CNN has heaped praise on a criminal illegal alien who was arrested for deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Colorado.
ICE agents arrested Mexican national Jeanette Vizguerra after she spent years hiding from authorities in the Denver area to escape a deportation order.
Vizguerra was convicted on a Social Security fraud charge in the U.S. and is known to have entered the country illegally by crossing the Southern Border at least twice.
She pled guilty to a charge related to using a made-up Social Security number and then hid out in a church for three years during President Donald Trump’s first term.
According to USA Today, Vizguerra was taken into custody on Monday while she was working at a Target store.
However, CNN is framing Vizguerra as a”pillar of the community.”
CNN reporter Gloria Pazmino claims that Vizguerra became a “symbol of resistance” to Trump’s efforts to deport illegal aliens when she hid in a church in 2017.
During “CNN News Central,” Pazmino told co-host Sara Sidner:
“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.
“Now, this all traces back to 2009, when Vizguerra was stopped… 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.”
“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.”
WATCH:
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.
However, other charges involving expired license plates and driving without a license or insurance were dropped.
Aside from her reported crimes, Vizguerra also posted an image of Trump being scalped on Facebook, according to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.
NEW: ICE Denver releases photo of arrest of Jeanette Vizguerra, the convicted criminal illegal alien Mexican activist who has a deportation order. Vizguerra hid in a church for years to avoid removal, and previously posted an image of Trump being scalped on her public Facebook… pic.twitter.com/pqGjhrl7ZJ
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 19, 2025
Denver’s Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston 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.”
Jeanette Vizguerra is a mom of American citizens, a Target employee, a nonprofit leader and an immigration reform advocate with no violent criminal history.
Her detainment is not about safety. This is Putin-style persecution of political dissidents. pic.twitter.com/K0L1saxPOf
— Mayor Mike Johnston (@denversmayor) March 18, 2025
Immigration officials have pushed back against the Left’s defense of Vizguerra, meanwhile.
In response to a statement by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) condemning Vizguerra’s arrest, former ICE Denver Field Office Director John Fabbricatore posted on X:
“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.
“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.”
During a November interview, Johnston also suggested that local law enforcement and citizens of Denver should resist efforts by the Trump administration to deport illegal immigrants.
While escaping deportation by hiding from immigration authorities, Vizguerra has been leading an activist campaign in Denver to “abolish ICE.”
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