VAAP comment to Criminal Justice Council re: No Mas Polimigra
VIA EMAIL to lindsay.thivierge@vermont.gov
Dear Director Thivierge:
I am the inaugural Executive Director of the recently incorporated Vermont Asylum Assistance Project (VAAP), a long overdue dedicated immigration legal services provider for Vermont. We work with humanitarian immigration status seekers and their families who live their lives in fear of police contact, some of whom have recently resettled in Vermont and others of whom are longtime community members and workers.
Ahead of today's pivotal meeting of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, VAAP respectfully urges councilmembers to vote yes to strengthening Vermont's Fair and Impartial Policing Policy. We stand in solidarity with Migrant Justice's call on the Council to remove Trump-era loopholes from Vermont's Fair and Impartial Policing Policy and ensure that Vermont police are not in the business of federal immigration enforcement and deportations.
At its last meeting, the Criminal Justice Council heard from numerous Migrant Justice members about their fears of well documented and longstanding collaboration between local law enforcement officials and federal deportation agents, known in Spanish as the “Polimigra.” During one farmworker’s testimony about wanting to feel safe going to the doctor, former Councilmember Mike Major, a representative of the Vermont Police Association, was caught on a hot mic uttering a vile and racist comment. In essence, former Councilmember Major demonstrated the dangers of existing policy loopholes which invite rogue actors to act on individual prejudices while in the line of duty—causing irreperable immigration legal harm to the noncitizens involved.
Already in my new role at VAAP, as I did throughout my work as a clinical professor of immigration law, I'm hearing more and more calls for legal help from longstanding Vermont community members who are coming into contact with Polimigra while living their daily lives. What we're seeing as humanitarian immigration and removal defense attorneys in Vermont is that the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy as written and enforced is not achieving its goal with respect to immigration policing.
For these reasons, VAAP stands in solidarity with Migrant Justice and joins their call that the Criminal Justice Council vote yes to strengthening Vermont's Fair and Impartial Policing Policy. Please extend our thanks to the Council for its consideration of VAAP's call to vote yes, and please do not hesitate to contact me if there is further helpful information I can share.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Jill Martin Diaz
Executive Director ‖ Vermont Asylum Assistance Project
P.O. Box 814, Elmwood Ave, Burlington, VT 05402
802-999-5654 ‖ www.vaapvt.org
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