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Supporters cheer for Vermont asylum-seeker who was not detained at 'last-minute' ICE appointment

A middle-aged Black man in a dark blue winter coat and black glasses hugs someone in a tan winter coat outside of a brick building on a sunny day.
Elodie Reed
/
Vermont Public
Steven Tendo receives one in a series of hugs after leaving the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in St. Albans on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

A 40-year-old Ugandan man and Colchester resident who wants asylum in the U.S. will be allowed to stay at least until the summer.

That’s after Steven Tendo reported to a “last-minute” meeting Tuesday at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in St. Albans. He had feared he would be deported, according to reporting from VTDigger. 

Outside the building, he was met by cheers from 80 or so supporters, who waited for 20 minutes — in frigid temperatures — for Tendo to emerge.

“I’m still with you for the next six months,” he said. “I am just so warm, even if it's freezing, that you guys came for me.”

A middle-aged Black man in a dark blue winter coat and black glasses stands outside of a brick building, facing a group of people speaking while holding a white sheet of paper in his hand.
Elodie Reed
/
Vermont Public
Colchester resident Steven Tendo, who is fighting deportation proceedings, and Brett Stokes, director of the Center for Justice Reform Clinic (CJRC) at Vermont Law and Graduate School, speak to a crowd of supporters outside the ICE building in St. Albans.

Tendo has been trying to get asylum since he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Brownsville, Texas in late 2018, after experiencing “numerous arrests and torture” in his home country of Uganda.

This is according to a 2023 lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by Tendo. It alleges that while he was detained by immigration authorities, he received inadequate medical treatment for his diabetes. The suit also alleges mistreatment by ICE officers after they put Tendo in a restraining device called “the WRAP” and didn’t allow him food, water, medication or a bathroom for hours.

The U.S. government’s response denies these allegations of medical neglect and mistreatment. That lawsuit is still making its way through U.S. District Court in Vermont.

While Tendo’s original asylum request was denied in 2019, he has gained increasing attention and support for his case, including a 2020 letter from more than 40 members of Congress urging the Department of Homeland Security to allow him to stay.

And Tendo has stayed thus far. He was released from detention in 2021 and moved to Vermont that year. He’s since started training to become a fully-licensed nurse at University of Vermont Medical Center, and has also been active in a local church.

Tendo has continued reporting regularly to the St. Albans ICE office. Tendo’s attorney, Brett Stokes, who’s also the director of the Center for Justice Reform Clinic (CJRC) at Vermont Law and Graduate School, says Tendo wasn’t expecting to visit ICE today.

“It was a bit last-minute,” Stokes said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, when they schedule these appointments, they don't tell us, and we don't really have a way of knowing what are these appointments for.”

He said Tendo and his legal team assumed the worst.

“Given that Steven does have a deportation order, we thought that it was possible, especially given the inauguration yesterday, that they could be ramping up enforcement operations even further in Vermont, and could be taking Steven into detention,” Stokes said.

A medium sized crowd stands outside in a parking lot on a sunny day in winter attire, between a brick building and a sign that reads "Department of Homeland Security"
Elodie Reed
/
Vermont Public
The St. Albans ICE office had sidewalks and parking lots full of demonstrators on Tuesday morning, the day after Donald Trump took office as president for the second time and immediately enacted several immigration measures, including declaring a national emergency at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

He’s referring to the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency on Monday. On Trump’s first day, he signed numerous executive orders to restrict immigration as part of his promise to carry out “the largest deportation operation” in American history.

The Trump administration’s approach to immigration was the reason some of Tendo’s supporters gave for showing up outside the ICE office Tuesday.

Like 70-year-old Becky Galvin from Burlington. She said she didn’t know Tendo personally, but she had read about what a valued community member he is, and she worried about Tendo’s last-minute call from ICE becoming a pattern.

“I feel that one of the very few things we can do is stand as witnesses, in solidarity with the people that are at risk of being victimized by new immigration policies,” Galvin said.

A person in a black winter coat and black mittens holds up a white piece of paper that reads "Let Steven Stay!" at the top, with a photo of a Black man below it and small text identifying Steven Tendo, and listing contact information for Gov. Phil Scott and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Elodie Reed
/
Vermont Public
Burlington resident Becky Galvin, 70, seen here holding a poster in support of Steven Tendo, was among the 80 or so people to show up at the St. Albans Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, where Tendo was told to report on Tuesday.

Solidarity is also the reason that Lupita, a 30-year-old member of the Vermont Latino immigrant farmworker community, who we are only calling by her middle name due to her legal status, says she showed up.

“Whenever someone from the migrant community is under attack, we always have to react, because they also have to know that the community is organized, and we have to support them so that this does not lead to an arrest or something,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter from Migrant Justice.

While Tendo and his legal team were prepared for him to be detained and deported, Stokes said they got a stay of removal request on file — and it appears ICE will approve it.

“It will likely be approved, especially because they, you know, allowed us to leave today,” Stokes said.

A line of shadows seen against fresh white snow outside of a brick building on a sunny day. On the left hand side, people forming the shadows line up and wait.
Elodie Reed
/
Vermont Public
Supporters of Steven Tendo waited about 20 minutes in frigid temperatures Tuesday before he emerged from the ICE office.

As for why this “last-minute” visit happened at all on Tuesday — Tendo said ICE told him they made a mistake about the timing of his next appointment and wanted to clear that up.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

In the meantime, Stokes says Tendo and the legal team will continue proceeding with the lawsuit, and that they also hope to reopen his asylum case.

Tendo’s next check-in with ICE is scheduled for July.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.

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Elodie is a reporter and producer for Vermont Public. She previously worked as a multimedia journalist at the Concord Monitor, the St. Albans Messenger and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, and she's freelanced for The Atlantic, the Christian Science Monitor, the Berkshire Eagle and the Bennington Banner. In 2019, she earned her MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Southern New Hampshire University.
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