On Monday afternoon, December 22nd, Jeannette Vizguerra-Ramirez walked out of the Aurora Immigration Detention Center into the loving arms of her family, after nine long months inside the facility.

Laura Lunn, RMIAN Director of Advocacy & Littigation, celebrated her release, saying “For decades, Jeanette has advocated for her community. When she was detained earlier this year, she needed her community to step up for her - and that is exactly what they did, showing up at vigils each week to remind her and others detained that they are not forgotten. RMIAN is honored to be a part of the team supporting Jeanette, the larger immigrant rights movement, and engaging in necessary legal battles to ensure that people can speak out without facing unlawful restrictions on their liberty and impermissible limits on their freedom of speech.” 

In 2025, a year marked by what some lawyers describe as attacks on the rule of law, a Colorado federal judge preliminarily blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from conducting warrantless arrests in the state without determining probable cause.

Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, said that in a year when people across Colorado have been "terrorized" by mass enforcement actions and "brutal" arrests, the ruling made clear that ICE cannot conduct warrantless arrests without showing good reason.

Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network loses $1 million in federal funding cuts

“There have been major increases in immigration enforcement and detention, loss of vital legal protections, increases in fear and attacks on the immigrant community, exponential increases on removals, unlawful removals and, on top of all of that, RMIAN has seen deep losses in funding to all of our work,” Goehring said. “You’re starting with a deeply unjust and unfair process where there isn’t a whole lot of due process, and what we’ve seen is that all those hardships have been compounded because of a series of both policy and legal decisions the federal government has made.”

Enemies of the State

How the Trump Administration declared war on Venezuelan migrants in the U.S.

By Jonathan Blitzer

For 25 years, RMIAN has stood alongside immigrants and their families in Colorado—defending due process, protecting human rights, and ensuring that all people have access to justice. Because of supporters like you, RMIAN has provided free legal representation and social service support to tens of thousands of people over the past 25 years. Please donate today to ensure this impact continues! Your generosity ensures that no one faces this system alone—that loved ones have someone to represent them and to protect their rights.

This year, RMIAN proudly celebrates 25 years of providing life-changing legal representation and advocacy for immigrants in Colorado. Join us on December 3rd to commemorate this milestone and to show appreciation for our volunteers and supporters that helped make it possible!

This Friday, November 14th - Please join the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network and the Colorado Bar Association Continuing Legal Education for our annual Immigration Law CLE training! CLE Credits: General Credits - 5.00

This training is only $75 for attorneys who agree to take a pro bono case through RMIAN.

A federal judge on Friday found a "real risk" that the government would try to unlawfully deport a man who was tortured in his home country, and ordered a hearing to determine if he should be released from immigration custody while his case proceeds.

Per his attorney, RMIAN’s Laura Lunn: “Mr. Maldonado's case is emblematic of everything that's wrong with the immigration system. He survived past torture in El Salvador and Costa Rica and the Department of Homeland Security locked him up without a key," she said. "Today he can breathe a little easier, and I hope that very soon, he will regain his liberty, reunite with his family, and finally live a protected life here in the United States."

With workplace raids and “roving patrols,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically ramped up its efforts to apprehend and deport undocumented immigrants in recent weeks throughout major U.S. cities.

“We are setting people up,” RMIAN’s Emily Brock said of the government’s new strategy. “We’re giving people a set of rules they’re told to follow, and then halfway through the game, we’re changing the rules with no notice. And it includes a loss of liberty. … That is an intentional incitement of fear in the community, and it is not what I believe this country stands for.” Full article here.

Image: Damian Dovarganes/AP

On May 30, Frizgeralth de Jesús Cornejo Pulgar was scheduled for a hearing in a United States immigration court. But Cornejo Pulgar—an asylum seeker from Venezuela fleeing potential persecution from paramilitary groups aligned with the government of Nicolás Maduro—was not able to attend the proceeding. The 26-year-old is stuck in El Salvador. He is one of some 230 Venezuelans the Trump administration disappeared, without due process, to the Central American country’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). More here.