Denver immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra was honored with a  on Thursday. Two of her children traveled to the nation's capital to accept the award on her behalf.

Vizguerra's detention by ICE is approaching 12 weeks. For Luna Baez Vizguerra, seeing her mother's release from the GEO facility in Aurora would be the best award of all right now.

"I'm just very desperate, very frustrated, very eager for her to be out," said Baez Vizguerra.

And yet, she's proud her mom now joins the ranks of global leaders recognized for "embodying Senator Robert F. Kennedy's belief in the power of courage to overcome injustice."

Baez Vizguerra said, "They have taken some form of risk, some form of repercussion, people that play it safe, people that don't typically risk themselves, they don't go ahead and receive this."

Vizguerra's lawyer recorded a message to allow her to speak to those gathered at the ceremony, sharing her commitment to continue working for immigration rights and pride in her daughters.

"I cannot be there with you, but my daughters and my heart are there with you all. I ask you to continue fighting for the human rights of all humanity. It gives me hope to know that there are so many people with the same mentality as me, with the same ideals. Another thing that gives me hope is seeing how my children continue my work," Vizguerra said.

She said that she has continued her work while in ICE custody, educating and obtaining testimonies of others who have also been detained.

Jeanette Vizguerra entered the U.S. without authorization in 1997. In 2009, after a traffic stop, she was convicted of attempted possession of a forged instrument for using a fake Social Security number. Three of her four children were born in the U.S.

Vizguerra gained national prominence in 2017 when she took refuge inside a church.

"She chose to highlight and look at the injustices that every marginalized group faces in this country," said her daughter Luna.

Luna's grown up seeing her mom's work as a union organizer, connecting other immigrants to resources, and speaking out against the immigration system she says is unjust in the way it separates families.

ICE said Vizguerra is "a convicted criminal alien from Mexico who has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge. She has received legal due process in U.S. Immigration Court."

But Vizguerra and her family believe it's her advocacy that caught the attention of immigration enforcement agents, who picked her up in March outside her job at Target.

"She is a political prisoner," said Baez Vizguerra. "The reason that she was detained was because she is so outspoken. The typical person isn't posted on the ICE page in shackles because of a traffic infraction."

Vizguerra's attorneys have a pending First Amendment free speech claim seeking her release.

Baez Vizguerra said, "It's frustrating that they arrested her in the way that they did that. It's still targeted when, within our Constitution, the First Amendment is so highly spoken on. This is a country that was built on that."

Last week, Vizguerra's attorneys filed a new motion to obtain her release on bond.  In a recent filing, lawyers for ICE said that noncitizens cannot challenge a removal order on the basis that enforcement is selective.