On Tuesday night, the Vermont Legislature’s Committees on Judiciary held a joint hearing on what people witnessed and experienced during the March 11 ICE raid in South Burlington.
There has been controversy swirling over state and local police actions during a day-long protest at a house that ICE eventually entered, leading to a violent confrontation between law enforcement and the people who had gathered.
The House and Senate Judiciary committees held a hearing on March 19 to hear the perspectives from law enforcement.
On Tuesday night, it was the public’s turn.
Many witnesses described violent confrontations with local and state police officers. Jess Shapiro testified that she was strangled by a state trooper.
“I felt confident because I wasn’t violent. I wasn’t screaming obscenities. I was just standing my ground that I would be safe from assault. The state trooper that was in front of me pushed my left shoulder down and with his left hand wrapped his fingers around my throat, pulled me into him and squeezed until I began to lose consciousness. I don’t remember how long I was unconscious but I know that I was dragged limp out of the crowd, unable to breathe, until I laid on the ground where nurses attended to me.”
The ICE enforcement action in South Burlington began with a chase that caused a traffic accident and then moved to a home, where activists and others gathered peacefully throughout the day.
When the federal agents received a warrant late in the day, they broke down the door and detained three people – none of whom were on the warrant and all of whom were subsequently released by federal judges.
Suki Budacomb was emotional as she recalled what happened the day of the raid.
“Dear ICE, police and bystanders. I watched you hurt my friends. First you shoved one of them because they happened to be standing too close to you. You handcuffed another, slammed him to the ground and dug your knee into their back until they had to turn their face sideways in order to breathe. You casually stepped over them as they lay vulnerable on the ground and pepper sprayed them point blank.”
Criticism of state and local law enforcement was rampant among those testifying, with many saying police protected and helped ICE agents, rather than the public. Burlington resident Keith Brunner said officers clearly violated the state’s Fair and Impartial Policing policy.
“I saw masked state police wearing tactical gear arriving in formation and advancing on us. I saw them physically pushing, grabbing and throwing people in order to create and enforce a corridor for ICE agents to break down the door and extract people who were inside.”
In the aftermath of the detainments, South Burlington Police Chief Bill Breault said his department did not aid ICE and that officers followed Vermont’s Safe and Impartial Policing mandates. Other local departments have made similar comments.
Leif Taranta is a professional de-escalation and non-violence trainer.
“I was there on the 11th and I’m also part of the community investigation that has spent thousands of combined hours combing the footage of the incident. We found extensive evidence of police and ICE collusion, Fair and Impartial Policing policy violations and documented uses of excessive force. I keep hearing that officers were in a difficult position. It is not hard to not attack innocent community members.”
On Tuesday, legislators were particularly attentive as one of the individuals who was detained that night stepped forward to testify. Migrant Justice organizer Will Lambek translated for Cristian Jerez.
“Fue un momento de mucho miedo, de mucho trauma, mucho terror. Porque no sabiamos a quien llamar.”
"This was a moment of great fear, trauma, terror because we didn’t know where to turn."
"Fue un momento de mucha violencia. Aparte de eso cuando iba pa dentro de la patrulla los officiales burlabandose do lo que se estaba pasando. Rosiando la gas a las personas en la cara."
"This was a moment of incredible violence and once we were taken out of the house and put into the cars we heard the agents laughing and making fun of the people outside. We also saw through the car windows as they used pepper spray on people’s faces.”
Internal investigations of the incident by law enforcement agencies are ongoing.
