A panel on ICE detentions of U.S. citizens was held Tuesday in Washington, D.C. and co-chaired by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. The superintendent of the Winooski, Vermont School District was among the five panelists.
Because Republicans control Congress and chair committees, Democrats are holding hearings labeled as ‘public forums’ to delve into various issues. Senator Blumenthal pointed to a report from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation that includes accounts of 22 American citizens detained by ICE.
“This report ought to shock America’s conscious. You have braved threats and intimidation to tell your stories.”
The profiles and panelists include Wilmer Chavarria, a respected education leader from Vermont. He was detained on July 23rd in Houston. Chavarria has been a naturalized citizen of the U.S. since 2018 and is the superintendent of the Winooski, Vermont School District. He told the Senators and House members he was proud to become an American citizen.
“When I held my American Passport for the first time, I felt an enormous sense of pride and I was deeply inspired to give my new country the best of me. I felt loved by my community and I believed with all my heart that the American Dream was me.”
But seven years after becoming a citizen, Chavarria was detained by ICE as he returned from a visit to his mother in Nicaragua.
“I understand the requirements agencies place on travelers coming into the country and I have always cooperated without hesitation. This past summer, however, I was separated from my spouse for hours, taken into a detention area and all my devices along with their pins and passwords were demanded. I verbally asserted my rights as a U.S. citizen. I was told that I have no constitutional rights at a port of entry and that I should be grateful that they were even bothering to ask me nicely”
Chavarria had been on a working vacation and the laptop and phone that ICE demanded included information on students. He was threatened after refusing to provide passwords without a warrant.
“As a superintendent, it is my duty to protect the information of our students and families contained in some of those devices. The officers responded with threats, a warning that they could make me lose my job if they wanted to or destroy my reputation so as to damage my prospects for future employment.”
Chavarria says he was never given a reason for his detention.
“Since this incident I do not feel free to travel. I am fearful that a visit to my mother could mean extended detention or a fabricated plot to destroy my life like they threatened to. If the goal is to make some citizens feel like they are second class with only some of the rights, but not others, then they have succeeded. But I choose to believe that our collective disgust for these abuses will catalyze into a powerful backlash against overreach.”
The city of Winooski has one of the largest populations of New Americans living in Vermont, which has a statewide population just under 500. Senator Peter Welch and Chavarria are concerned that students in the district are at risk for ICE detentions.
“Did we just have a second grader in your school picked up?” Welch asked.
“Yes, a second grader in our school district is in an ICE detention facility in Texas right now,” Chavarria replied. “We’re doing everything we can to provide lawyers and to get them out of there.”
Chavarria told the Democrats that the school district has also been vilified by MAGA supporters across the country for showing support for its Somali students after President Donald Trump made disparaging public remarks about the Somali population.
“Winooski has a large Somali population and we raised the Somali flag next to the U.S. flag last Friday. And we’ve been attacked relentlessly, hatefully, violently to the point of having to shut down our website and disconnect our phone lines. My wonderful kids in Vermont are scared. They do not feel safe and they have nowhere else to go. And shame on us for creating those conditions.”
No Republicans attended or participated in the forum.
