Montpelier, VT— A coalition of state lawmakers and advocacy organizations announced a slate of policy initiatives that seek to protect Vermont communities from the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Senator Tanya Vyhovsky, Senator Rebecca White, and Representative Leonora Dodge joined Migrant Justice, Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, the ACLU of Vermont, VPIRG, and community members for a press conference on January 21st to highlight these key immigrants’ rights protections.
Representative Leonora Dodge: “Our constituents have been loud and clear: defend Vermont from the chaos and violence of federal assaults on immigrants, on their allies, and on anyone unlucky enough to land in the middle of ICE operations. We cannot stand idly by while our Vermont dairy farms and construction crews get raided, our neighbors Nacho and Heidi get dragged out of their vehicles and detained simply for looking Latino, and immigration detainees in our correctional facilities go without basic access to interpreters, medical attention, and lawyers.”
Two of the policies highlighted by lawmakers and advocacy groups would leverage the state’s authority to restrict immigration enforcement activity in specific locations and bar officers from hiding their identity. S.209 seeks to safeguard immigrants’ access to essential services by expanding the state’s ban on civil arrests at courthouses to include other state and local government buildings. It would also limit federal agents from making warrantless immigration arrests in other locations essential to the functions of our society, similar to the “sensitive location guidance” rescinded by the Trump administration in 2025. S.208 would prohibit law enforcement officers from concealing their identity through masking. It would also require that agents be properly identified so that individuals being detained or arrested have recourse for any civil rights violations perpetuated during the encounter.
Leah Brenner, Vermont Asylum Assistance Project: “At VAAP, we often say that there are no rights without remedies. For all the state’s efforts to expand immigrants’ rights in Vermont, without access to legal representation, those detained by ICE in Vermont’s prisons will continue to lack meaningful access to justice. To deliver on Vermont’s shared values and protect our friends and neighbors unfairly targeted by the Trump administration, it is vital that fund legal services for people held by ICE in Vermont.”
Two other policies seek to enable access to justice for immigrants targeted by federal agents and/or detained in Vermont’s prison system for alleged civil immigration violations. The first proposal would create a state-funded legal resource so that people held in state prison for an alleged civil immigration violation have access to an attorney, the same way that people held for alleged criminal violations do. The second would codify a private right of action so that people can sue officials when their federal constitutional rights are violated, creating a state-level version of Section 1983 that would include federal officials.
Olga, a member of Vermont human rights nonprofit Migrant Justice: “We are calling on the state to act, to stop the persecution of our community. No more family separations; no more children suffering from their parents being detained. We want to live freely, to be able to live and work with dignity.”
The other two policies highlighted by coalition leaders are focused on the state’s role in perpetuating or disrupting discriminatory actions at the state level, which are impacting immigrants’ rights. S.144 would address over-policing and persistent racial disparities in traffic stops on our roadways by prohibiting stops for equipment violations, as well as consent-based searches without probable cause. H.294 seeks to expand language services so that speakers of languages other than English held in Vermont’s prisons have access to the information and resources that they need. It would also allow access to free communications, and restrict exploitative commissary prices—allowing people to retain connections with their community and access things like basic hygiene products at fair prices.
A recording of the coalition’s press conference is available here.
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