VAAP speaks to Seven Days About 2025 Preparation

Seven Days spoke to VAAP executive director Jill Martin Diaz about the ways in which Donald Trump’s return to the presidency is disrupting the way many Vermonters live. Read the story here: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/donald-trumps-return-could-change-life-for-vermonters-42445440.

They write: “Would mass deportations here harm the dairy industry?

“Yes. Vermont dairy farms have been reliant upon migrant laborers for many years, and the industry would collapse without them. Homan, Trump's border czar, appears to know this. He said last month that Trump would seek to carry out workplace raids around the country — with one big exception. "I'm not looking to attack dairy farms. I'm looking to help them," Homan said.

“Even if Trump does not round up and deport Vermont farmworkers, his policies will marginalize them in other ways, said Jill Martin Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project. "When we foreclose safe ways of moving through the world, all we do is force people into less safe, more erratic, irregular, dangerous, predatory ways," [Martin] Diaz said.

“Migrant Justice activists say they won't be deterred. "We've fought hard to come out of the shadows," Balcazar said, "and it's not an option to go backward."“