Protesters for Jeanette Vizguerra at ICE facility in Aurora

Jeanette Vizguerra - the woman who took refuge in a church for three years to avoid deportation and created a network of sanctuary churches- was detained by ICE on Monday in the parking lot of the Target store where she works, one of her children told 9NEWS.

Her daughter said Vizguerra is being detained at the ICE facility on Oakland Street in Aurora. She said they had been talking with her but had not had communication with her since about 3 or 4 p.m. Monday.

Several of Vizguerra's children are gathered outside the Aurora facility and her daughter said they will stay there "as long as it takes."

The immigrant rights group, American Friends Services Committee, said in a release that family members heard from Vizguerra shortly before 10 a.m., Tuesday and confirmed she was still at the Aurora facility.

Vizguerra was pulled over for a traffic violation in 2009 and was convicted for falsifying documents tied to the traffic ticket and entering the country illegally, both misdemeanors. As a result, she was put under a deportation order and appealed it, but a judge denied that.

In 2017, during President Donald Trump's first term, a sixth stay of removal was denied and, fearing deportation, she spent three years living in the basement of the First Unitarian Church in Denver. It was a sanctuary space considered off-limits for federal agents to enter without a warrant.

As a result of her experience, she became an immigration advocate and formed the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition, a network of churches providing protection to immigrants fearing deportation.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston called Vizguerra's detention a "Putin-style persecution."

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