When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched an immigration raid in South Burlington on March 11, they ran into a wall of resistance. Neighbors linked arms in an attempt to stop the masked agents from entering a house in their effort to arrest and deport a Mexican-born man. Protesters blocked an ICE vehicle and hurled insults and objects.
ICE agents deployed flashbang grenades. Vermont State Police and local police shoved, dragged and even choked some protesters, according to public testimony at the Statehouse. Three occupants of the house who were not named in a warrant were arrested by ICE. Outside, six protesters were arrested — three by VSP and three by Burlington police.
Resistance did not end on the streets of South Burlington. Last week, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George announced that she would not charge the protesters who were arrested. She stated that they did not have criminal records and it was not solely protesters who “bear the burden of all the harm caused that day.” George also blamed police officers “who agitated, who escalated, and who responded in a way that may be ultimately deemed legal, but was also unacceptable.”
George told me that “there were some protesters that absolutely escalated the situation and made things a lot more dangerous than necessary.” But she added that after watching the police body camera videos, “there was a lot of behavior on both sides that was not necessary and made the situation a lot more escalated than it needed to be.”
George has called for an independent review of the law enforcement response and referred three of those arrested to a restorative justice program.
State police leaders have criticized George in unusually harsh and personal terms, blasting her for “a disheartening decision that sets a dangerous precedent.”
Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison and Vermont State Police Director Col. Matthew T. Birmingham wrote in a statement, “The state’s attorney’s failure to bring charges in this matter is likely to embolden people at similar events in the future to cross the line into criminal behavior, placing the public and law enforcement at greater risk of harm.”
George countered that the situation “was very emotionally charged, and our local law enforcement participated in the unlawful arrest of three of our community members, and I think that there has to be a bit more accountability shared in what happened on March 11.”
In the end, the entire ICE raid was found to have been triggered by a case of mistaken identity. The three occupants of the house who were arrested have since been released.
Asked if she believed that federal agents were breaking the law and not being held accountable, George replied, “Yeah, absolutely. From my perspective, March 11 is an example of that.” She noted that the ICE officer lied on his affidavit to obtain an arrest warrant and “there was no impact on that agent for falsifying a warrant.”
What role should local law enforcement play when federal agents are conducting an immigration raid and community members are protesting?
“I don't know,” George replied. “Ultimately, it's up to communities to decide.” She suggested that local police chiefs ask their town officials for guidance on “what do you want us to do when this happens.”
George added that local police felt that “if they hadn't been present on March 11, that ICE agents would have significantly harmed, if not killed, protesters. That is a terrifying thought.”
“I'm terrified for every brown person in our community,” said George. “I'm terrified that it is OK for ICE agents to do what they did on March 11 and essentially kidnap three people in our community, because they just rounded up the brown people in the house, instead of taking the time to make sure that they were even on the slightest bit of legal ground.”
“We have a lot of people in our community that contribute to our community in an incredible way and are afraid to leave their houses. And that, to me, is an enormous threat to public safety.”
George said her refusal to charge protesters is “about standing up for the three people who (were) unlawfully arrested that day by a federal administration that doesn't care about the law.”
“It has to be more important to every single person in our community and to our law enforcement officers that that be held accountable more than the three people locking arms to try to keep those three people from being kidnapped.”
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