A 24-year old Mexican man sought by federal immigration agents was not in the South Burlington house that authorities raided last night, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont said in a press release Thursday.
Authorities say they are still searching for Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez, who was the subject of an administrative immigration warrant that ignited the first major confrontation between activists and federal immigration authorities in Vermont.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement were seeking to arrest Corona-Sanchez, who’d been removed from the United States in 2022 and later illegally reentered the country, according to an ICE affidavit. In January, Corona-Sanchez was arrested by Middlebury Police and charged with drunk driving, the affidavit says.
ICE attempted to detain the man they believed was Corona-Sanchez on Wednesday morning in South Burlington, but the man fled in a car, causing a multi-vehicle crash, authorities say. The man then left his car and fled into a house on Dorset Street.
Activists convened at the house Wednesday morning after Migrant Justice received a tip about a potential ICE enforcement action. Hundreds of people gathered around the house throughout the day, blocking the doors and chanting at a growing number of federal law enforcement officers.
A federal judge eventually granted a search and arrest warrant for Corona-Sanchez, and ICE agents wrenched protesters away from the front entrance before knocking down the door.
Immigration authorities removed three people from inside the house, but none of the people taken into custody were Corona-Sanchez, federal prosecutors said on Thursday morning. Authorities have not identified the people they removed from the home nor announced the charges they face.
A neighbor told Vermont Public that an Ecuadoran family with two children had lived in the house for roughly a year. At one point in the afternoon, people helped a child leave the house; they were driven away.
Activists attempted to block the departure of law enforcement vehicles, and federal officers in riot gear resorted to firing flash-bangs and tear gas to break up the crowd.
South Burlington Police and Vermont State Police were also at the scene, though sought to distance themselves from ICE's conduct. State police in a press release said no state or local police deployed “less-lethal munitions or 'flash-bang'-type devices” during the incident.
South Burlington Police Chief William Breault criticized ICE’s tactics at a press conference Wednesday night and questioned whether it was “fully necessary” to execute the search warrant in the manner they did or chase a suspect down Dorset Street during rush hour.
