here that I know. You know,
I have a young couple from Venezuela. I haven't seen
them since the deportations started under this administration. I have
one young lady who I think last week was the
first time I'd seen her in three months. In her neighborhood,
the raids were taking place, so she told me she
was in her apartment and hiding for three months, couldn't leave,
(07:47):
didn't want to leave because folks were getting arrested.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
This is something Reverend Avan has heard before. Back during
the Obama administration, Reverend Avan got a call to open
the doors of his parents to a local Hunduran mother
who was at imminent risk of deportation.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
I got the call, and I knew from the get go, right,
this is where you have to practice what you preach.
This is where your faith is acted upon.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
He's also Hunduran and his parents fled the country seeking
safety from political persecution.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
This is my story in a sense. So how could
I have said no? I would have said no, I'd
have felt like a hypocrite. I would have felt like
a liar.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Reverend Adan has protested immigration policies of every single administration
over the last two decades, and he sees Trump's policies
as a new chapter in an old story. But this
time it is different. Now, he says, getting that call
could be much more complicated.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
It's more dangerous now. You can be targeted, you can
have crosshairs on your chest or your building.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Still, he says, being a person of faith means caring
for others, even when he compose a risk.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
If folks come knock on the door, what are we
going to say, now, No, I can't because of our
nonprofit status. Oh no, I can't because they're breaking the law.
Like if you're going to be in a church and
you're going to practice love and you're not willing to
provide sanctuary, then we're missing the mark.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The sanctuary movement of the past often received criticism around
the complicated racial dynamics of white, wealthy congregations who while
well meaning, would fall into patterns of paternalism as they
attempted to publicly support undocumented immigrants living in their churches.
(09:39):
But riverd Avan says that this new reality is less
about being a public ally and more about being a
quiet accomplice.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
I mean, this is really where folks who are talking
to talk and have the resources. This is where the
rubber hits the road as a pastor, as a Christian
and it's well, which law do we adhere? More human
law divine law? If there's a system that is unjust,
we're held accountable.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
To a higher law.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Reverend Adan says he's heard some cases of citizens quietly
opening their doors to undocumented immigrants seeking safety and sanctuary.
Leaders across the country say that now what they're doing
is building sanctuary in the streets, challenging ICE through direct action.
(10:38):
Activists are showing up to ICE rates to try to
physically stop people from being detained. Sometimes groups bring megaphones
in order to advise people on what to say from
inside their homes while ICE is at their front door.
(11:00):
And while Marii is glad to see this type of
response from the community, she will continue to stay as
under the radar as possible. Even going to the grocery
store makes her anxious these days, but her faith, she says,
is what helps her santari.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
For me right now, it's myself. I always repeat that
I am my own sancturary. Now I have to find
ways to do that, to be my own santary.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
While most people who took sanctuary in churches slipped back
under the radar, the well known sanctuary leader who we
mentioned earlier did not. In fact, she doubled down. And
even though Jeanette Visgertra was named as one of Time
one hundred's most influential people in twenty seventeen, today she
is not free. She's being held in an immigrant detention facility.
(12:05):
Coming up next I go inside that detention camp to
speak with her exclusively. We'll be right back, non Devyes,
(12:35):
welcome back to Latino, USA. I'm Maria no Josa. Jeanette
Vizguerra is a well known name across the immigrant rights
movement in the United States. She was in the news
a lot, especially around twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Jeanetteasguerra, who came to the US from Mexico about twenty
years ago. She has been living here undocumented ever since
and has three American born children.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
I spoke with Jeanette Fiscata, a mother of four children
who's taken refuge in the First Unitarian Society Church of
Denver out of fear she would be arrested and deported
to Mexico.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
A Colorado mom, an immigration rights activist, has been named
to Times one hundred most Influential People in.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
The World Today, eight years after being recognized by Time magazine,
She's being held at an immigrant detention facility. Are we
close gonna make it work?
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Here?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
This is the detention facility? Well, the most surprising thing
about this detention facility is that it's not in the
middle of nowhere. We're in Aurora, Colorado, and our team
is going into the Aurora Ice Processing Center with cameras
in order to speak with Jeanette for an exclusive in
person interview. She's been held here for two months now.
(13:53):
We were strictly prohibited from recording audio or video inside
of the sprawling, fifteen hundred person detention camp, and we're
only allowed to record inside the room with Jeannette. We
set up in a small room they gave us to record.
(14:15):
A few minutes later, Jeanette walks in and we start
to speak.
Speaker 9 (14:19):
Toya no, it's for Marbella and Trebristo esmos.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Right away, Jeanette tells me what it has been like
to be detained here since March.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Dona queriando la vacteries to mac muchas Molestias, the lord
abdominal in fram.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
She starts by telling me that she thinks that because
of the unsanitary conditions inside of this detention facility, there
are many people, including herself, who are having severe stomach problems.
Then she says nothing has changed, nada cambia. This is
not the first time that Jeanette has been detained here.
(14:59):
This veteral immigration detention facility is privately run by the
Geo Group, one of the largest private prison companies in
the country. Janette has been in the United States without
papers since nineteen ninety seven, and it wasn't until two
thousand and nine during a traffic stop that her issue
of status came up. To make a long story short,
(15:23):
Janette has tried unsuccessfully to get legal permanent status in
the United States for well over a decade, and she's
done so in the public eye as a way to
demand justice and to raise awareness about the millions of
undocumented people in similar situations. That's why, when the election
results showed there would be a second Trump term, her
(15:46):
friends and even her colleagues told her to stay quiet,
to be careful.
Speaker 9 (15:52):
Guihati Kayada, Coolera, Siamigos, Mehlbertierro, Jeanett basan Nessitaistarkajada, Nagajuillo.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Because they said they're going to come after you. And
when Trump signed an executive order on the very first
day of his second term rolling back the internal Ice
memo that protected those sensitive locations, the media started contacting
(16:22):
Jeannette as.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Well, Trump ending arrest protections for immigrants and sensitive places.
This reminded me of a story we covered for years
here on Denver seven, the story of Jeanette Visgera, who
left Mexico, came to Colorado and spent almost three years
on and off in a church sinking sanctuary. I called
Viscareta day about asking her her reactions to Trump's plan.
Speaker 9 (16:46):
This is that time they organizing for go together, fight
all cheers. I'm living here. I paid Texas, Donald Trump
not paid Texas. Trump have twenty four fellowists. Who is
the real criminal?
Speaker 8 (17:02):
Scara says right now, she's focused on creating a network
of undisclosed safe places for undocumented immigrants.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You were asking yourself lago or nolago? Do I speak
out or do I not speak out? After Trump had
been re.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
Elected, YAO come feeling de algol ambiente.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
She had an intuition that there was something in the air.
Speaker 9 (17:26):
Comes intuition the calgo pasa.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
That's something was going to happen.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
To her pedodesposa primero perativo di no ploya peto.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Janette knew she could be at risk, but staying silent,
she says, it just wasn't an option.
Speaker 9 (17:49):
We arena marchant el domingostaran don the joisun jamada la communidad.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
On Sunday, March sixteenth, went to a rally and got
on the megaphone. We are going to need new tactics
in order to be able to protect the immigrant community.
How many days after you made that speech on that
(18:18):
Sunday saying they are escalating, we have to escalate too
as activists. How many days after that were you detained.
Speaker 9 (18:28):
El Yes again?
Speaker 1 (18:30):
The very next day, on March seventeenth, twenty twenty five,
Janette was at work at a local target. She walked
out into the parking lot on her break, and it
was there that she was detained by ICE agents. She
says that while she was being detained, she looked at
one of the agent's phones and she noticed that the
(18:52):
person had been looking at Jeanette's social media accounts.
Speaker 9 (18:56):
Yoletich Is does Monitorian de Mirelis, says Publico.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
According to Jeanette, while the officials were detaining her, one
of them said, finally we got you.
Speaker 9 (19:09):
I respondio otro perfindetre.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Brons and here's something that doesn't happen with every arrest.
That same day, the Denver Ice office announced Jeanette's detention
on Twitter by posting a picture of her in handcuffs
with a chain wrapped around her waist. Then, two days later,
(19:32):
the top communications advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security,
Christy Nome, tweeted this message. It said, Jeanette Risque ramp
is a convicted criminal alien from Mexico. Under President Trump
and Secretary Nome, we are once again a nation of laws.
We will find, arrest and deport illegal aliens, regardless of
(19:55):
if they were a featured Time Person of the Year.
Do you believe, Jeannette that you specifically, are being targeted
because of your activism, because you speak out. So I
(20:19):
am a political prisoner, she says, I'm a political prisoner.
I have to sit with that for a moment because
in all of my decades of reporting on this issue,
this is the first time I've ever heard someone say
this from inside an immigrant detention facility. And it's not
(20:40):
just about Jeanette, she tells me.
Speaker 9 (20:43):
Don Carindoka, yessus doan cariando.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
She says, they're trying to silence all people who speak
up against the government. She says, they are trying to
erase us.
Speaker 9 (21:00):
No important on the US story and Brando rebel Chiliberte.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
It doesn't matter where I am, Jeanette tells me, I'm
always planting the seeds of rebellion until we can harvest freedom.
But when Jeanette is talking about the work of sowing
the seeds of rebellion, she's also talking about something literal,
something deep in her heart. Her four children, guess miss
(21:27):
and yeah Oka.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Fire me chi.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Her children, she says, are her hope for the future.
They are what will continue her struggle no matter where
she is. For the two months that Jeannette has been
detained here. Her twenty one year old daughter, Luna, has
become the public face of her campaign to free her.
Speaker 10 (21:51):
It's not until you're affected that you really know how
this really is, how this really feels. We really need
to organize, We really need to start building way to
really protect our neighbors.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Jeanette named her daughter Luna, the Spanish word for moon,
for her family. She says, the moon has a very
special significance. Can you see the moon from your room
with isbela luna tuerto abesis sometimes quando la.
Speaker 9 (22:24):
Veo theo miscosqueo samon quer luna name significantou.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
In twenty thirteen, after having lived in the US for
more than a decade, Jeanette went back to Mexico to
see her dying mother, You the Siao la. A few
months later, as she had promised to her children, she
decided to cross back over the border.
Speaker 9 (22:54):
In Medio quo sierto.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Choaa Luna.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
As she walked and walked through the mountainous desert at night,
she says, she would look up at the moon.
Speaker 9 (23:08):
You lessius quada luna sawen Can you tell me leastbendo
yes knows what connected?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
She really didn't know when she would see her kids again,
so she told them to look up at the moon
when they thought of her. She wanted them to know
that they were connected despite being in different places, just
like they are today. She's been a labor organizer since
(23:37):
even before they were born, when she arrived in Colorado
in the late nineteen nineties, when she worked as a janitor,
and that's where she began organizing her workplace. And it's
not like Jeanette isn't self aware. She knows she's seen
as a rapple rouser. But still, as she told me earlier,
she never expected she would actually become a political prisoner.
Speaker 9 (24:01):
Nunka beenzeca uas a runa pressa politica and estados sunidos
don respecta lases.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
She says.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I thought this was a country where they supposedly respect
the law, and where you had the right to free speech.
Speaker 9 (24:15):
Expression de li berta, the expression don den recho de
manifestce de denusia.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And that right the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution is precisely what Janette's lawyers are arguing is being
violated in her case. In fact, they have filed a
First Amendment claim that says that she is being targeted
not because of her legal status, but because of her
(24:43):
activism and her politics, and she says she's not the
only one. Do you believe that you are the Mahmoud
Calille of the immigrant rights movement?
Speaker 9 (24:57):
Stamos and a mismasituacn in some.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Most various we're in the same situation. She says, what
message do you believe that the United States government that
the Trump administration is trying to send by keeping you detained?
Speaker 9 (25:13):
Here isokara qulled care persona, no solomi a qual care
persona in comola.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
They're trying to show that they have the power to
disappear anyone, she says, not just me, but anyone who
stands against them.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
So most Marla hented a convic cambio salves cabar consequences
rotambi in a caprendre a segursus convictions.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Jeanette says that people with moral convictions need to live
out their values, because she says, if we don't stop this,
the US will become just like other dictatorships.
Speaker 9 (26:03):
Sinstro no paramo estol, pueblo, iMOS conciencia estos seva converted
arcot pladores.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
That was from our exclusive interview with Jeanette Bisguerra. We
spoke to her from the Ice Detention facility in Aurora, Colorado,
where she is currently being held, and just this week
it was announced that even though Jeanette remains in detention,
she will receive the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Junior Human
Rights Award. This is for her quote moral courage and
(26:43):
willingness to act on her convictions even at great personal risk.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
This story was.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Produced by Ariel Goodman. It was edited by our managing
editor Fernanda Echavari. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebou and
jj Carubin fact checking by Rosanna Aguire. Special thanks to
our videographer Cesa Valadez and to our voice actor Monica Errera.
The rest of the Latino USA team includes Julia Caruso,
(27:23):
Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Monica Morales Garcia, Dominique Estrosa Rinaldo
Lanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Crusado, Luis Luna Marta Martinez, Tasha Sandoval,
Nour Saudi and Nancy Truchuillo. Bennibe Ramirez, Maria Garcia and
I are co executive producers. And I'm your host, Marino Rossa,
(27:44):
and you know this was exclusive reporting for Latino USA
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(28:07):
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Speaker 11 (28:17):
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One summer afternoon in twenty seventeen, Maddy was driving down
the main highway into her small town. And that's all
we're going to tell you about where she lives, because
we're trying to protect her.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I was looking at the mountains, the landscape.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Even after living in this small town for thirty years,
she still admired the views.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Just that sense of physical freedom, being able to see
all this beauty.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
She'd made the drive hundreds of times to attend her
local church or to sell her well known homemade damalis,
but this time the drive felt different.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I was afraid. I was really really afraid. What if
they were following me? I got just into thispanic mode.
What if they're are seeing what am I doing? Seeing
what am I packing up?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Maddy had her clothes packed in suitcases and boxes inside
the car because she was on her way to move
in to a church to live on the church grounds
in order to avoid an imminent order of deportation. Mighty
was one of almost fifty people, mostly women, who took
refuge inside churches across the United States during the first
(01:16):
Trump administration.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Houses of worship are stepping up to offer sanctuary to
undocumented immigrants. The force behind this effort is the fear
of deportation in light of President Trump's executive orders.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
They were part of what's known as the second wave
of the sanctuary movement, which was revived in twenty fourteen.
It's a movement that started in the nineteen eighties when
places of worship provided shelter for Central American migrants fleeing
civil wars, and all of this was inspired by the
underground Railroad.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
It is the concept of religious sanctuary churches giving refuge
to undocumented Salvadorans and Guahamalans, two hundred and seventy churches
in thirty three states using an underground network.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Now, the church couldn't offer mighty absolute safety from deportation
in twenty seventeen, but back then there was internal guidance
from the Obama administration that essentially told ICE agents, Hey,
you should not be going inside schools or hospitals or
places of worship. The directive called these places sensitive locations
(02:23):
and that they should be avoided unless absolutely necessary in
a matter of national security. Knowing this, Madi and others
across the country made the choice to seek refuge by
living inside the church grounds.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I was spraying about the right decision.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
The minute she arrived at the church in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I just had the tension every day from people in
the community. Different news stations all over the country were
coming every day.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And almost every night, someone from the country would volunteer
to spend the night on a mattress, sleeping next to
the door.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I was always feeling safe during.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
The Biden administration, like many others who had taken sanctuary,
Madi eventually moved out of the church. Her legal status
hadn't really changed, but it seemed like she was no
longer a priority for deportation. But on day one of
the second Trump administration, that sense of safety disappeared. The
(03:33):
new order from President Donald Trump reversus a policy that
barred ICE agents for making arrests and what are considered
to be sensitive areas.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
And that means immigration officials can now target undocumented immigrants
in churches.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Every time I have to step out, I just pray.
I'm like telling myself to be watchful and alert. I'm
constantly alert, but always afraid. I barely go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And here is what made her fear even worse. The
Trump administration has made it clear that it will seek
outright revenge against anyone who has defied his authority. Maddy
knows this because she's seen how the government targeted another woman.
The most visible face of the sanctuary movement in the
(04:21):
entire country.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
A Denver woman who's font de importation for decades, is
then the custody of immigration and customs enforcements in Aurora.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Jeanetteiscertta is an activist for immigration rights, and back in
twenty seventeen, she was recognized as one of Time Magazine's
one hundred most Influential People.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I heard about Janet that same night at midnight. I
was getting ready to go to sleep, and then I
watched the news and I was like, oh my god,
this is so scary. I mean, you start feeling like
they are watching you, like they are looking for you.
I couldn't even sleep that night. I was remaining locked
in my place a whole week.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He lives in constant vigilance. In fact, you should know
Madi is not her real name, and the voice you're
hearing is someone recreating Madi's recorded interview word for word.
Madi has a very real fear of being deported.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I feel trapped, like I've been cornered.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
From Futuro Media and PRX It's Latino USA. I'm Maria
Jossaan on today's episode, an exclusive interview with Janette Visguerra,
the activist once named one of Time one hundred's most
influential people. We hear from her inside the immigration detention
facility where she is being held. Plus, we're going to
(05:49):
take a look at the sanctuary movement today. What happens
when undocumented people who once put themselves in the public
eye in order to avoid deportation are fearing revenge from
the Trump administration.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
I'd just like to pray for the people in our
community when are saying people in the darkness and no one.
Speaker 7 (06:13):
Has to play.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's a Sunday afternoon in North Philly. Mass is wrapping
up at Kensington Ministries and community members are passing around
the mic. It's a small group, but it's a classic
scene in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city.
The parishioners are black, Latinos and Latinas. Reverend Adan Marina
(06:38):
is sitting at the front of the room. He's listening
to the members of his congregation.
Speaker 8 (06:43):
That's prayer.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
From world people who are free.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
He's a staple in this community, the kind of guy
who knows what's going on with everyone.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
I've got folks named demm.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
His church is in the heart of Philadelphia, the city
that under the first Trump administration saw more people take
sanctuary in churches than any other major US city. But
today things look different.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
I'm worried about folks here that I know. You know,
I have a young couple from Venezuela. I haven't seen
them since the deportations started under this administration. I have
one young lady who I think last week was the
first time I'd seen her in three months. In her neighborhood,
the raids were taking place, so she told me she
was in her apartment and hiding for three months, couldn't leave,
(07:47):
didn't want to leave because folks were getting arrested.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
This is something Reverend Avan has heard before. Back during
the Obama administration, Reverend Avan got a call to open
the doors of his parents to a local Hunduran mother
who was at imminent risk of deportation.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
I got the call, and I knew from the get go, right,
this is where you have to practice what you preach.
This is where your faith is acted upon.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
He's also Hunduran and his parents fled the country seeking
safety from political persecution.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
This is my story in a sense. So how could
I have said no? I would have said no, I'd
have felt like a hypocrite. I would have felt like
a liar.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Reverend Adan has protested immigration policies of every single administration
over the last two decades, and he sees Trump's policies
as a new chapter in an old story. But this
time it is different. Now, he says, getting that call
could be much more complicated.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
It's more dangerous now. You can be targeted, you can
have crosshairs on your chest or your building.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Still, he says, being a person of faith means caring
for others, even when he compose a risk.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
If folks come knock on the door, what are we
going to say, now, No, I can't because of our
nonprofit status. Oh no, I can't because they're breaking the law.
Like if you're going to be in a church and
you're going to practice love and you're not willing to
provide sanctuary, then we're missing the mark.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The sanctuary movement of the past often received criticism around
the complicated racial dynamics of white, wealthy congregations who while
well meaning, would fall into patterns of paternalism as they
attempted to publicly support undocumented immigrants living in their churches.
(09:39):
But riverd Avan says that this new reality is less
about being a public ally and more about being a
quiet accomplice.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
I mean, this is really where folks who are talking
to talk and have the resources. This is where the
rubber hits the road as a pastor, as a Christian
and it's well, which law do we adhere? More human
law divine law? If there's a system that is unjust,
we're held accountable.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
To a higher law.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Reverend Adan says he's heard some cases of citizens quietly
opening their doors to undocumented immigrants seeking safety and sanctuary.
Leaders across the country say that now what they're doing
is building sanctuary in the streets, challenging ICE through direct action.
(10:38):
Activists are showing up to ICE rates to try to
physically stop people from being detained. Sometimes groups bring megaphones
in order to advise people on what to say from
inside their homes while ICE is at their front door.
(11:00):
And while Marii is glad to see this type of
response from the community, she will continue to stay as
under the radar as possible. Even going to the grocery
store makes her anxious these days, but her faith, she says,
is what helps her santari.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
For me right now, it's myself. I always repeat that
I am my own sancturary. Now I have to find
ways to do that, to be my own santary.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
While most people who took sanctuary in churches slipped back
under the radar, the well known sanctuary leader who we
mentioned earlier did not. In fact, she doubled down. And
even though Jeanette Visgertra was named as one of Time
one hundred's most influential people in twenty seventeen, today she
is not free. She's being held in an immigrant detention facility.
(12:05):
Coming up next I go inside that detention camp to
speak with her exclusively. We'll be right back, non Devyes,
(12:35):
welcome back to Latino, USA. I'm Maria no Josa. Jeanette
Vizguerra is a well known name across the immigrant rights
movement in the United States. She was in the news
a lot, especially around twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Jeanetteasguerra, who came to the US from Mexico about twenty
years ago. She has been living here undocumented ever since
and has three American born children.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
I spoke with Jeanette Fiscata, a mother of four children
who's taken refuge in the First Unitarian Society Church of
Denver out of fear she would be arrested and deported
to Mexico.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
A Colorado mom, an immigration rights activist, has been named
to Times one hundred most Influential People in.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
The World Today, eight years after being recognized by Time magazine,
She's being held at an immigrant detention facility. Are we
close gonna make it work?
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Here?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
This is the detention facility? Well, the most surprising thing
about this detention facility is that it's not in the
middle of nowhere. We're in Aurora, Colorado, and our team
is going into the Aurora Ice Processing Center with cameras
in order to speak with Jeanette for an exclusive in
person interview. She's been held here for two months now.
(13:53):
We were strictly prohibited from recording audio or video inside
of the sprawling, fifteen hundred person detention camp, and we're
only allowed to record inside the room with Jeannette. We
set up in a small room they gave us to record.
(14:15):
A few minutes later, Jeanette walks in and we start
to speak.
Speaker 9 (14:19):
Toya no, it's for Marbella and Trebristo esmos.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Right away, Jeanette tells me what it has been like
to be detained here since March.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Dona queriando la vacteries to mac muchas Molestias, the lord
abdominal in fram.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
She starts by telling me that she thinks that because
of the unsanitary conditions inside of this detention facility, there
are many people, including herself, who are having severe stomach problems.
Then she says nothing has changed, nada cambia. This is
not the first time that Jeanette has been detained here.
(14:59):
This veteral immigration detention facility is privately run by the
Geo Group, one of the largest private prison companies in
the country. Janette has been in the United States without
papers since nineteen ninety seven, and it wasn't until two
thousand and nine during a traffic stop that her issue
of status came up. To make a long story short,
(15:23):
Janette has tried unsuccessfully to get legal permanent status in
the United States for well over a decade, and she's
done so in the public eye as a way to
demand justice and to raise awareness about the millions of
undocumented people in similar situations. That's why, when the election
results showed there would be a second Trump term, her
(15:46):
friends and even her colleagues told her to stay quiet,
to be careful.
Speaker 9 (15:52):
Guihati Kayada, Coolera, Siamigos, Mehlbertierro, Jeanett basan Nessitaistarkajada, Nagajuillo.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Because they said they're going to come after you. And
when Trump signed an executive order on the very first
day of his second term rolling back the internal Ice
memo that protected those sensitive locations, the media started contacting
(16:22):
Jeannette as.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Well, Trump ending arrest protections for immigrants and sensitive places.
This reminded me of a story we covered for years
here on Denver seven, the story of Jeanette Visgera, who
left Mexico, came to Colorado and spent almost three years
on and off in a church sinking sanctuary. I called
Viscareta day about asking her her reactions to Trump's plan.
Speaker 9 (16:46):
This is that time they organizing for go together, fight
all cheers. I'm living here. I paid Texas, Donald Trump
not paid Texas. Trump have twenty four fellowists. Who is
the real criminal?
Speaker 8 (17:02):
Scara says right now, she's focused on creating a network
of undisclosed safe places for undocumented immigrants.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You were asking yourself lago or nolago? Do I speak
out or do I not speak out? After Trump had
been re.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
Elected, YAO come feeling de algol ambiente.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
She had an intuition that there was something in the air.
Speaker 9 (17:26):
Comes intuition the calgo pasa.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
That's something was going to happen.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
To her pedodesposa primero perativo di no ploya peto.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Janette knew she could be at risk, but staying silent,
she says, it just wasn't an option.
Speaker 9 (17:49):
We arena marchant el domingostaran don the joisun jamada la communidad.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
On Sunday, March sixteenth, went to a rally and got
on the megaphone. We are going to need new tactics
in order to be able to protect the immigrant community.
How many days after you made that speech on that
(18:18):
Sunday saying they are escalating, we have to escalate too
as activists. How many days after that were you detained.
Speaker 9 (18:28):
El Yes again?
Speaker 1 (18:30):
The very next day, on March seventeenth, twenty twenty five,
Janette was at work at a local target. She walked
out into the parking lot on her break, and it
was there that she was detained by ICE agents. She
says that while she was being detained, she looked at
one of the agent's phones and she noticed that the
(18:52):
person had been looking at Jeanette's social media accounts.
Speaker 9 (18:56):
Yoletich Is does Monitorian de Mirelis, says Publico.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
According to Jeanette, while the officials were detaining her, one
of them said, finally we got you.
Speaker 9 (19:09):
I respondio otro perfindetre.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Brons and here's something that doesn't happen with every arrest.
That same day, the Denver Ice office announced Jeanette's detention
on Twitter by posting a picture of her in handcuffs
with a chain wrapped around her waist. Then, two days later,
(19:32):
the top communications advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security,
Christy Nome, tweeted this message. It said, Jeanette Risque ramp
is a convicted criminal alien from Mexico. Under President Trump
and Secretary Nome, we are once again a nation of laws.
We will find, arrest and deport illegal aliens, regardless of
(19:55):
if they were a featured Time Person of the Year.
Do you believe, Jeannette that you specifically, are being targeted
because of your activism, because you speak out. So I
(20:19):
am a political prisoner, she says, I'm a political prisoner.
I have to sit with that for a moment because
in all of my decades of reporting on this issue,
this is the first time I've ever heard someone say
this from inside an immigrant detention facility. And it's not
(20:40):
just about Jeanette, she tells me.
Speaker 9 (20:43):
Don Carindoka, yessus doan cariando.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
She says, they're trying to silence all people who speak
up against the government. She says, they are trying to
erase us.
Speaker 9 (21:00):
No important on the US story and Brando rebel Chiliberte.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
It doesn't matter where I am, Jeanette tells me, I'm
always planting the seeds of rebellion until we can harvest freedom.
But when Jeanette is talking about the work of sowing
the seeds of rebellion, she's also talking about something literal,
something deep in her heart. Her four children, guess miss
(21:27):
and yeah Oka.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Fire me chi.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Her children, she says, are her hope for the future.
They are what will continue her struggle no matter where
she is. For the two months that Jeannette has been
detained here. Her twenty one year old daughter, Luna, has
become the public face of her campaign to free her.
Speaker 10 (21:51):
It's not until you're affected that you really know how
this really is, how this really feels. We really need
to organize, We really need to start building way to
really protect our neighbors.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Jeanette named her daughter Luna, the Spanish word for moon,
for her family. She says, the moon has a very
special significance. Can you see the moon from your room
with isbela luna tuerto abesis sometimes quando la.
Speaker 9 (22:24):
Veo theo miscosqueo samon quer luna name significantou.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
In twenty thirteen, after having lived in the US for
more than a decade, Jeanette went back to Mexico to
see her dying mother, You the Siao la. A few
months later, as she had promised to her children, she
decided to cross back over the border.
Speaker 9 (22:54):
In Medio quo sierto.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Choaa Luna.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
As she walked and walked through the mountainous desert at night,
she says, she would look up at the moon.
Speaker 9 (23:08):
You lessius quada luna sawen Can you tell me leastbendo
yes knows what connected?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
She really didn't know when she would see her kids again,
so she told them to look up at the moon
when they thought of her. She wanted them to know
that they were connected despite being in different places, just
like they are today. She's been a labor organizer since
(23:37):
even before they were born, when she arrived in Colorado
in the late nineteen nineties, when she worked as a janitor,
and that's where she began organizing her workplace. And it's
not like Jeanette isn't self aware. She knows she's seen
as a rapple rouser. But still, as she told me earlier,
she never expected she would actually become a political prisoner.
Speaker 9 (24:01):
Nunka beenzeca uas a runa pressa politica and estados sunidos
don respecta lases.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
She says.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I thought this was a country where they supposedly respect
the law, and where you had the right to free speech.
Speaker 9 (24:15):
Expression de li berta, the expression don den recho de
manifestce de denusia.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And that right the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution is precisely what Janette's lawyers are arguing is being
violated in her case. In fact, they have filed a
First Amendment claim that says that she is being targeted
not because of her legal status, but because of her
(24:43):
activism and her politics, and she says she's not the
only one. Do you believe that you are the Mahmoud
Calille of the immigrant rights movement?
Speaker 9 (24:57):
Stamos and a mismasituacn in some.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Most various we're in the same situation. She says, what
message do you believe that the United States government that
the Trump administration is trying to send by keeping you detained?
Speaker 9 (25:13):
Here isokara qulled care persona, no solomi a qual care
persona in comola.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
They're trying to show that they have the power to
disappear anyone, she says, not just me, but anyone who
stands against them.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
So most Marla hented a convic cambio salves cabar consequences
rotambi in a caprendre a segursus convictions.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Jeanette says that people with moral convictions need to live
out their values, because she says, if we don't stop this,
the US will become just like other dictatorships.
Speaker 9 (26:03):
Sinstro no paramo estol, pueblo, iMOS conciencia estos seva converted
arcot pladores.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
That was from our exclusive interview with Jeanette Bisguerra. We
spoke to her from the Ice Detention facility in Aurora, Colorado,
where she is currently being held, and just this week
it was announced that even though Jeanette remains in detention,
she will receive the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Junior Human
Rights Award. This is for her quote moral courage and
(26:43):
willingness to act on her convictions even at great personal risk.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
This story was.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Produced by Ariel Goodman. It was edited by our managing
editor Fernanda Echavari. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebou and
jj Carubin fact checking by Rosanna Aguire. Special thanks to
our videographer Cesa Valadez and to our voice actor Monica Errera.
The rest of the Latino USA team includes Julia Caruso,
(27:23):
Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Monica Morales Garcia, Dominique Estrosa Rinaldo
Lanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Crusado, Luis Luna Marta Martinez, Tasha Sandoval,
Nour Saudi and Nancy Truchuillo. Bennibe Ramirez, Maria Garcia and
I are co executive producers. And I'm your host, Marino Rossa,
(27:44):
and you know this was exclusive reporting for Latino USA
and we're really proud of it. And if it means
something to you that we continue to do this work independently,
then please do me a favor. Subscribe to Latino USA
and give us a like, and also become part of
our family by joining Futuro Plus. It's really easy, it's
(28:07):
not a lot of money, and we would love it,
and it's a way of you showing support for our
work muchas gracias and remember not yes.
Speaker 11 (28:17):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the William
and Flora Hewlett Foundation for more than fifty years, advancing
ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at
Hewlett dot org.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
W K.
Speaker 11 (28:34):
Kellogg Foundation, a partner with Communities where Children Come First,
and the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the frontlines
of social change worldwide.
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