A federal judge on Friday ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other Trump administration officials not to deport Colorado immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra — or even move her out of state — until the petition challenging her detention is litigated.

ICE agents detained Vizguerra at her workplace, a metro-area Target store, on Monday. She is currently being held in the agency’s detention facility in Aurora.

U.S. District Judge Nina Wang noted in her six-page order that an injunction “is necessary to preserve the status quo” in Vizguerra’s immigration case and to allow the court time to consider legal arguments in her emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The case is scheduled for a hearing in federal court in Denver on Friday.

The order is directed at Aurora ICE processing center warden Johnny Choate, ICE acting field office director Ernesto Santacruz, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

Vizguerra’s attorneys also filed a petition with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to challenge her detainment.

“This case raises complex issues about not only the legality of Ms. Vizguerra-Ramirez’s ICE detention under immigration law, but also the jurisdictional interplay between district and appellate courts facing this specific set of factual circumstances,” Wang wrote in her order.

She noted that the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is superior to her court, so its judgment could sway her decision about the petition.Wang previously had directed the Trump administration to inform the court by Monday why she shouldn’t grant the petition, which seeks Vizguerra’s release from custody.

ICE has said that Vizguerra, who first crossed the southern border from Mexico in 1997, is “a convicted criminal alien.”

The agency said a federal immigration judge issued her final order of deportation, and Vizguerra’s latest one-year stay of deportation expired in February 2024.

But her legal team at Denver law office Lichter Immigration contends any reinstated order is invalid because standard procedure wasn’t followed by ICE officers.

Supporters are taking Wang’s order as good news. “We are relieved and cautiously optimistic in the wake of this order,” said Jordan Garcia, spokesperson at the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker social justice group that has worked closely with Vizguerra’s family. “The order gives Jeanette’s lawyers and the government, if they choose to come to the table, time to resolve Jeanette’s case without imminent removal or transfer hanging over her.”

According to a news release from the committee on Friday, Vizguerra’s family said: “The ruling gives us one more protection while our mom’s fight for justice and freedom continues.”

Vizguerra’s arrest sparked protests locally, and elected officials including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston have spoken out against her detention. Vizguerra, 53, built a national reputation as an immigration advocate during President Donald Trump’s first term after sheltering in two Denver churches to avoid deportation.

Another rally and vigil is planned for 6 to 8 p.m. Monday outside the Aurora ICE detention facility.

ICE directed further inquiries about Vizguerra to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The Department of Justice’s public affairs office didn’t respond to a request for comment.