(This story was updated March 21 at 6 p.m.)
[M]ore than 150 Vermonters turned out at a Statehouse rally Tuesday afternoon in support of three unauthorized immigrant farmworkers and activists recently detained by federal authorities.
Protesters sang songs and gave speeches. They called on Vermont’s congressional delegation to press to free the three and for Gov. Phil Scott to hurry up and sign S.79, a bill that would restrict state and local police from joining in federal immigration enforcement unless approved by the governor. (These three arrests would not have been affected because they involved federal authorities only.)
Among those at the rally in front of the state capitol was activist Bill McKibben.
“This stuff just kills me,” he said of the arrests. “These are our neighbors.”
Speakers included Lyle Deida, the father-in-law of Cesar Alexis Carrillo-Sanchez. Deida said Carrillo-Sanchez lost his father when he was 13 and that Carrillo-Sanchez came from Mexico to the United States in 2010 to take care of his family back home. Carrillo-Sanchez’s wife, an American citizen, and their 4-year-old daughter attended the rally.
Marita Canedo of Migrant Justice, an advocacy group that organized the event, said the three detainees were waiting for bond hearings, and she encouraged the crowd to attend those hearings in solidarity. She said the group’s members were being targeted for their political activism.
“We want them back and we want them back soon,” Canedo said.
Earlier, Vermont’s congressional delegation expressed “strong concerns” to federal immigration authorities over the recent arrests.
In a joint statement released Monday night, Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, as well as Rep. Peter Welch, criticized the stepped-up enforcement called for by President Donald Trump. They called his policies “divisive and xenophobic” and said the focus was misplaced.
The increased enforcement, they said, could pose a threat to the Vermont dairy economy. Many farms in Vermont have hired undocumented workers. Leahy and Welch are Democrats. Sanders is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
“Instead of focusing on removing those people who pose a threat to public safety or national security, the Trump Administration is targeting all undocumented persons, including the people that help keep our dairy farms and rural economy afloat,” the joint statement said.
The three Vermont farmworker advocates were arrested last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Burlington on charges of being in the country illegally.
All three continued to be held in New Hampshire, according to Migrant Justice.
Carrillo-Sanchez was arrested Wednesday just outside a courthouse in Burlington where he was going to have a DUI charge dismissed, according to the advocacy group. ICE says Carrillo-Sanchez claims to have unlawfully entered the U.S. in 2010 and faces removal proceedings.
On Friday, Enrique “Kike” Balcazar and Zully Palacios were picked up by authorities, also in Burlington, following a targeted traffic stop. Palacios, from Peru, reportedly overstayed her visa by a year.
In addition to Migrant Justice, Balcazar also was a member of a task force put together by Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan to look at immigration issues.
Donovan said federal authorities were “well within their purview” to arrest the three.
A rally in Burlington on Saturday drew hundreds downtown to protest the arrests.
The three-member congressional delegation was also critical of the House Republican leadership.
“We are seeing the result of the failure of Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to even consider comprehensive immigration reform, including provisions for undocumented agricultural workers. Instead of common sense reform, we now have a divisive and xenophobic executive order issued unilaterally by President Trump that is tearing families and communities apart, and endangering our dairy farms here in Vermont,” they said.
