State and South Burlington police released dozens of hours of body camera video and other recordings that captured the events surrounding a chaotic immigration raid in South Burlington last month.
The law enforcement agencies released troves of footage as part of their “after action” reports of the March 11 raid that culminated in street clashes between activists and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Leaders of both agencies said the reviews confirmed their earlier assertions that local police acted appropriately. But they resolved to improve coordination and planning for future confrontations.
“Following a review of all the available data,” South Burlington City Manager Jessie Baker wrote in a summary memo, the performance of the department “is not in question.”
The agencies said the body camera video showed that officers did not use excessive force in trying to manage a hostile crowd of activists who tried to impede federal agents from carrying out a search warrant on a Dorset Street home. Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison cleared three troopers who were the subject of citizen complaints.
“Law enforcement crowd control efforts can result in physically moving noncompliant or actively resistant people by pushing and pulling individuals away from an area being cleared,” Morrison wrote.
The Burlington Police Department has said it is investigating a use-of-force complaint against one of its officers who was at the scene. The city has not yet released findings from its review.
The hours of video and phone recordings from South Burlington police and Vermont State Police provide a close-up view of the 12-hour standoff, which became a major flashpoint in the federal government’s immigration crackdown in Vermont.
Activists have sharply criticized local and state police, whose presence they said allowed ICE to access the home and arrest three immigrants who hadn’t been named on the search warrant.
“Together, police and immigration officers violently separated families, ripped immigrant Vermonters from their home, and attacked protestors who bravely stood in solidarity with their neighbors,” Migrant Justice previously said of the raid.
Law enforcement leaders, meanwhile, have blamed ICE for reckless tactics that they say put local officials in a bind.
“Their actions put many in danger,” Baker, the city manager, wrote in her April 16 memo.
The footage, which Vermont Public is still reviewing, includes private conversations between police and ICE agents throughout the day in which local officers tried to stake a neutral position.
“I’m just trying to walk the middle line and keep the peace, man,” South Burlington Deputy Chief Sean Briscoe told one frustrated ICE agent as the crowd of activists swelled.
The March 11 raid began with a car chase down Dorset Street. Agents were trying to apprehend an immigrant named Daniel Deyvi Corona-Sanchez during the morning rush hour, but the arrest went awry when the driver of a car registered to Corona-Sanchez fled the agents’ unmarked cruisers. The driver — who agents have since acknowledged was not Corona-Sanchez — struck an agent’s vehicle before veering into Dorset Street, crashing into a bystander’s minivan and eventually retreating back inside his home.
Agents told South Burlington police officers who responded to the crash scene that they intended to “go in and get” the man they believed was Corona-Sanchez.
“Assuming that’s him,” one ICE agent, who is not identified in the video, can be heard saying. “Doesn’t matter at this point.”
“I just want the [expletive] guy,” a second agent said.
But while they waited for a judge to sign a search warrant so they could enter the residence, agents were quickly outnumbered by activists who surrounded the property.
An ICE supervisor who introduced himself as Mark Anzelmo called South Burlington Lt. Patrick Mulcahy shortly after 9 a.m. to inquire about the situation in Vermont. One of Anzelmo’s agents, he said, sounded “frantic” about the size of the crowd.
“I’m not there. We only have a handful of guys who work in Vermont,” Anzelmo told the lieutenant, according to a recording of the call. “I’m just trying to help them out.”
“We’re not going to be shoving people back or anything like that, for now. As long as they are just voicing their unhappiness about what’s going on, then that’s fine,” Mulcahy told Anzelmo.
Anzelmo was reassured that local police were already at the scene. “That’s all we’re asking. Appreciate it,” he replied.
As the day wore on, conversations between ICE agents and South Burlington police grew tense.
Briscoe approached a pair of agents in their car just before 12:30 p.m. to ask about their plan. When the agents said they intended to “[expletive] take those dudes,” the deputy chief asked, “At what point does it become not worth it for one person?”
A second agent, whom Vermont Public has not yet identified, interjected.
“It sounds like you’re on their side,” the agent said.
The after-action reports claim that supervisors with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI joined local police at their command center. Those federal officials also expressed concerns about ICE’s intention to execute the warrant despite the throng of activists who were blockading the doorway, local police claimed.
However, an ICE supervisor who said he had “Washington” on the phone said they intended to move forward, according to an account of the exchange attributed to South Burlington Police Chief William Breault.
South Burlington police called upon Burlington police and Vermont State Police for help. Around 5:30 p.m., ICE agents, with state troopers clearing the way for them, forced their way into the home and arrested three people.
Protesters then moved to the street in an attempt to block agents from leaving the scene.
As the clashes became physical, a man called the South Burlington Police Department. He identified himself as Corona-Sanchez, according to the department’s report. The caller said he saw on the news that a car registered to him had been involved in an accident. The man said he had given his car to a friend to sell and claimed to “not be in the area or involved in the accident.”
Federal agents still have not apprehended Corona-Sanchez.
The South Burlington and state reports both concluded that their agencies’ emphasis on maintaining “public safety” during the events was in line with a state law that limits when law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Morrison’s memo summarizing the state police report was unsparing in its critique of ICE. She called the agency’s unwillingness to cooperate on March 11 “an unprecedented challenge to the integrity of law enforcement as a whole.”
Morrison said she planned to contact senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security to discuss the report.
