Editor’s note: This commentary is by Sandra Batchelder, a retired teacher who lives in Barre, and Dana Woodruff, a community herbalist who lives in Plainfield. Both belong to Central Vermont Standing Up for Racial Justice.
[S]ome people may be shocked to hear that on New Year’s Day, while walking to work, Francisco Rosendo Casarrubias was followed all the way into the barn and arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, targeted simply for having brown skin and wearing a backpack. Some may be shocked to hear that just two weeks later ICE raided the Days Inn in Colchester and rounded up 14 construction workers at 5 a.m.
And there’s more. Luis Cordova Ordaz and his father Armando were deported to Mexico this same month. They were detained during haying season when they were pulled over for driving an unregistered farm vehicle from the mechanic’s back to the farm. Bodycam footage shows a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy calling in Border Patrol agents only moments after asking Luis for license, registration and insurance. Two Border Patrol agents who responded to this minor traffic violation were then recorded using a racial slur, referring to Luis as well as an onlooker who offered to translate. Luis and Armando were taken into custody, detained for several months, and then deported. A minor traffic offense led to months of detention and ultimately deportation, all because the sheriff’s deputy chose to call in federal agents.
All this happened just in January. We can no longer be shocked.
In February the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a 2015 ruling requiring immigrants to have a bail hearing within six month of being detained. Now immigrants who have committed minor criminal offenses and those picked up crossing the border can be held indefinitely during deportation hearings. A migrant farm worker picked up for driving his farm’s unregistered vehicle from the repair shop can be held in jail indefinitely? Yes, if federal ICE agents are involved.
ICE agents are preying upon and disappearing our neighbors and loved ones. Some local and state law enforcement agents and state employees take it upon themselves to collude with ICE agents, putting our neighbors at great risk. This collusion has serious repercussions, leading to trauma, detention and deportation. It tears communities and families apart.
Closer to home in Montpelier, on Jan. 25, an 11-year-old was crossing the street by the Statehouse, while inside community members were holding a press conference on addressing systemic racism in Vermont.
Just outside, a carful of teens followed the child in their car and shouted, “Brown people don’t belong in this country! Get out!” The following week the same child was targeted again at a different time, on a different street, by a carful of teens who yelled, “I told you to get out of the United States, brown girl!”
Brown people don’t belong in this country? Let’s think about who belongs here. The Abenaki have been here long before white settlers ever arrived. African-Americans, both free and enslaved even after the 1777 ban on slavery here in Vermont, have been here for generations, but, along with other people of color, are often excluded from the idea of who is from here. We have all arrived here at different times and under different circumstances, but those who take it upon themselves to determine who “belongs” here are usually white and only mean other white people.
Whether it’s on the streets of Montpelier or on country roads near the border, black and brown people in our communities are being targeted. Vermont has a racism problem. Harassment of people of color is real and it’s happening here and now in our communities. We need to talk about this. Many think our state is welcoming and inclusive, but the devastating reality of racism that many people of color endure in Vermont exposes our wishful thinking. Studies have confirmed the experiences of people of color here in Vermont who have been punished more harshly, both in schools and in the courts. When white people are pulled over in a routine traffic stop, we don’t have to worry that the color of our skin or the way we speak may lead to deportation, separation from our families, or death. White people move more safely through Vermont because of the way we look, while people of color are racially profiled.
The racial profiling of farmworkers and an 11-year-old girl are all connected and hit close to home. The hate speech and slurs used by local teens and border patrol agents are both rooted in white supremacy. Messages, actions and policies that say our neighbors and loved ones don’t belong here hurt everyone. We are now approaching spring and the racial profiling and detentions have continued. On Feb. 8, dairy worker Jose Luis Cordova Herrera was driven by a friend to the dentist. A Border Patrol agent saw him enter the dental office in Richford. When Jose Luis came out an hour later, the agent was still there. Jose Luis and his friend were followed for eight miles, pulled over, and arrested. Jose Luis’ friend — a grandmother and legal permanent resident — was detained for four hours, searched, interrogated, threatened and released. After nearly three weeks of detention Jose Luis was released, thanks to community support, but he remains in removal proceedings and will have to return to immigration court. He was not deported, like his nephew Luis and brother Armando were in January, but he is also not the only person who has been detained since then.
Now is the time to speak out in our communities, schools, workplaces and places of worship. Now is the time to contact our legislators. Families need to talk about this. Not only because this is the right thing to do, or because our state’s economy depends on the labor of migrant farm workers, but because this systemic profiling and dehumanizing of people of color hurts us all. Our towns, the places we call home, don’t feel as safe. We accept a culture of fear and shame when we remain silent as immigrants, refugees and people of color are targeted. This is the exact opposite of the community we all want, where neighbors look out for each other, especially in times of need.
All this is frightening and overwhelming, but there is comfort in knowing that individuals and communities have been resisting white supremacy for generations, including right here in Vermont. We can work together with our neighbors and co-workers and in our schools and our faith communities to confront and dismantle racism. We don’t have to start from scratch. We can support organizations such as Migrant Justice, Justice for All, ACLU, and other groups working to defend human rights in our communities. Call your legislators and ask them to support Vermont Senate bill S.281. It would establish a committee empowered to combat racism in criminal justice, housing, education, health care, employment and economic development. See Justice for All’s website for discussion and updates on this bill.
Find someone at your work, senior center, school, community group or place of worship to team up with, share information and resources, and bring these topics to your group. We can have these hard conversations and take meaningful action in our communities. We can work together to uproot racism.
