DENVER — Jeanette Vizguerra, a prominent Colorado immigrant rights activist detained by federal immigration agents earlier this year for being in the country illegally, could obtain lawful residency in the country if a bill introduced by a Colorado representative manages to make it past the Republican-controlled Congress.
“I have filed in Congress a bill – a private bill – to release Jeanette and to let her stay in this country while her immigration case proceeds,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat, during a news conference outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Aurora.
DeGette, along with the rest of the state’s Democratic House delegation, spoke to news media following an announced tour of the GEO ICE facility, calling the visit “deeply concerning” due to the lack of transparency from federal officials.
“It's a constitutional duty of Congress to do oversight of facilities like this, and there's nothing in the law that says that members of Congress should have to give previous notice,” DeGette said. “But also, the people who were there conducting the visit had little knowledge to tell us when we asked questions.”
In response to the visit, DeGette said Vizguerra was grateful and told her she was “not going to stop fighting for immigrants’ rights.”
Vizguerra, who was detained and taken into custody in March, has been fighting deportation back to Mexico from the U.S. since 2009.
At the time of her arrest, federal immigration officials said Vizguerra had violated federal law after a second stay of deportation granted to her expired in February 2024.
What’s a private bill and how could it help Vizguerra?
A private bill, like the one DeGette introduced to the House Judiciary Committee, targets a single individual, as opposed to the general public. It may result in a resolution when other legal remedies have been exhausted, according to the Congressional Research Service.
For about 150 years before 1971, Congress enacted hundreds of private laws. Still, the practice started to lose steam after Congress expanded administrative discretion to deal with many of the situations that led to private bills, CRS officials said in a 2024 report.
In fact, over the past 13 years, only five private laws have been enacted, the report shows.
The bill introduced by DeGette – HR-4778 – would make Vizguerra eligible for lawful residency status “upon filing an application for issuance of an immigrant visa” under section 204 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The private law would not, however, go so far as to give any of Vizguerra’s relatives not born in the U.S. lawful status.
Could the private bill to give Vizguerra permanent residency become law?
It could, but Vizguerra’s case faces an uphill battle.
To become law, DeGette’s bill must first be introduced to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. The subcommittee generally takes no action on a private bill unless its sponsor – in this case, DeGette – submits specific documents and requests a hearing, according to the CRS report.
But the subcommittee may not hold a hearing on the private bill if its records show few precedents for favorable House action in similar cases, the CRS report states.
To be considered on the House floor, a private bill must then be placed on a dedicated calendar to be heard. If two members object to it during the call, the bill is sent back to be examined.
Staff – known as “objectors” – are then tasked with examining the bill. If the private bill is deemed inappropriate, it could be re-reported as a paragraph in an omnibus private bill – essentially, a single bill that combines several private bills into one.
“Committees seldom re-report private measures if they are recommitted, and the House does not appear to have considered an omnibus private bill in decades,” per the CRS report.
On the slim chance the private bill were to pass the House, it would then head to the Senate, as private bills follow the same legislative procedures as any other bills. There, it’s unlikely to pass as the Republican Party currently holds majority control.
Currently, Vizguerra is fighting her deportation in U.S. District Court in Colorado.
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