A chaotic scene unfolded on Wednesday night as federal immigration authorities raided a South Burlington home, while activists attempted to impede the arrests of the people inside.
The daylong standoff ended with Immigration and Customs Enforcement removing three people from inside the house and a series of violent clashes between law enforcement and people who sought to block the removal.
The incident, which took place in Vermont’s second largest city and on a busy street near two public schools, marked the first major confrontation between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protesters in the state.
We’re still learning more about what happened on Dorset Street Wednesday night, as well as the events that led to the standoff and confrontation between law enforcement and activists. Here’s what we know right now:
Why did ICE target this particular house in South Burlington?
According to an ICE affidavit, federal immigration agents were trying to arrest Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez, a 24-year-old Mexican native who’d been removed from the United States in 2022, and later illegally reentered the country. Corona-Sanchez was arrested in January by Middlebury Police for drunk driving.
ICE agents were surveilling a home on Dorset Street in South Burlington Wednesday morning when they saw a man they believed was Corona-Sanchez drive away with another man. An ICE agent turned on his blue lights and followed the car, according to the affidavit.
The car turned into a nearby apartment complex and two other ICE agents tried to use their cars to block the vehicle in. Federal authorities say the man drove into one of the agent’s cars, then drove into a wooded area near South Burlington High School, before turning onto oncoming traffic on Dorset Street.
The driver crashed into an oncoming vehicle, went over the median, and then exited the car. ICE agents said they saw the man run into the Dorset Street house, according to the affidavit.
How did activists end up at the scene?
Migrant Justice, an advocacy group for the state’s immigrant farmworkers, said they got a call to their emergency line about a family that was the subject of an ICE enforcement action. The group spread the word and by 8:30 a.m., people started showing up at the house.
The crowd continued to grow through the day and people began to circle around the house with groups blocking the front and rear doors in an attempt to prevent ICE agents from entering.
How were local and state police involved?
South Burlington Police said they only became aware of the immigration enforcement activity after they responded to the car crashes on Wednesday morning.
At 8:45 a.m., ICE requested assistance from South Burlington Police due the crowd forming around the house, the department said in a press release on Wednesday. The department said it responded to ensure the safety of federal law enforcement and to protect the rights of people to protest.
South Burlington Police requested help from Vermont State Police, who arrived on scene later in the afternoon.
State and local law enforcement agencies were informed that a federal judge had signed a criminal warrant for Corona-Sanchez allowing ICE agents to enter the house. After activists refused to leave, federal authorities asked state police to deploy their “Critical Action Team” to protect the public and federal law enforcement “who were carrying out a lawful court order,” state police said in a press release on Thursday.
Other Vermont law enforcement agencies, including Burlington Police, Williston Police, the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife Warden Service, and the Department of Motor Vehicles Enforcement Safety Division assisted on the scene, state police said.
What happened when ICE executed the warrant for Corona-Sanchez?
Police shoved away activists who were blocking the front entrance and ICE agents knocked down the door, ultimately removing three people from inside the house.
Activists attempted to prevent federal agents from driving off, but the agents managed to drive away by running over the median and exiting via a driveway. Multiple confrontations continue to break out as protesters tried to block other law enforcement vehicles from leaving. Some protesters shoved police, and officers shoved back. 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. Protesters also threw mud at one state police van. Federal officers in riot gear eventually used flash bangs and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Who was arrested, and why?
None of the three people detained at the house on Dorset Street was Corona-Sanchez, federal prosecutors said on Thursday morning.
Migrant Justice said Thursday that two of the people detained were sisters from Ecuador who had pending asylum claims and the third was a man from Honduras. They were brought to state prisons and later transferred to Department of Homeland Security custody.
State police said on Thursday that three additional people on the scene outside the house were cited on disorderly conduct charges. They are set to be arraigned next month in Chittenden County criminal court.
How have local law enforcement officials reacted since the standoff ended?
State and local law enforcement officials have sought to distance themselves from the actions taken by ICE agents, though activists have accused them of collaborating with federal authorities.
South Burlington Police Chief William Breault criticized his federal counterparts’ “poor decision-making and planning” during a press conference after the protest ended. He questioned whether it was “fully necessary” to execute the search warrant in the manner they did or whether it was wise to chase a suspect down Dorset Street during morning rush hour near two schools.
“Our goal was really to maintain public peace and ensure that people that were there had the right to peacefully demonstrate,” Breault said. “From the beginning, this plan was not executed to the standard that local law enforcement here in South Burlington — and I’m sure the chief from Burlington and the state police would agree — not how we would do things.”
Vermont State Police and local police have also stressed that their departments were not responsible for the use of tear gas or flash bangs during the incident.
Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, in a statement on Thursday, said city police officers at the scene did not enter the house or assist in executing the warrant.
The mayor said one officer did use pepper spray, but otherwise no Burlington police used “less lethal munitions” or flash bangs.
The city is conducting a use-of-force review of one Burlington officer accused of using excessive force against protesters, Mulvaney-Stanak said.
If the local police objected to ICE’s actions, why did they deploy yesterday?
Police say they were trying to protect protesters from ICE, as well as clear protesters to allow ICE to execute their lawfully obtained warrant.
Breault and Vermont State Police have said their involvement in the situation did not violate the state policy that bars them from cooperating with immigration authorities.
But many protesters saw local and state law enforcement’s presence as collaborative and called troopers “Nazis” and told them to quit their jobs.
Did Gov. Phil Scott play any role in how Vermont State Police responded?
Scott’s spokesperson, Amanda Wheeler, told Vermont Public Thursday that the governor was not directly involved in the decision to send state police to the scene on Wednesday.
Scott released a statement calling the ICE operation “totally unnecessary.”
“The actions of federal law enforcement, from outside the state yesterday, further demonstrates a lack of training, coordination, leadership, and outdated tactics which put both peaceful protesters and Vermont law enforcement in a difficult situation,” Scott said.
How have other state officials responded?
Vermont’s congressional delegation released a statement that was similar to Scott’s.
“President Trump’s domestic army, ICE, came into Vermont yesterday from out of state and, as is virtually always the case, acted in an irresponsible, reckless and unprofessional manner,” said the joint statement by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint.
“As a result of the reckless actions of ICE, local and state police were put in an impossibly difficult situation,” the statement continued.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George called on the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate ICE’s actions.
“As is standard practice, I expect a thorough review of all incidents involving use of force by our local law enforcement,” George said. “As I have emphasized throughout my tenure, any violations of Vermont State law by anyone, whether they be a civilian or a law enforcement officer, must be addressed fully and transparently. None of us are above the law and that standard does not change because the agency in question has a federal badge.”
Nadir Hashim, the Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former state police trooper, told Vermont Public he’s concerned about videos and photos he’s seen of state police troopers “wearing masks and not having nametags.”
“I have a lot of questions about what happened, and what should have happened, and a number of things that I saw in the videos that have been shared with me,” he said.
Vermont Public's Peter Hirschfeld contributed reporting.
