Jeanette Vizguerra is an immigrants rights activist from Denver; Time Magazine named her one of 2017’s “Most Influential People.”
She was just in Carbondale raising awareness for Sandra Lopez, a mother of three, who’s in sanctuary. Vizguerra spoke with reporter Wyatt Orme.
On helping start the new sanctuary movement in Colorado:
"I founded the movement and I didn’t need it because they kept extending my time to figure out my case. This year, with this new administration, everything changed drastically. I heard about the case of Guadalupe Hernandez in Arizona who is also an activist, in the same situation I was in. When she went to her ICE check-in, she was arrested and deported immediately. And I just thought, 'am I going to be the next?'"
On whether or not sanctuary works:
"As of right now, our cases in Colorado are working. It’s not as if we just enter sanctuary and don’t do anything else. We keep working, looking for legal solutions for each case. Each case is different, so we work with lawyers, we work with the community, visit politicians, so that those in sanctuary can stay here outside the churches."
