Border Patrol officials detained several people at a gas station in Jeffersonville on Wednesday morning, according to immigration advocates.
While some residents reported immigration authorities arresting 10 to 15 people, advocates have confirmed at least five local residents are currently being held in detention.
An employee at the Maplefields convenience store at the Mobil gas station on VT-15 said the incident occurred around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday with “people running around and yelling” as “immigration police” rounded up more than 10 people.
In an emailed statement Friday, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said “a targeted operation was conducted by U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations at the Maplefields’ gas station in Jeffersonville, VT. Several subjects were detained during the operation, and after further investigation and record checks, seven individuals were ultimately arrested and placed into removal proceedings. Due to privacy considerations, we are unable to release the names of the individuals or additional details regarding the circumstances of the operation.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Migrant Justice was notified of the raid via its emergency response line and is helping families of those who were detained, according to Will Lambek, spokesperson for the nonprofit advocacy group.
“We can confirm that this was a CBP action and that the people were subsequently transferred to ICE custody,” he said.
The total number of people detained in Jeffersonville is likely under 18, he estimated, although information is still coming in.
“We are in touch with family members of the detained. At this time, they are not looking to speak to the press or to provide information about those in detention,” he said.
Vermont State Police, which serves the small Lamoille County village, said it does not have information about the incident.
“Federal authorities have not been in the habit of notifying state law enforcement agencies in advance of their planned operations,” state police spokesperson Adam Silverman said.
The Jeffersonville raid comes on the heels of other operations in Vermont this week that have resulted in the detainment of 17 others at the Northwest Correctional Facility in St. Albans, NBC5 News reported.
They are “a mix of people detained by ICE/CBP in Vermont and those transferred from out of state,” Lambek said Thursday.
Advocates from the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, which offers legal services to detainees, visited the facility Wednesday to meet with them but did not find the people taken from Jeffersonville there, according to Executive Director Jill Martin Diaz. That suggests the detainees were likely held temporarily to be transferred out of state, they said.
The project’s legal tracker has confirmed five individuals detained and held in Vermont this week, three of whom are recorded as being Hispanic or Latino.
These latest roundups are examples of the Trump administration’s accelerated immigration enforcement in Vermont this year.
“They are linked, of course, as part of a larger trend of escalating attacks against immigrant communities, both in Vermont and around the country,” Lambek said.
Since the start of the second Trump presidency, Migrant Justice has documented more than three dozen ICE and Border Patrol actions in the state that have resulted in the detainment of more than 100 immigrants in Vermont. Vermont prisons are also struggling with the increased immigration enforcement.
ICE’s plan to build out its surveillance capabilities in Williston has been met with public opposition, and Vermont signed a new agreement with U.S. immigration authorities, allowing them to continue using the state’s prisons for federal detentions.
The government should be supporting working people, not targeting them and undermining their rights, said James Duff Lyall, executive director of the ACLU of Vermont, in an emailed statement.
“Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by this latest attack on our community,” he said.
“ICE and Border Patrol have long operated with a shocking lack of transparency and accountability and routinely engage in racial profiling and constitutional rights violations. Vermonters reject these actions and we will continue to show up for one another in this nation of immigrants,” he said.
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., is aware of and monitoring the situation, according to spokesperson Elisabeth St. Onge .
His office “will continue to work closely with Vermont’s network of advocates, interpreters and lawyers who work with asylum seekers and those detained,” St. Onge said. “Everyone deserves due process.”
Update: This story was updated to include a statement from Customs and Border Protection. An earlier version of this story misidentified Customs and Border Protection.
