[B]URLINGTON — Approximately 300 protesters marched down Church Street demanding the closure of child detention centers at the southern border, and the release of three undocumented immigrants working in Vermont who were recently detained.
Reports over the past several weeks have documented children in detention centers without soap, toothbrushes, and beds, which Trump administration lawyers argued aren’t necessary to maintain the “safe and sanitary” conditions required for those being held by U.S. Customs Border Protection.
The Burlington protest flooded an entire block as the activists marched toward Main Street, where traffic was stopped to allow the marchers to fill the street. Their chants and songs, which ranged from the simple “ho ho, hey hey, immigrants are here to stay,” to the more involved, “unemployment and inflation are not caused by immigration, that’s bullshit, get off it, the enemy is profit,” rang through downtown.
The protest was part of a national day of action with events occurring in more than 180 locations, according to MoveOn.org.
Outside the offices of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, the activists called on Vermont’s congressional delegation to vote against any funding for family detention and deportation, and to visit the camps at the border to see the conditions there for themselves.
“These radicalized criminal agencies are destroying families, killing innocent children,” the letter they delivered to the lawmakers reads. “It is absolutely unconscionable to even consider giving one more dollar to support this president’s deportation force that openly commits human rights abuses and refuses to be held accountable to the American people.”
They called out Leahy for voting in favor of the $4.6 billion funding bill that included money for the detention centers, and Rep. Peter Welch for voting for a similar House bill, though that legislation included more protections for immigrants at the border. Sanders, meanwhile, missed the vote, along with several other senators-turned-presidential-candidates who were all in Miami for the Democratic candidates debate.
“Concentration camps can’t be made better. ICE cannot be made better. ICE’s only reason to exist is to harass, jail, and deport immigrant workers in this country,” said protester Ashley Smith. “That is not a reformable institution, that is an institution that must be abolished.”
Speakers, including former Gov. Madeleine Kunin, said that even if the conditions at the camps were good, the separation of children from parents in and of itself would be enough to demand their closure.
“It’s a sin to separate these children from their parents,” Kunin said. “Even if they have proper food, which they don’t, even if they have real beds, which they don’t, even if they had someone to hug them and take care of them, it’s no substitute for parents. Babies need parents. Children need parents. And we have to translate our anger and our shock into action.”
The protesters backed up Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her description of the detention centers as concentration camps, with signs saying things like “never again means now” and “we can’t say we didn’t know.”
They also focused their efforts on three Vermont farmworkers, Ismael Mendez-Lopez, Mario Diaz-Aguilar and Ubertoni Aguilar-Montero, who were arrested at a Walmart in Derby where they sending money home to their families.
“As we read about what’s happening on the southern border, we must not forget what’s happening here on the northern border,” said Migrant Justice leader Zully Palacios. “As long as these three men are detained, I’m going to be fighting for their freedom. And as long as anybody is behind bars, I’ll be fighting for their freedom.”
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Welch and Leahy voted in favor of the same funding bill.
