Immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra was released in time for Christmas Monday after spending nine months in detention while her years-long deportation case continues.
Photos posted by the American Friends Service Committee and Coloradans for Immigrant Rights show a smiling Vizguerra embracing family outside the GEO detention center in Aurora, where she has been held.
Vizguerra was allowed to post a $5,000 bond and remain free while she continues her fight to stay in the U.S. But that only came after a U.S. district judge got involved and ordered an immigration court to make the government prove Vizguerra was a danger to the community or a flight risk. When they could do neither, she was ordered released.
She now faces months more of hearings, though the release has no bearing on her immigration case other than making it easier for her to confer with attorneys. Vizguerra must now prove to an immigration judge that her life would be in danger if she returned to Mexico.
