MONTPELIER — Many people detained by federal immigration authorities in Vermont face deportation, detention and family separation without representation from a lawyer.
On Thursday, state officials and nonprofit leaders launched the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund with the goal of raising $1 million to bolster legal representation for immigrants.
“We are seeing the power of legal representation to change lives. We’re seeing also how many people there are who are still waiting for legal help,” said Jill Martin Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, a nonprofit that provides pro bono immigration representation, at the fund’s launch.
Because immigration offenses are considered civil offenses, the federal government is not obligated to provide lawyers for people facing deportation. In Vermont, data shows up to two dozen people may be held in state prisons for immigration offenses at any given time, though that number fluctuates. Starting recently, some of those people are sent from Vermont to facilities in Louisiana and Texas, attorneys have said.
A limited number of lawyers specialize in immigration practice in Vermont, and people detained for immigration offenses in the state may never contact a lawyer, according to Diaz. The asylum assistance project — and the immigration fund — will help recruit and train legal volunteers to assist with more cases.
Mohsen Mahdawi, A Columbia University student whose detention in Vermont by federal authorities for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinian human rights has drawn national attention, spoke at the launch event and praised the fundraising for its support of democracy.
He recalled being held in a Vermont prison cell with a migrant farmworker.
“Before he goes to bed, he would kneel on his knees, and he would hold his hands, and he would do a prayer from the Catholic tradition,” Mahdawi said. “I think his prayers have been answered today by this initiative.”
Money raised through the defense fund will support the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project — which has represented over 300 people since it was founded in 2021 — and other partner organizations.
The United Way of Northwest Vermont is expected to “provide administrative support for the fund and to ensure donations to the fund are tax deductible,” according to a press release announcing the initiative.
State Treasurer Mike Pieciak and Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, helped launch the fund, though not in their professional capacities.
