Posted on 01/22/2018 2:16:57 PM PST by GreyHoundSailor
Immigration and Customs and Enforcement raided a Days Inn hotel in Colchester last Thursday in the first sweep of migrant workers in Vermont.
ICE detained 14 construction workers, according to Will Lambek of Migrant Justice, a group that supports undocumented workers.
The raid was conducted at 5 a.m. on Jan. 18. Lambek said other construction workers who were not included in the sweep notified Migrant Justice.
The migrants were working for a contracting firm in the area. Lambek did not release information about the company for fear of jeopardizing other workers.
Lambek said the raid “was out of scale” for Vermont and the timing puts the discussion about protecting immigrants who have had protected status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in sharp relief.
VTDigger reached out to ICE for confirmation of the raid, but a message from a regional spokesperson said that the agency’s public affairs officers will not be working for the duration of the government shutdown.
Gov. Phil Scott said Monday morning he was not aware of the raid.
“Obviously I have great concern about the overreach of the federal government in some respects and the direction we’re moving,” he said. “And while we have to protect our citizens, our border and so forth, there’s got to be a path forward. We here in Vermont are desperate for workers. So I think that’s unfortunate, for those that are here safely and peacefully. I have concerns.”
Darcy Church, general manager of the Days Inn, said the workers staying at the motel but were not doing construction work there.
“We didn’t hire them, they were guests. They could have been guests anywhere,” she said.
Church was not there at the time of the raid.
“It wasn’t a big deal here from the motel’s perspective. They just came in and went up to the rooms where those people were staying and got them out,” she said.
Colchester Police Chief Jennifer Morrison said the department had “no knowledge” of the event until Monday. The department did not collaborate with ICE at all on the enforcement action, she said.
“We were not involved in it,” she said.
Immigration enforcement actions have expanded under the Trump administration. Earlier this month, ICE carried out sweeps in nearly 100 7-Eleven stores across the country.
The administration has also vowed to crack down on so-called “sanctuary” policies some cities and states have that restrict local police from working with the federal government to enforce immigration laws.
In November, Vermont was among 29 jurisdictions the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to cut funding to over policies limiting law enforcement contact with federal immigration authorities.
Jay Diaz, a lawyer for the Vermont ACLU, said “We’re pretty shocked that there would be raids like this in Vermont like there have been in other parts of the country. We’re still trying to gather information about why this happened, but it’s clear the Trump administration is taking a very draconian approach to immigration enforcement and in doing so focusing on people who are just out there try to make a living.”
Diaz said he hopes Vermonters speak out against this type of activity and hold public officials accountable.
“We should seek to end any assistance that we may be providing to immigration agencies becasue it’s clear that they are not good actors [ICE],” Diaz said. They are looking to disrupt and intimidate our residents and apparently our government officials.”
Diaz called on public officials to condemn the raids and other ICE activities, including immigration checkpoints on I-91 near White River Junction and the practice of boarding greyhound buses asking riders to provide passports and drivers licenses.
“We’ve heard several times about border patrol agents boarding buses going through White River Junction and asking for papers,” Diaz said. “That’s not the kind of country we are are.”
Perhaps the next bunch up there won’t party so hard as to draw attention to themselves.
No. It’s the ••votes•• they are losing which is pissing them off.
How about they sit out in front of Home Depot every day of the week. One hour each day woke secure about 25 to 50 illegals in front of most Home Depot’s. That would be more progress and they seemed obviously accomplish and picking up illegal aliens working here in the US.
Oh, yes:
Cut off welfare and government education to illegal aliens.
Build the wall.
We here in Vermont are desperate for workers. <<<
Great!!!.....deport the illegals and let wages for American citizens rise!!!
Free enterprise works!!....”Supply”(workers) meet “Demand”(wages)...maybe some of the new workers will come from as far away as California when the price is right...
Please come to san jose and san francisco? Please, please we beg you.
If they tried that around here this winter, they’d be frozen solid in short order.
The trooper got all the grief from the sleazy Dem governor.
Any large housing construction site around Raleigh Durham is 100% Mexican.
***********
Head south a little ways to the farm county and that’s what
you’ll find working the fields.
Just like in 1865
Must have just missed the cleaning staff ...
Until the robots come....
I wonder how many Patels are here on expired visas?
I don’t see the Vermonters busing in Blacks who could use work from other parts of the country.
It is the most hypocritical state in the USA-——It is the. “Do as we say,not as we do.” state.
An almost 100% white state.
.
Plenty of Somalis in Chittenden County; rest of the state gets the drug dealers from NY, Philly and Boston.
“”We’re pretty shocked that there would be raids like this in Vermont like there have been in other parts of the country.””
What makes that state any different when it comes to the law?
Anne Galloway should have hired an illegal alien to proofread her poorly written story.
+1
“”Any large housing construction site around Raleigh Durham is 100% Mexican.
Five minutes reviewing housing construction permits in the municipal office would keep them busy for a long time.””
That is probably true for all the states in the country. Not just construction but lawncare, restaurants, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.