Vermont is not officially a sanctuary state, but it again found itself in the U.S. Justice Department’s latest list of 35 sanctuary jurisdictions as part of the federal government’s continued effort to target communities that are seen as interfering with immigration enforcement.
“Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Tuesday Justice Department press release, calling sanctuary policies “harmful” and threatening to sue those who refuse to comply with federal law.
The Justice Department first released a longer list in May in response to President Donald Trump’s April 28 executive order directing federal authorities to identify so-called sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide that are “deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.”
The list, which earlier this year named more than 500 jurisdictions across red and blue states, met strong pushback. The new list of about three dozen sanctuary jurisdictions, largely Democratic, makes no reference to the older list which has been removed from the Department of Homeland Security’s website.
The sanctuary movement began in 1982 with some American churches declaring that they would provide refuge to Central Americans after civil conflicts erupted in Guatemala and El Salvador. San Francisco was the first city to enact a sanctuary policy in the U.S. in 1989. The term has since been used to describe communities that limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
In 2017, Gov. Phil Scott signed legislation and published guidelines for municipalities to consider when adopting policies on municipal law enforcement interactions with federal immigration officials. But in taking these actions, the governor stopped short of officially declaring the state a sanctuary jurisdiction.
A fact sheet put out by Scott at the time stated, “Vermont’s response does not put federal dollars at risk because it does not establish Vermont as a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction.’”
In May, when Vermont first appeared on the Justice Department’s list of sanctuary jurisdictions, Amanda Wheeler, a spokesperson for Gov. Phil Scott, insisted that the state has not established itself as a “sanctuary jurisdiction.”
“Vermont maintains full compliance with federal law while protecting the Constitutional rights of citizens and the State. This means, Vermont doesn’t stand in the way of the federal government carrying out federal immigration laws in Vermont,” Wheeler said at the time.
Wheeler could not be reached immediately for comment on Tuesday.
Advocates were quick to defend sanctuary policies and Vermont’s stance this week. Federal immigration authorities have in recent months targeted an Upper Valley resident with legal residency status, a Middlebury student on a valid visa, and a U.S. citizen and Winooski school superintendent.
Policies that protect residents and help foster trust between them and law enforcement are important, said Lia Ernst, legal director at the ACLU of Vermont.
“Cities and states have every right to focus on serving their own residents — not enabling Trump’s mass deportation agenda — and that’s exactly what Vermont’s leaders should continue to do,” Ernst said in an email to VTDigger on Tuesday.
The Trump administration recently sued New York City for having a sanctuary city policy claiming that it led to the non-fatal shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer in a Manhattan park, the Associated Press reported.
This week’s list, which the department plans to update, names four counties, 13 states and 18 cities from Boston to Seattle, according to the Justice Department release.
The Justice Department has filed several lawsuits to “compel compliance with federal law,” according to the press release, which encourages communities to revoke sanctuary policies as a Kentucky city did recently.
Last month, Democratic Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg reversed course to say the city would comply with the Trump administration’s 48-hour immigration detainer requests and in exchange, the federal government planned to drop the city from its list, The Hill reported.
