Photo courtesy of AFSC/Gabriela Flora

The immigration journey of mother and advocate Jeanette Vizguerra

Some may call Jeanette Vizguerra an advocate, a leader, a hero. Still others label her illegal. But she identifies herself as a mother — “A mother that loves her children so much and that is going to do anything that is needed to be with them always,” she says, via an interpreter. “And also I want to do everything that is necessary so that no one else has to go through what I’m going through.”

While the Aurora-based mother of four, grandmother of three, tirelessly speaks out about immigration reform, she continues to fight her own deportation and separation from her family. On Monday Aug. 24, she was granted another six-month stay of removal from officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while she continues to pursue every avenue to permanently stay in the U.S. with her children.

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