[T]hirteen people have been ordered to appear in court following their arrest on disorderly conduct charges outside an immigration enforcement office in Williston.
The arrests were made by town police as more than 100 protesters rallied Saturday against the Trump administration’s family separation police.
The protest was part of the “Families Belong Together” series of rallies that have taken place across the country since June 30.
The Williston protesters called for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, and for the immediate reunification of families separated by border patrol agents.
“I thought there was good turnout,” said Chloe White, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Vermont. “I thought people really needed to express their thoughts about this administration’s policies, and this was a great forum for them to do that.”
In late June, the Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge to reunite parents and children separated under its policy within 30 days.
As of a week before the court-ordered July 26 deadline, only 364 of the 2,551 children separated from their parents had been reunited.
Rachel Siegel, executive director of the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington and a protest organizer, said she and her daughter took part because of a “moral imperative” to “utilize the privilege we have so that we can build more resistance collectively and be part of a nationwide movement to change these policies.”
During the protest, Williston police received complaints and arrived to find 13 protesters sitting down in the road blocking traffic.
Police Chief Patrick Foley said that the gathering was peaceful and when police arrived, all 13 accepted their disorderly conduct citations.
“They arrested us as we wanted and we communicated with them through a lawyer,” Siegel said.
Eleven adults and two juveniles were ordered to appear in court next month.
According to Williston police, Saturday’s protest was the third against immigration policy in the last two months.
