What can be done locally to protect immigrants?

A lot of folks are contacting VAAP asking what they can do locally to support immigrant communities and protect immigrants’ rights. In response, VAAP has begun collating resources and opportunities to get involved at the local, state, and federal levels. Below is a running collation of those efforts with links to pertinent resources. Absent an ONA-equivalent for VT, an open question is who can receive and report on, let alone meaningfully respond to, complaints of violations of state and federal obligations owed Vermont immigrants? Who can take legal action to ensure government accountability?

Overview

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s 2024 national map of immigration-related local lawmaking.

• National Immigration Law Center’s 2018 report, “How Governors and Attorneys General Can Use Their Authority to Support and Protect Immigrants.”

An act re: Office of New Americans Equivalent for Vermont (s.194 2024; reprisal tba)

• Read VAAP’s perspective on the value added by an ONA equivalent for Vermont.

• Read VAAP’s initial feedback to lawmakers regarding the proposed creation of an ONA study for 2025.

• Access resources and partners’ statements regarding an ONA equivalent for Vermont.

An act re: Vermont Department of Corrections Accountability (tba)

• Vermont DOC’s 2011 contract with DHS to hold detained immigrants in custody pending relocation to an out-of-state ICE facility.

• Vermont DOC’s 2016 correspondence on honoring ICE detainer (custody) requests.

• American Immigration Council, “Do 287g Agreements with ICE Make Communities Safer?” (Immigration Impact, 2024).

• American Civil Liberties Union, "Stop ICE From Empowering Racist Sheriffs: End 287g Agreements (2024).

• National Immigrant Justice Center policy brief, “Disentangling Local Law Enforcement From Federal Immigration Enforcement (2021).

• ACLU VT’s Lia Ernst speaks to Vermont Public on impossibility of "mass deportations” without federal cooption of local law enforcement resources (Vermont Public, 2024).

An act re: Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles Accessibility (tba)

• Vermont DMV’s Driver’s Privilege Cards (DPC) program.

• Vermont DMV’s Non-Driver Identification Card program.

• Federal changes to REAL ID program in 2025.

• “REAL ID: What to Know” by Immigrants Rising.

• National Conference of State Legislatures’ map of states offering immigration-neutral identification and driver’s licensing.

• Center for Migration Studies’ “Disrupting the Traffic Stop-to-Deportation Pipeline” (2021).

Expanded “Sanctuary” policies and clarifying declarations

• Vermont’s Model Fair and Impartial Policing Policy and the need to further strengthen it and its implementation.

• Southern Poverty Law Center’s learning center for “Sanctuary Schools” movements.

• Sample Attorney General Advisories from the first Trump administration.

Under- or unfunded state protections already in place

• Immigration status-neutral professional licensure and business ownership for noncitizen entrepreneurs.

• Immigration status-neutral financial assistance for higher education and professional studies.

• Language access rights and remedies for English Learners navigating federally funded programs.

• Restorative justice responses to noncitizens seeking immigration-safe remedies for workplace mistreatment, intimate partner violence, and other forms of crimes and harms.

Accountability for violations of local, state, and federal law

• Vermont Attorney General’s Office for civil remedies of victims of hate crimes—and biased breaches of immigrants’ rights?

• Request legal help from the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont.

• File an administrative complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission.

• Notify the Vermont State Refugee Office.

• File an administrative civil rights complaint with the Department of Homeland Security.

• File an administrative complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General