Lawmakers heard from dozens of protesters Tuesday night who accused state and local police of using excessive force and helping federal immigration agents facilitate the detention of three people from a house in South Burlington last month.
Over the course of two and a half hours, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees listened to activists recount their experience during the daylong standoff on March 11 on Dorset Street. Many recounted how the early part of the day was calmer, with people singing and chanting and grilling hot dogs while they circled the house that was the target of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
More from Vermont Public: What we know 2 weeks after the ICE raid in South Burlington
Federal agents were attempting to arrest a 24-year-old Mexican man who they believed had fled into the house after a car chase. ICE has since admitted they were following the wrong man that day.
South Burlington Police arrived on scene after ICE requested their assistance due to the crowd, and they later called Vermont State Police and Burlington Police for additional support, fearing the situation could get out of hand.
Protesters told lawmakers on Tuesday that the arrival of additional local police increased tensions and emboldened ICE agents. Vermont law enforcement officials, who testified before lawmakers a week after the raid, have argued the opposite, suggesting their presence prevented a more violent confrontation between ICE officers and protesters.
After protesters refused to make way for ICE officers attempting to execute a court-issued criminal warrant, Vermont State Police pushed people away from the door to allow federal agents to enter the house. The agents removed three people who were inside, none of whom were named on the criminal warrant.
“I witnessed state troopers come in with guns, strong-arm my friends, throw them out of the way, and clear the path for ICE to kidnap our neighbors,” Kason Hudman said during the hearing.
Activists tried to stop ICE from driving away and multiple confrontations broke out between police and protesters. Federal agents eventually used flashbangs and chemical irritants to disperse the crowd.
Law enforcement officials say protesters spat at officers and threw objects at them. In some cases, officers wrestled protesters to the ground and restrained them, and video footage shows at least one officer throwing a woman to the pavement.
Activists told lawmakers on Tuesday that law enforcement officers pepper sprayed, shoved and strangled protesters.
Vermont State Police and South Burlington have not opened any internal affairs investigations into the incident. The Burlington Police Department has received 121 citizen complaints about the incident and is examining all uses of force by its officers, the mayor’s office said in a statement last week. The department expects those reviews to be finished within a month.
None of the agencies have released their body camera footage, citing ongoing investigations into the incident. Protesters Tuesday called on them to do so.
More from Vermont Public: State and local police defend handling of ICE raid in South Burlington
Vermont police have criticized ICE’s planning and tactics during the incident. But law enforcement officials have also blamed some protesters for stoking the conflict.
At Tuesday’s hearing, speakers said it was Vermont police who escalated the situation.
“We were dressed in ponchos made of trashbags, and had safety goggles and N95s,” Dee Graham said. “They were armed with lethal weapons, chemical agents, bulletproof vests, gas masks — the scale is exponentially different.”
Speakers on Tuesday night also questioned whether Vermont law enforcement had violated the state’s Fair and Impartial Policing policy, which prohibits local law enforcement from aiding in civil immigration enforcement actions. The policy does allow Vermont police to enforce criminal immigration law, but it says agencies shouldn’t prioritize that work.
Vermont police have said their actions on March 11 didn’t violate the policy and ICE didn’t communicate to them that the target of the enforcement action wasn’t in the house.
All three of the people detained by ICE that day have since been released from custody.
One of them, Christian Jerez Andrade, spoke to lawmakers during Tuesday’s hearing. Jerez Andrade, speaking through a translator, said that day was one of “great fear and trauma.”
“There was no authority we could call on for help, we could only count on the support of our neighbors,” he said. “I hope one day the officials who violated our rights that day and the rights of everyone who were there someday have to come here and speak to you directly.”
