A leader of Migrant Justice — the prominent immigrant rights group that rallied activists to block a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in South Burlington — has been indicted on unrelated criminal charges that he helped smuggle people into the country.
A federal grand jury indicted Jose Ignacio De La Cruz De La Rosa, known as “Nacho,” on nine criminal counts related to allegations that he repeatedly took payment to transport people from the Canadian border and to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses for others.
The indictment is dated Feb. 19, several weeks before activists clashed with federal agents outside a Dorset Street home. The charges were unsealed on Thursday morning, following his arrest on his way to work.
De La Cruz, 30, pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Thursday afternoon before Chief U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss. He will remain incarcerated for at least the next week, until a separate hearing on whether to release him while the case proceeds.
Outside the Burlington courthouse, hundreds of activists chanted for his release. “We’re standing by him!” Migrant Justice spokesperson Will Lambek implored the crowd.
The indictment strikes a blow to the activist group just two weeks after Migrant Justice rallied its followers against ICE agents during their raid of a Dorset Street home. Judges swiftly granted release from custody to the three immigrants whom ICE detained during the operation, ruling that their constitutional rights had been violated. ICE was later forced to admit that agents had not found the undocumented immigrant who they claimed to have been pursuing that day.
Now one of Migrant Justice’s most prominent figures faces criminal charges, including allegations that he exploited the state’s driver’s privilege card program, whose creation Migrant Justice had championed at the state Legislature more than a decade ago.
In an interview following Thursday’s court hearing, Lambek said Migrant Justice was not aware of De La Cruz’s alleged actions and accused the government of “scare tactics.” He also questioned the timing of De La Cruz’s arrest.
“We don’t believe it’s a coincidence that ICE waited until the fallout from this South Burlington raid to take their time to arrest him now,” Lambek said.
De La Cruz has been an outspoken spokesperson for immigrant rights in Vermont and has testified before state lawmakers since his arrival to the U.S. in 2016. He initially worked on dairy farms before becoming a worker-owner at the cooperative homebuilder New Frameworks. His partner, Rossy Alfaro, is also a Migrant Justice spokesperson. She addressed supporters outside the courthouse on Thursday afternoon, saying through tears and an interpreter that she felt like her family was living a “nightmare.”
Federal authorities appear to have been building a case against De La Cruz since they arrested him and his 18-year-old stepdaughter, Heidi Perez, during a traffic stop in Richford last June. De La Cruz and Perez have said they were delivering groceries to farmworkers when a U.S. Border Patrol agent stopped their van and detained them for their immigration status. The pair were later released from custody, with pending deportation proceedings. Migrant Justice criticized the traffic stop at the time as an instance of racial profiling.
After arresting De La Cruz and seizing his phone, the government matched his phone number to messages on the phone of a Mexican woman whom agents had apprehended at the border in April, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
A border patrol agent later obtained a search warrant for De La Cruz’s phone. The phone contained evidence related to cross-border smuggling operations between 2023 and 2025, including maps with routes of travel drawn on them, according to a Thursday court filing.
In one instance, the feds allege that De La Cruz traveled to New Hampshire to receive $2,000 in exchange for picking up one person along the northern border. That pick-up does not appear to have taken place. Several days later, De La Cruz sent a voice message to someone else in which he lamented the failed attempt and appeared to describe another “business” opportunity.
“Once they crossed the border, I pay half, then the other half when I pick them up in New Jersey,” De La Cruz allegedly said in the message, according to U.S. Border Patrol’s translated transcription of the voice memo.
De La Cruz is also accused of procuring Vermont driver’s privilege cards for people who do not live in the state. He took their online driving tests, earning about $500 each time, the government alleges.
Vermont created the driver’s privilege cards in 2014 to give undocumented immigrant farmworkers a way to drive legally in the state. The state has seen some instances of fraud related to the program.
The court documents refer to two other unnamed co-conspirators who have not yet been arrested.
De La Cruz’s initial arrest last summer prompted protests at the Statehouse in Montpelier and outside the Richford border patrol station. An immigration judge in Massachusetts released him and his stepdaughter on bond the following month.
Earlier this month, on March 6, De La Cruz filed an application for asylum, federal prosecutors noted.
The smuggling charge carries a minimum 3-year prison term, if convicted.
