AG CLARK MUST DROP THE CHARGES; GMDSA STANDS WITH WILLISTON PROTESTORS AHEAD OF ‘SHUT DOWN ICE’ WEEK OF ACTION
A protester is carried to a police vehicle by four Vermont State Troopers after being arrested for blocking the entrance to the ICE Surveillance Facility in Williston on Friday, July 24, 2026. Photo Credit: Glenn Russell/VTDigger
I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)
Last week, Vermont’s Attorney General Charity Clark brought charges against 13 people who took non-violent direct action in front of an ICE surveillance facility in Williston. Clark boasts on her website and social media of the lawsuits her office has brought against the Trump administration and highlights the importance of “battling federal overreach.” Yet, as our communities fight back against the monstrous activities being committed by ICE, Clark’s choices have displayed her commitment to “order” over justice, as Dr. King describes.
Immigrants as well as American born citizens have been kidnapped, disappeared and killed by ICE and CBP since Donald Trump returned to office. This includes our neighbors in Vermont, such as Alex Jimenez, a farmworker who was kidnapped by Border Patrol during a traffic stop in July and deported in August. Clark embodies the white moderate who, as Dr. King continues in his letter, fails to understand that “law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” It is laughable that Clark considers charging protestors, ranging in age from 18 to 74, non-violently blocking a building as the “constitutional thing” to do.
Vermont is a state with scarce state-level resources, and directing these toward punishing our community members for civil disobedience is an affront to Vermonters who are dealing with years of austerity. The ICE operations in Williston include a national surveillance and targeting center that analyzes information used for immigration enforcement, alongside other federal and law-enforcement intelligence operations, creating the infrastructure to target and kidnap our neighbors here in Vermont and nationwide. It does not reflect the values of our communities in Vermont and has no place in our state.
We pose a challenge to Clark. If a future conservative Congress were to outlaw abortion in the entire country, will she prosecute medical professionals who defy the law to conduct abortions? What significance then does her endorsement by Planned Parenthood hold? Why does her office insist on prosecuting those engaging in civil disobedience?
Given that Chittenden County State’s Attorney, Sarah George, has declined to charge non-violent protestors from the South Burlington ICE raid in March, Vermont State Police sent these cases directly to Clark. George shows us that a different choice is possible, no matter the anger from detractors.
Additionally, on September 30th, the federal government brought federal charges against five people involved in protests at the same Williston surveillance facility, three of whom were also among the Williston 13. We cannot ignore the timing of these state and federal prosecutions coming immediately before the Shut Down ICE VT Week of Action. This reads as a message from the state and federal governments to the people of Vermont: stand down and stop fighting for your neighbors or you will be severely punished.
GMDSA stands with the Williston 13. We are undeterred in fighting with and for our immigrant neighbors. From the civil rights movement in the United States to the fight against apartheid in South Africa and the struggle for Indian independence, civil disobedience has been part of social justice movements across the world. People who led these movements, such as Dr. King, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi, have all faced the wrath of the carceral state for acts of resistance and civil disobedience. These charges only reaffirm that we are on the right side of history and our communities remain committed to our cause, not just during the Shut Down ICE Week of Action, but until ICE is abolished and no human is ever considered illegal.
