Federal attorneys dispute Jeanette Vizguerra’s right to claim a First Amendment violation in detention challenge

Federal lawyers urged a U S District Court judge in Colorado to reject Jeanette Vizguerra s challenge of her detention in a new filing this week arguing that she hasn t sufficiently shown the authorities was retaliating against her activism when agents arrested her The well-known immigrant-rights advocate was in the country without proper legal status and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were following a reinstated removal order U S Justice Department attorneys wrote in the Tuesday filing It responded to arguments by Vizguerra s legal club in new weeks that the administration s arrest of Vizguerra in March violated her First Amendment rights The federal attorneys counter that as a noncitizen Vizguerra can t argue that her free-speech rights were violated during her arrest detention and prospective deportation from the country The Supreme Court has determined that noncitizens cannot challenge the enforcement of a removal order based on a selective-enforcement theory the lawyers wrote adding that Vizguerra does not have a viable First Amendment retaliation challenge here The filing was signed by acting U S Attorney J Bishop Grewell and assistant U S attorneys Benjamin Gibson Timothy Jafek and Kevin Traskos Vizguerra s attorney Laura Lichter didn t straightaway respond to a request for comment Wednesday Her attorneys initially filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus which is a request to determine the validity of a person s detention U S District Judge Nina Wang in late March ordered ICE not to deport Vizguerra until her petition was litigated The new round of arguments comes over a month after Vizguerra was first detained outside her workplace a Denver-area Target store on March She has been held at an ICE detention facility in Aurora Vizguerra first crossed the territory line from Mexico illegally in and she gained attention nationally for her advocacy after sheltering in two Denver churches to avoid deportation during President Donald Trump s first term Vizguerra s attorneys have pointed to several examples of what they considered to be retaliatory behavior by the governing body Those include a post on the social platform X by the Department of Homeland Protection s assistant secretary for citizens affairs Tricia McLaughlin that noted We will find arrest and deport illegal aliens regardless of if they were a featured Time Person of the Year She was referring to Vizguerra being named one of TIME magazine s most of influential people in the world in while she was in sanctuary Still the regime lawyers wrote that Vizguerra had failed to prove that she wouldn t have been arrested if she wasn t an activist and that the users behind those social media accounts were involved in the decision to detain her They reasserted a previous argument that this matter doesn t fall within the purview of the District Court and instead should have been filed in the th U S Circuit Court of Appeals Another element of Vizguerra s development was debated in legal documents this week her reasonable fear screening That screening is part of a process during a removal order in which an asylum officer assesses the merits of a detainee s fears about returning to their home country Lichter Vizguerra s attorney argued in another Tuesday filing that U S Citizenship and Immigration Services didn t provide Vizguerra or her lawyers with enough notice to prepare on numerous occasions And she announced a guard at the detention center and an asylum officer both tried to mislead Vizguerra during those proceedings USCIS ultimately ascertained that Vizguerra did not have what it considered reasonable fears about returning to Mexico because she didn t answer questions during her interview according to a separate legal document Related Articles Trump personnel must review efforts if any to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia judge rules The US administration has a new agenda for terminating international students legal status US judge bars Frontier Patrol from certain warrantless arrests of suspected undocumented residents remain in ICE custody after raid on illegal Colorado Springs nightclub Trump administration rescinds Denver grants worth million for migrant shelters following through on threat The document included a declaration from Simone Grant an associate district director for USCIS The screening interview was rescheduled several times Grant stated with partial screenings conducted on March and April Both times Grant wrote Lichter allegedly notified Vizguerra not to answer any questions and to hang up the phone She added that Vizguerra s association was advised that if she didn t speak on her behalf it could outcome in a negative finding for whether she had credible fears On April USCIS issued a negative reasonable fear determination because Vizguerra didn t provide evidence of the prospective for persecution or torture in Mexico Grant explained She added that in line with guidelines the agency had since referred Vizguerra to an immigration judge to review the findings Cabinet attorneys disclosed the decision by USCIS and actions by asylum officers do not relate to ICE which is a different federal agency Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter