Pedro Ubaldo came to Vermont from Mexico 10 years ago, when he was 16, and has been working on dairy farms ever since.
But three years ago, he was pulled over by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials — commonly known as ICE — and detained without cause, Ubaldo said in a press release issued this week by Migrant Justice, a nonprofit representing immigrant farmworkers statewide.
“Now they are trying to deport me to Mexico, but my life is here,” he said. “I am fighting to stay in Vermont to provide for my family and organize with my community for a better future.”
Ubaldo is among 10 undocumented dairy farmworkers who 42 legislators are trying to protect from deportation. All of the workers hail from Mexico, have lived and worked in the state for several years, were each racially profiled and arrested in 2018 or 2019, and are scheduled for court hearings in the coming year, according to advocates from Migrant Justice.
With Migrant Justice’s support, the 10 farmworkers and some elected officials petitioned ICE this summer to close their deportation cases. The legislators’ letter — “respectfully requesting the favorable exercise of prosecutorial discretion” — was subsequently organized by Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden and Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski.
Signing was a no-brainer for Rep. Rey Garofano, D-Essex.
“It’s simple: I’m an immigrant,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday. Garofano was born in Iran and immigrated to California with her family in the ’80s.
“I literally have firsthand knowledge of our family moving here without any support to try and make it in a new country, working and paying taxes and still not having the rights of everybody else,” she said. “I know these folks are a huge asset to our community, to our farms, to our restaurants, to the way we live. To deport them just seems inhumane.”
The impacts of deportation and pending proceedings can be “devastating” for families and communities, Small said in Migrant Justice’s press release.
“While we work to protect and retain the ‘Migrant Justice 10’ in Vermont, we must also continue our work with local communities to prioritize the safety and inclusion for all families, regardless of immigration status,” she said.
While several elected officials have signaled support with their own letters, including the congressional delegation, Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, Gov. Phil Scott’s signature remains absent.
His press secretary, Jason Maulucci, said the governor’s office “learned about the letter through the press and were not asked to sign on.”
He said the governor “wouldn’t weigh in on individual cases the Federal Government may be pursuing without having all of the relevant background information.”
Scott has not been briefed on the individual cases, Maulucci said, but “has long advocated for immigration reform that would allow for pathways to citizenship and greater opportunities for law-abiding individuals to earn a living in our state. Migrant farmworkers are members of our communities and should be welcomed in our state with open arms.”
As a response to then-President Donald Trump’s executive orders, one of the first laws Scott signed after taking office in 2017 prohibited local and state law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration law, Maulucci said.
Last year, Scott called on the federal government to resettle more refugees in Vermont. This year, he signed into law a bill introduced by Migrant Justice to prohibit immigration arrests at Vermont courts.
Garofano said she wasn’t sure whether the 42 legislators’ signatures would impact the upcoming deportation proceedings, but she was “hopeful that with legislative pressure they would think about it from a different perspective.”
While heartened to see many of her colleagues from diverse geographical and political perspectives sign the letter, Ram Hinsdale said she hoped Scott would sign on and ICE would back down.
“I would hope to see ICE under the Biden Administration begin to have less cruel and more sensible policies about deportation, especially in a workforce crisis,” she said via text message. “Similarly, Governor Scott is saying he wants to bring thousands more workers to Vermont. He can start with trying to keep these ten. Their crime was living, working, and serving in our state without documentation that is unattainable for them.”
ICE officials did not respond to comment Tuesday afternoon.
The added signatures convey hope to affected farmworkers like José Luis Córdova, 43, who works on a Vermont farm enrolled in Migrant Justice’s Milk with Dignity campaign, which promotes fair wages and humane working and living conditions for migrant workers in Vermont.
It’s important to have legislative support, Córdova said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Our voices are stronger when people in power speak out to support us and recognize how important our community is to the state,” he said. “This statement shows that we aren’t fighting alone. We hope for even more support so our petition is successful.”