Aided by Local and State Police, ICE Raids South Burlington Home While Vermonters Fight Back
Vermont State Police moments before breaking through the door. Shortly after the raid, VSP released a press statement claiming that “[n]o local or state law enforcement agents were involved in serving the warrant or entering the residence.”
On March 11, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents terrorized a family on Dorset Street in South Burlington. They detained three people who were not the target of the warrant. The person ICE claimed to be pursuing was not in the house, because they were the previous owner of the family’s car. Despite claims to the contrary, State Troopers in tactical gear helped ICE, using flashbangs and chemical weapons in a residential neighborhood near schools and forcing their way into the home. But the most important fact about March 11 is not the brutality of ICE. It is the courage of Vermonters who refused to stand aside while their neighbors were targeted. Hundreds of people came together to defend a family home from a deportation raid. They acted with the basic decency that our political leaders too often lack, for which they too became targets of police violence.
We are proud of every Vermonter who stood up to protect their neighbors.
Instead of defending the community, and despite his empty words condemning the action, Governor Phil Scott’s administration sent Vermont State Troopers to assist ICE. Armored troopers shoved, gassed, and arrested Vermonters whose only crime was standing between an immigrant family and a federal deportation squad.
Local leaders from Burlington, South Burlington, and Williston are also complicit. These municipal police departments responded to the scene not to protect the community from ICE, but to protect ICE from the community. The message was clear: When ICE comes to Vermont, local police will help them get the job done, then lie about their collaboration. As one press release put it, “The South Burlington Police Department did not and assist [sic] federal agents with the enforcement of this federal immigration violation.”
No amount of press conferences or internal reviews can change what Vermonters saw with their own eyes.
If Vermont leaders are serious about protecting immigrant communities, they will prohibit all cooperation with ICE and refuse to deploy state resources to assist federal deportation raids. Instead, they clear the streets for them.
We demand:
The immediate release of the three people detained in the raid
Criminal prosecution of officers responsible for violence against community members
A complete ban on cooperation between Vermont law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement
An independent investigation into all state and local authorities responsible for reinforcing ICE terror
The abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
What happened on Dorset Street showed two very different visions of Vermont. On one side were federal agents, riot police, and politicians willing to hide behind procedure while families were dragged from their homes. On the other side were ordinary Vermonters who stood together and said no. We know which side we are on.
