In recent months, several high-profile detentions of migrant farmworkers have taken place across Vermont, including the arrest of nine workers in the Northeast Kingdom. These incidents come amid a renewed Trump administration pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
Despite the heightened enforcement, many undocumented workers continue to live and work in Vermont. It's estimated that Vermont has between 750 and 850 year-round migrant farmworkers, along with about 150 partners and children.
On June 21, a mobile Mexican consulate set up in Montpelier to help nationals obtain passports, birth certificates and other official documents.
Alejandro Pino, who has lived in Vermont for 19 years, did not come to the consulate for paperwork. Instead, he drove coworkers who needed their passports renewed.
Everyone is scared.Alejandro Pino
“These days, most of our conversations at work are about immigration,” Pino said. “Coworkers who have vehicles sometimes spot where officials are. I live near the Derby Line, and I still have to go out. But the guys are too scared, so they give me lists to go grab things for them. Everyone is scared.”
Pino said he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border five times before successfully making it into the country. Each time, he was detained. Twice, he was caught while attempting to cross the Colorado River, a shorter route, he said.
“[Officials] detain you for one or two days. They put handcuffs on you,” Pino said. “They check whether it’s your first or second time, and if you’ve reached a certain number of attempts, they jail you for two or three months.”
The other three times, he crossed through the Sonoran Desert, where he remembers extreme dehydration and encountering others with extreme thirst. On his fifth attempt, he paid a coyote, a smuggler, to guide him.
“The coyote abandoned the group, and we just kept walking,” Pino said. “We were assaulted by cholos who left us with nothing. We had to return to town, and it was risky.”
His sixth attempt was successful. He first worked near Yuma, Arizona, then in Syracuse, New York, before relocating to Vermont for better job opportunities. He credited a local advocate known as Mama Nancy with helping him find work. In Mexico, Pino said, he would likely be working as a chauffeur, a job that pays significantly less than farm work in the U.S.
As of June 29, nearly 620,000 immigrants had been detained in the U.S. this year, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Pino said the situation is ugly, but he’s focused on moving forward.
Inside Christ Episcopal Church, volunteers greeted visitors in Spanish and helped them check in.
Felipe Cuellar, a representative from the Mexican Consulate in Boston, said the consulate visits Vermont twice a year to help nationals with paperwork, including passport renewals, birth certificates and dual citizenship applications. Cuellar declined to comment on the recent ICE activity but acknowledged the vital role Mexican workers play in the state’s dairy industry.
“We love the community here and know they’re hardworking,” Cuellar said.
Consulate workers processed documents on the church’s first floor, while the second floor bustled with activity. Parents played with toddlers as music played and conversations flowed. The University of Vermont’s Bridges to Health program set up to connect workers with health services, and the advocacy group Migrant Justice gave presentations on labor rights.
“Our communities are always under attack,” said Migrant Justice organizer Abel Luna. “Our goal today is to educate our community about the rights we have. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, we have human rights.”
The Central Vermont Refugee Action Network, or CVRAN, helped organize the event. Volunteer Peter Thoms said planning for an event like this takes months, especially given today’s political climate.
“We think about ICE as a relevant factor,” Thoms said. “We don’t have any real information that ICE is around, but we’re being careful.”
If ICE comes, we’ll ask if they have a warrant for someone. Otherwise, they’re not welcome.Peter Thoms, CVRAN volunteer
The mobile consulate was previously held at Goddard College in Plainfield but moved to Bethany Church in Montpelier in 2018. After last July’s floods damaged that location, the event relocated to Christ Episcopal Church.
“It wasn’t an intentional decision to come to a sanctuary, so to speak, but a church is a welcoming place,” Thoms said. “They have a sanctuary church policy here that’s six pages long. This is private space we’re in now. The sanctuary downstairs is public, that’s where the consulate staff is. If ICE comes, we’ll ask if they have a warrant for someone. Otherwise, they’re not welcome.”
Pino brought his 9-year-old son with him to Montpelier. His son, a U.S. citizen, speaks some Spanish but doesn’t fully understand it. Pino said he hasn’t discussed the deportation risks with his son directly.
“I think he understands because he goes to school,” Pino said. “I had a conversation with his principal, since there were rumors about ICE going into schools. So I think he knows, I think he understands.”
Asked if he had made plans for his son in case he were detained, Pino said yes.
“I have someone who can look after him if something ever happens,” he said. “With this system, you have to start thinking about what could happen.”
According to CVRAN, the consulate served about 140 people during the visit.
