VAAP ICE Tracker: February trends
VAAP saw an unmet need in our state to centralize data gathering on immigration enforcement activities, as many organizations are doing in their local areas and reporting out on nationally. This is how VAAP’s ICE Activities Tracker launched in partnership with Migrant Justice.
Especially in times of deep uncertainty, good and bad faith information sharing, and fear, centralizing and verifying firsthand experiences is essential to the work of (1) tracking patterns and due process compliance efficiently and effectively, (2) sharing reliable information and myth-busting harmful rumors circulating in communities, and (3) connecting individuals facing deportation proceedings with life-saving immigration legal services quickly and competently.
Several media outlets and offices have lifted up the reporting tool being developed by VAAP in consultation with national partners and local organizers:
Immigrant rights’ advocates launch public tracker of Trump-era enforcement (VT Digger)
Vermont immigrant rights’ advocates launch public tracker of Trump-era enforcement (Valley News)
Vermont advocates launch ICE action tracker as Trump immigration rhetoric fuels fear (Vermont Public)
Now a few weeks into hosting the tracker, we want to share a few updates about the data we’re receiving on the ICE tracker and what you can expect from us moving forward.
Right now, our goal is sharing reliable information to promote harm reduction. Accordingly, we are learning how to verify reports of ICE activities that seem plausible, as well as those that seem unlikely but could be true. Verifying tips is tricky with limited resources and our need to focus on providing direct legal services. We are also figuring out how to handle online trolls, protect against retaliation, and manage media interest. We know people want to understand what we’re doing with the data and what we’re not sharing. This is a balancing act. Sharing unverified reports can fuel fear, but not sharing enough can affect trust. We’re doing our best to get it right.
Moving forward, I’ll post verified updates on a blog linked under the tracker on our website. For now, we have only a few confirmed activities we can share:
A VAAP client was detained by ICE in a targeted arrest while on their way to work. The client has a strong political asylum claim pending with the Immigration Court and was in the process of resolving a recent traffic violation in the criminal court’s pretrial diversion program which would have resolved in a full dismissal of charges.
A VAAP staff person and client were questioned by ICE while driving together past a routine road stop. The VAAP staff and client had the option to assert their Fourth Amendment rights but in the moment judged it safest to instead comply with requests for information proving the client has a pending humanitarian immigration application and VAAP does indeed represent the client. Visit our community resource library to learn more about interacting with ICE.
VAAP was contacted for legal help by a person who was detained by ICE along the northern border while on her way to seek asylum in Canada.
A VAAP pro bono attorney’s client family whose asylum and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applications are pending were detained by ICE while driving on the highway to buy groceries. The head of household and primary asylum seeker continues to be detained by ICE and is being moved to an out-of-state ICE facility where he will seek review of his custody decision by an immigration judge, with co-counseling from the Center for Justice Reform Clinic.
VAAP shared technical expertise and referral information with a local school district aware of one parent who was taken into immigration custody in Chittenden County while their children were at school. The arrest left the mixed status school children with their unemployed custodial co-parent who is now facing eviction from their employer-provided housing.
One person was taken into immigration custody in the Walmart parking lot in Williston. We have heard of similar sightings of immigration enforcement officers in other shopping center parking lots including a heavily reported sighting of ICE outside the Vergennes Western Union.
Another two people were taken into immigration custody in targeted arrests in separate incidents outside their homes in Burlington and South Burlington, respectively.
Another pending asylum applicant was taken into custody on the New York side of the lake and is being held in custody at the CRCF women’s facility in Burlington.
Our law partners at the Center for Justice Reform Clinic have been contacted by additional people who were taken into immigration custody who have already been ordered removed but were seeking post-removal order immigration relief (much like the posture of asylum seeker Steven Tendo, whose unconventional ICE supervision encounter last month was heavily reported).
We do not currently have other confirmed reports to share. The majority of reported ICE activities appear to be good faith inaccurate reports being shared to share information, or bad faith plausible reports being shared to stoke fear. A significant proportion of form responses are filled with threatening anti-immigrant hate in the name of the “MAGA” movement and the new federal administration.
We will continue to share information as we are able to verify it with partners. Thanks for your patience and understanding. Please check back later for more updates.
