Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Speaker 0]: Alright, folks. We're gonna get started. Thank you all for being here and welcome to the public hearing on community safety concerns arising from the March 11 protest and immigration enforcement action in South Burlington. So right now we're working on the closed captioning. We know that it's not working right now, having a bit of a technical difficulty, but we are working on that. So my name is Martin LaLonde. I'm a representative from South Burlington and the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. And we will go around the table and introduce the rest of the legislators here.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Chittenden Central, Senate Judiciary)]: Senator Tanya Vijovsky, I represent the Chittenden Central District and serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

[Speaker 0]: Hi, I'm Ian Goodnow. I'm a representative from Brattleboro. I represent Windham 9.

[Rep. Karen Dolan (House Judiciary, Essex Junction)]: Hello. Karen Dolan, representative from Essex Junction on house judiciary.

[Rep. Angela Arsenault (House Judiciary, Williston)]: Good evening, everyone. I'm Angela Arsenault, a representative from Williston, also on the house judiciary committee.

[Sen. Chris Mattos (Chittenden North, Senate Judiciary)]: Chris Mattos. I represent Chittenden North in the senate, and I'm on senate judiciary.

[Sen. Robert Norris (Franklin/Grand Isle, Senate Judiciary)]: Good evening, senator Robert Norris. I represent Franklin County and the town of Elberg in Grand Ale County, and I sit on judiciary.

[Rep. Kenneth Goslant (House Judiciary; Clerk; Northfield/Berlin)]: Good afternoon. I'm Kenneth Goslant, state rep from Northfield and Berlin, and I serve on the house judiciary.

[Rep. Thomas Oliver (House Judiciary; Sheldon/Swanton)]: Hello, everyone. Tom Oliver, house judiciary. I represent Sheldon and Swanton.

[Rep. Zachary Harvey (House Judiciary; Rutland-3/Castleton)]: Hello. Zach Harvey, representative on house judiciary from Rutland three representing the town of Castleton.

[Sen. Robert Norris (Franklin/Grand Isle, Senate Judiciary)]: Hi, everyone, and welcome. My name's Thomas Burditt. I represent Rutland 2, and I'm the vice chair of house judiciary.

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Chair, Senate Judiciary; Windham)]: Thank you. Nader Hashim, senator from Windham County, chair of senate judiciary.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. So some initial ground rules for the public hearing today. Each witness will have two minutes to testify and I will invite each witness to join us and also who is next in line or on deck. And if you're on deck, please come sit in the red chair to the right of the table so that testimony can proceed smoothly to my right of the table. The time clock, which will be seen on the screens will begin when the witness starts their testimony. The timer will alert the witness twice. It will turn yellow thirty seconds before time is up and will turn red when time is up. And we want to make sure to get to all the witnesses during this hearing and we have approximately 60 witnesses. So please respect the time limits. For those who are testifying remotely, when it is your turn to testify, you will be promoted in the webinar and then we'll be able to unmute yourself, turn your camera on and begin speaking. And if your time is up and you have more to say, please submit written testimony as a PDF via email to Megan Canela and she can be found on our website. So during public hearings, our job as legislators is simply to listen to your testimony. We will not be asking or answering questions during the hearing. We understand this looks different from our regular committee meetings, but similar to those meetings, you can rest assured that what you share will inform our future work. And we understand that there are strong feelings and perspectives about the events of March 11, but it is important to respect the decorum of the chamber during this joint committee hearing. So please do not cheer or clap or vocally comment or heckle or snap your fingers. The legislators are here to listen and without interruption to the testimony of community members to inform our next steps on this matter. And again, thank you for participating. If we could have, and I apologize in advance if I do not pronounce the names properly, but Dana Duenell Yardley is up first. If you could join us at the table here. And Niccolo Mendolia, if you could join us on deck as well. So please, everybody state your name and where you're from and proceed with your testimony. Thank you for being here.

[Dana Duenell Yardley (witness, Montpelier)]: Great. Thank you so much. I was sort of expecting more people to talk before me. So here's some context for what you're about to hear. My name is Dana Duan Alliardly. I live in Montpelier. I was present at Dorsey Street on March 11. And I have a lot of experience with civil disobedience. I've been arrested for blockading coal trains and other fossil fuel infrastructure. And I want to speak specifically to the role of direct action in ending injustice. So law enforcement would have us believe that there is a correct way to protest, that singing songs and holding signs are Okay, but directly stopping harm is not Okay. Police are very concerned with legality. And I want to remind you that what is legal and what is just are not always the same thing. It was illegal for black students and white students to sit together at lunch counters in the sixties. It was illegal to hide your Jewish neighbors in Nazi Germany. We did not end segregation or save lives from Nazis by being polite and standing on the sidewalk with signs. Burlington Police Chief Burke has said that there were agitators in the crowd on March 11, but I did not see anyone there to cause trouble. I saw people bravely defending their neighbors from unjust and violent ICE agents, same as folks in Minnesota did a few months ago. People showed up because other people needed help and care. Direct action is a last resort. If the people in charge were doing their jobs, if laws were just, if the government took care of immigrants, we could have all spent that afternoon going to work or going to school or doing our chores or anything more pleasant than what happened on March 11. But when systems fail people, we have a moral obligation as human beings to show up, stop harm and take care of one another. You as lawmakers have the power to change those failed systems. You have the power to hold our police accountable for the violence that they caused. I urge you to follow the lead of those who showed up on March 11 and act swiftly and courageously in the face of injustice. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. So Niccolo Mendolia is up next, and Vivian Boes Pine should join us on deck circle there.

[Niccolo Mendolia (witness)]: Hello. My name is Nicolas Alessandro Mendelia. I've lived in Vermont since I was six months old, and I'm the son of an immigrant immigrant. I currently both work and live on Dorces Street in South Burlington, and I'm deeply hurt by the events that took place on March 11 in our community and my home. I am outraged by both the illegal kidnapping federal immigration authorities enacted and the hand that our state and local police played in facilitating that illegal action. In the weeks that have followed, there have been a great deal of discussion on whether or not our police acted within their legal ability to aid or not aid federal agents, but I prefer to highlight that when faced with the choice of moving community members by force or having a difficult conversation with federal agents, they chose force. I was at the front of a group of community members next to a friend when a state trooper told her he would break her fingers and then placed his hand on her neck. She was pulled for down later and pulled from the crowd by other members of the community as she had fallen unconscious and was found to have bruising on her throat. I was I'd I'd lost track of her by this point because I was attacked by a state trooper who pulled on my helmet, bruising my neck, and choking me with a strap for a while before I was pulled from the crowd. I was not read my rights before I was placed in handcuffs and put into a patrol vehicle by a state trooper and a Burlington police officer. I was not charged with anything because, per their words, they were still trying to figure out what happened. In every deposition from the heads of our police authority since the events, it's clear the number one stated concern was ICE abusing our community to the point of potential murder. Given that given that, I ask again, why is it when the police are faced with a choice between a difficult conversation or becoming the hand of the abuser, they chose force, brutalizing our community and aiding an agency known to be a threat? The South Burlington police chief's chief himself held the door open for ICE agents to place the family inside a federal v federal vehicle despite a lack of warrant for their arrest. If they ever want us to trust in their support, I ask for the public release of the body camera footage of every single officer who is who is present at the event because then if without that trust, the next time this happens will be more complicated. And all we want is for our families and communities to feel safe. And due to the actions of federal authorities and our police on March 11, not one of us was. Not the community members there to defend their people, not the police who were noticeably panicked and unprepared, and most of all, the family.

[Speaker 0]: So thank you. If you have more, we invite you to submit written testimony as well. We've been receiving

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Chair, Senate Judiciary; Windham)]: from their home betrayed by this people sworn to protect them.

[Speaker 0]: Right. Thank you. I don't see that Vivian Boespine. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see where you were. So Kay Smith should be on the on deck circle for us. Kay Smith.

[Amina Carrington (witness, Burlington)]: Can you hear me?

[Yvonne (Burlington resident; witness)]: My name is Yvonne Burlington. Twenty minutes before ICE's tactical team arrived and started throwing people to the ground, a DHS agent lied, he admitted later on video, and said he was with VSP and ordered dispersal. We asked multiple VSP officers around us for confirmation to which they were silent. This was the only public order to disperse I heard between 04:15 and 7PM. Most heard none. Obviously, a warrant was never displayed to any of the crowd or the family inside. Teachers, students, grandparents spent hours begging VSP not just to stop assisting the kidnapping, but to stop putting their hands on the peaceful crowd. This comes through very clearly in the videos. But these acts of violence happened very slowly, very intentionally, and towards women very enthusiastically. I saw three femme presenting people grabbed by the throat, not by ICE, but by VSP. At around 05:50PM, an ICE agent tapped on the shoulder of two masked VSP officers and pointed at someone in the crowd. He had done nothing but use his voice. The VSP officers dragged him to the ground at ICE's behest and held him down while ICE pummeled him. VSP pushed the crowd into a compressed space on the road, causing a woman to faint. Two onlooking men, one with a tattoo who was cheering, recording, and grabbing his crotch, approached to her unconscious body and said to his friend, that's one down. His friend asked if he could try to record down her shirt, and he continued grabbing himself. A community protector asked the VSP and BPD agent who were listening four feet away if they were going to do anything. I'm ashamed to admit that I waited a beat to see if they would intervene. Another person put her body in between the agitator, and I was reminded the police were here to propagate violence against women's bodies not prevented. It took us under a minute to de escalate the agitator ourselves and get them to leave. He told me that he had followed the police sirens here to watch illegals get what was coming to them. None of the violence that ICE committed was done without the full awareness, consent, and active assistance of VSP, BPD, and SBPD. Field agents watched their colleagues and ICE commit these acts and has continued assisting. There was plenty of time, plenty of brutality in plain view, and plenty of pastors informing them of their rights. The more extraordinary act of violence that you're going to hear today rests on all of the people present, but especially commissioners Morrison, chiefs Burke, and Bralt, and yourselves if you do not take extraordinary actions to prosecute the departments, here are the people's recommendations to expand beyond the FIP, and if keep if keeping people safe means strangling women, VSP, PPD, stay the fuck out of our neighborhoods and let us do our jobs as human beings. Thank you for your time.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. So K Smith could, join us, and Jazz Mojica, I hope I pronounced that right, can, be in the red chair up next.

[K. Smith (witness)]: At 12:24PM on March 11, there was an incidence of violence between ICE and a protector who did nothing to instigate any interaction that I continue to hear little to no speak of. They were tackled by multiple ICE goons directly in front of me. In the process, I was shoved hard in the shoulder by one agent while peacefully exercising my First Amendment rights. And ever since, I've been dealing with immense pain. At least one agent had his hand on his weapon, and I thought I was about to witness the next Renee Goodnow, Alex Preti. There was no police interference. Only a crowd of neighbors there to rescue this protector and push the Gestapo back ourselves. The police were there to work illegally with ICE to detain three people who were never even on the warrant there they would they the warrant they were there for, use violence against my comrades and neighbors, to throw them to the ground, concuss them, choke them unconscious, allow them to be nearly run over by cars, attack them with chemical weapons banned by the Geneva Convention for combat, but weirdly not banned for use against our own citizens. And this this is indefensible. We see the shameful cognitive dissonance around March 11. We know what happened. We aren't stupid. We aren't liars. We aren't taking this. The protectors aren't backing down. If the feds up the ante, what do you think will happen? It's happened elsewhere. Hundreds of other Vermonters and I are waiting for the next time we're needed. You've had ample warning. Your decisions mark our historic precedent. Do you side with neighbors protecting neighbors, or do you side with the GosTAVO of 2026? Whose side are you on?

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Folks who are testifying here can also submit their written testimony. They can do both. So we will have Jazz Mojica and Brian Clifford is up next.

[Dee Graham (witness, Burlington)]: Hi, is this okay? Cool. My name is actually Dee Graham. I'm a Burlington resident, was on scene at Dorset Street for ten hours on 03/11. I echo a lot of what is going to be shared tonight and wanna uplift the impact in the three neighbors who were never on the warrant, finally taken from their families, and the direct experiences of one-sided violence at the hands of the state police, local police, and ICE. The public safety commissioner, Vermont state police, local police departments, and various public officials have been hard at work telling a story about three eleven. I can't speak to their version of reality, but I can speak to what myself and my community experienced along with dozens of eyewitnesses and hours of documented footage. Law enforcement of all departments claims they were left with no choice than to act with force because community members became increasingly agitated. They've even claimed they were scared and intimidated by our gear. In our experience, law enforcement were the agitators. We were dressed in ponchos made of trash bags and had safety goggles and n 90 fives. They were armed with lethal weapons, chemical agents, bulletproof vests, gas masks. The scale is exponentially different. Their claims of spitting, yelling as reasons for violence, again, this is not even remotely close to the same level of violence enacted. Saying they're the same is a completely false equivalent. Their story claims they were there to protect our rights and protect us against ICE. There's too many instances to list of said violence. One will one which will haunt me forever is an ICE agent removing my friend's safety goggles and spraying them point blank in the eyes while local law enforcement stood by doing nothing. Or the fourth century of the house when an ERA ERO agent violently threw someone to the ground. Documented footage shows him licking his lips while he throws her. Seconds later, he's seen smiling, laughing, and mocking community members via speed standing by. In their story, they claim the violence they committed was to protect us from being harmed or even killed by ICE. So instead, they harmed us. They draw the line of violence. They draw the line of violence at death. In their story,

[K. Smith (witness)]: they cite the FIP.

[Dee Graham (witness, Burlington)]: Well, the FIP states because partnership with Vermonters is the most effective way to ensure public safety, maintaining public safety stress is a primary concern. I wanna ask everyone, what did they do to ensure public safety? As heard tonight in other various public hearings, the narrative people in power differs greatly from the direct experiences and documented evidence of the community. I have little faith in the system, but I hope the other reality, our reality, and irrefutable evidence leads to accountability. At the end of the day, strong communities are what keep us safe.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Brian Clifford is next and Elizabeth Razzi is up next after that.

[Brian Clifford (witness)]: Hi, I'm Brian Clifford. I live in Essex and I was at Dorcet Street. I'm also helping migrant justice in a community led investigation into the events of the day. And in addition to logging over 1,000 videos, we're also interviewing victims of police violence, many of whom you'll hear tonight. In order to piece together a more accurate and comprehensive picture of what happened, then the police will willingly tell you without being forced to do so by a judge. We're well positioned to conduct this investigation because community members trust us more than they trust the state and local police who joined ICE agents in abusing them in service of doing an illegal ICE raid on camera in front of the world. I believe that we know more about ICE enforcement and detentions in so called Vermont than police do. And this was true before March 11. I believe we can help provide missing context that is vital to understanding what happened on Dorcet Street, but we can't do this in two minutes at a time. Please open a formal investigation into this incident and let us present our findings. I have so many questions I could ask, but I'll just leave you with one. Why did the Vermont State Police trust the Department of Homeland Security to effectively communicate a dispersal order before sending the Vermont State Police critical action team to violently clear the crowd for ice? Because DHS did this without any amplification technology in the middle of Dorsey Street, not even on the property. Not a single person I interviewed who was on the property at the time heard the agent issue the dispersal order. So, please put a pin in that one and I hope we get some answers for that. But we may have many more questions. I hope you invite us back.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Thank you very much. So Elizabeth Razi and Lee Morgan is after that.

[Amina Carrington (witness, Burlington)]: Before you start my time, did you say Amina or Aminah? Is it A M I N A H?

[Speaker 0]: I said Elizabeth Razi or Sorry. Okay, let's not beeps. Is Elizabeth Razi here? Elizabeth Razi is not here. We'll go with Lee Morgan. Lee Morgan. And Sean O'Hern is after that.

[Lee Morgan (witness, Burlington)]: Just going to pull up my notes here. Hello, committee members. My name is Lee Morgan. I live in Burlington. I'm still navigating some injuries, so please bear with me. I'm here today because of what happened on March 11 when ICE broke down a door, took people who were not named on a warrant, and plunged an entire state into fear. For the record, I was physically present to protect my neighbors, and I left with significant injuries. But let me be crystal clear who I am here for tonight. This is about our neighbors. People who are working, raising children, seeking safety, building lives here, and who are being treated as disposable. People who are being taken by federal agents for the crime of being brown. People who now have to wonder if Vermont is still safe. That question matters, and I'm asking you directly, is Vermont still safe? Because when the government gets it wrong like this, when they kick in the wrong door, and they take the wrong people, it sends a message to every immigrant and every person of color in Vermont that you are not safe, that your rights are conditional, that your humanity is negotiable. I refuse to accept that. There's a quote that the late John Lewis used to say. When you pray, move your feet. I'm moving my feet for my neighbors. I'm moving my feet for the people who don't feel safe speaking in this room. I'm moving my feet because silence is what will allow this to happen again. And I'm asking you as lawmakers to move your feet. And I'll wrap up with this. Take action now that protects all Vermonters and holds rogue operators accountable. I will end with a quote from Dolly Parton. Please accept it as my sincere plea. If you don't take the reins, it's gonna stay the same. Nothing's gonna change if you don't change it. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. So Sean O'Hern and Eli Drummond is up after that.

[Sean O'Hern (witness)]: I did submit a testimony of my personal assaults to you guys to look.

[Sen. Robert Norris (Franklin/Grand Isle, Senate Judiciary)]: If you could talk into I my

[Sean O'Hern (witness)]: submitted a testimony to you guys to look at. The speech is different. On March 11, I was present at the scene from 9AM to 07:30PM. Upon my arrival, I observed a peaceful community led demonstration intended solely on protecting our neighbors. The narrative suggesting that protesters initiated violence is demonstrably wrong. While certain official footage remains withheld, community source videos confirm the reality. The numerous assaults I witnessed and the five I personally endured were perpetuated by VSP, BPD, and the ICE agents. If those sworn to protect public the public intend to cite minor acts of retaliation, they must first account for the macing, detention, and assaults on the very citizens they serve. It is evident that these agencies are avoiding scrutiny and by attempting to rewrite the narrative to their own benefit. I was assaulted five times today. I was choked by a Vermont state trooper with such force that I pulled the metal railing out of the concrete foundation off that porch that they were trying to get into. I almost blacked out. I do not sound like this. I have lateral bruising to my trachea. I cannot identify the officer because the department violated state policy. Officers wore masks and removed their removed their identification. That's in contradiction of s two zero eight and h seven four seven that you guys passed earlier this year. Our fair and our fair and partial policing policies were not merely ignored. They were betrayed. ICE was prepared to depart until local and state police provided the resources necessary for them to remain and escalate this situation. The ICE officers' own texts verify this. They are on the Internet. What occurred on the eleventh was a targeted attack on our community facilitated by local law enforcement. We must end the culture of cover ups, redacted videos. Our democracy is hanging on a thread.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. You. Thomas Jefferson,

[Sean O'Hern (witness)]: when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Eli Drummond and then Cynthia Cook is next, can join us in the red chair.

[Eli Drummond (witness, Burlington)]: Hello, I'm Eli Drummond. I'm a resident of Burlington, and it's nice to see you all looking me in the face because I've seen some wandering eyes, and that really makes me quite angry. I was there at Dorset Street from, I don't know, maybe 09:30 a. M. In the morning until VSP, local police, all units left, and people were still in the streets. People were barely off the side of the streets, still getting medic treatment. And I really hope that this meeting doesn't allow you to just wipe your hands off at all. This is a bigger indicator of how it will go the next time. I want to know why my back was to VSP as I attended to someone who had just been dragged after being maced while lying down, while VSP had their front to me, was pushing me onto the person on the ground trying to get medical treatment while their back was to an ICE vehicle. That's aiding them. BSB did nothing to verify also that the people that were being taken from the home were on the warrant. They did nothing to stop the kidnapping. At the end of the day, I really just want to know what hell on earth protecting people, as they say they were doing, how that can be considered protecting people when they were physically harming people, when they were walking by people who were on the ground, getting community medic support, and while they allowed ICE to brutalize alongside them.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Cook and Nathaniel Madison is on deck.

[Cindy (Cynthia) Cook (witness; mediator/facilitator)]: So good evening. I'm Cindy Cook. I'm a professional mediator and facilitator and I was at Doris Street from about 08:30 in the morning till about 05:30 that evening. And what I saw was proof of the adage that if the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. The morning was a peaceful one. The South Burlington Police did a good job I think of keeping us safe. Everything changed when the state police arrived. Tensions immediately escalated exponentially. Over a dozen troopers lined up on the Dorst Street median strip and faced off against the community members who were there peacefully. Many more in full riot gear were mustering in a nearby parking lot. The community members who came out in support of our neighbors and I imagine the residents who were being besieged did not feel the least bit protected. We felt threatened. We felt confronted. The troopers arrived with lots of hammers. They didn't arrive with a single peacekeeping skill set. They demonstrated a significant need for intensive training in peacekeeping and escalation. And as I mentioned, the South Burlington Police, think were in contrast, they seem to be doing what they could to keep every be working for everybody. They worked well with I had interactions with the Deputy Chief of Police, And he was very good at responding to my informational questions with respect and with grace. We all have a lot to learn in these troubled times. Those who are entrusted to protect and serve us are in need of extensive training so that they have tools in their toolboxes other than HAMRS. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. Nathaniel Madison and Amina Carrington is up next.

[Nathaniel Madison (witness; photographer/videographer)]: I'm an Apple featured photographer and videographer. I've been documenting Burlington for over eight years now and the protests for a little bit over a year. That's what I was doing in South Burlington on the eleventh. My coverage of the eleventh has reached millions and millions of people. Part of the reason why people in Europe know about it is because European MSN and MSM and European politicians have featured the footage I shot. During the protest, I was attempting to document an ICE agent kneeling on a community defender walking parallel to a line of masked, heavily armed, badge badge numberless VSP. The VSP waited until they were out of my peripheral vision to shove me hard into the ground, causing me to stagger into a pile of umbrellas and other assorted objects that had been assembled on the ground. While documenting defenders being nearly run over, I had a flash bang tossed directly at me, and it nearly exploded directly on my foot. That can cause permanent disability and even death. Additionally, because of my success in social media activism, have been subjected to countless death threats, including a specifically a threat of vehicular homicide, which was nearly carried out on March 16. Luckily, everybody was able to jump out of the way in front of that federal courthouse. Finally, let me expand on the treatment of women specifically. Gwen was given a concussion for trying to help a man who was being detained breathe. The context of this scene was a bit earlier, another woman being crushed by a combination of Ice Goslapo and their local collaborators. She yelled, I can't breathe, and appeared to pass out. And then even earlier, Jess passed out after being choked, all the while a deranged MAGA influencer cackled and yelled at ICE to finish her off. That video specifically has tens of thousands of views, and it's not removed from Facebook. Additionally, Lee, another woman I met online, sustained injuries to her face by having pepper balls fired directly at her in close proximity. So the last question I have, does anybody here feel proud about the way that people were treated here?

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Nathaniel. Amina Carrington is next. And if you could tell me how I was supposed to pronounce your name because I don't know if I got it right. But John Wyman is up next after that.

[Amina Carrington (witness, Burlington)]: Hello again. Sorry for earlier. I got confused. All right. My name is Amina Carrington. I live in Burlington. So update ICE lied, but we could have told you that. March 11 happened because ICE racially profiled our neighbors. This is not new. We know that ICE is a racist, fascist, lying sector of law enforcement, not much different from our local and state police when they decided to collaborate with ICE, despite they themselves stating that they believe ICE lied and withheld information that day. They have stated on numerous occasions that they believe ICE is violent and would have murdered us. So instead of running ICE out, our police turned their backs to them and raised their fists to us. They protected liars and racists that day over the community they claimed they were protecting. That makes them liars too. Local and state police, as well as government officials, have tried to paint us outside agitators and condemn us for not being what they deem as peaceful. Let me be clear. The outside agitators that day were ICE, And this language is eerily similar to the rhetoric put out by the White House after ICE murdered Renee Good and Alex Preti. Call them violence or a terrorist, and their murder and brutalization is justified. Iceland police struck first with no regard for public safety, the law, and the humanity and safety of those in the home. We acted in defense of our neighbors and ourselves, and we are prepared to do it again in a heartbeat. For lawmakers, local and state police violated the fair and impartial policing policy. They claimed they did it, but we know the truth. If you truly care about protecting immigrants and black and brown Vermonters, You will strengthen the policy, make it law and enforce it so police don't give ICE the manpower and aid it needs to in order to operate. March 11 will not happen again.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. John Wyman is next and then Peter Booth is on deck.

[John Wyman (witness)]: First of all, I'm in love with everyone around me showing up for each other like family. Look at us. I was there on Dorset Street choking on the weaponry of the ICE police. Two headed monstrosity. I felt the hands of someone that I couldn't see. They flushed my eyes. Said it's alright. You're with me. So what about this fair impartial policy? It's all there. It's time we give it to you. A mask and please. And this monstrosity, No more ice police. Wise police.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, John. Peter Booth is next and then Lindsey Buzan.

[Peter Booth (witness, Jericho)]: Hi there. My name is Peter Booth. I live in Jericho, and I wrote up a whole bunch of stuff, and I was gonna read it, and I was gonna read it really fast to get it all in. And I decided in the last twenty seconds to kind of just set it aside and just talk for a second. The behavior the the the fact that ICE is a disaster is sort of agreed upon by everyone in the room. And I think that the behavior of local and state police is also undebatable. And if anyone at the table feels like there is room for debate around that, I would really encourage you to take up the activists who have put together hours of video footage and look at that video footage. And I get that it's taken out of context, and it's a split second. And what happened before and what did the activists do before they got choked out by the Vermont state police? Look at all that video and see if you can really accept what the Burlington, South Burlington, and Vermont state police have been saying, which was that their conduct was perfect. There was one, I believe there's one shot, one person who's being investigated among the VSP, which is just ridiculous given the testimony you've been hearing and the video that has been present or that could be presented to you. I was at a meeting last night with that happened to be with a member of the South Burlington City Council, and we kind of got into a back and forth about this. And what he said, which really upset me was that the South Burlington police's behavior was completely did not aid ICE at all. Quote, all they did was move protesters out of the way. And he did not see a disconnect in those two statements. He genuinely thought that that was not helping ICE. He also said that the SB police's job was to protect the people from themselves, which I found unbelievably condescending. The people who put themselves there, everyone knows what ICE is about. Those people were choosing to put their bodies and their lives on the line for their neighbors, and they were not allowed to do that, and they were treated like children. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. So Lindsey is next and Elizabeth Dunford, please.

[Elizabeth Dunford (witness)]: There's an expression in Arabic that says, Sahabit Saif, which translates to It's just a passing summer cloud. And while we can look at what happened on March 11 as just another tragic moment when ICE and law enforcement wrongfully acted, for those of us who are there, we know it's not. I was present for several hours and can tell you this is a systemic issue. When the Burlington Police, South Burlington Police and State Police violated the fair and impartial policing policy, they not only failed to protect its citizens, but they actually allowed, complied, permitted and perpetuated harm. Reports and testimonies also indicate that they assisted in joint arrests, supported ICE in gaining access to the House and helped ICE leave the scene. While it is easy to suggest that this is a complex issue, that an investigation needs to be completed and that it is within the political process of which we shall proceed, I would suggest that his conclusion is much simpler. I sit here confounded by the sheer testimony presented by my comrades and community who overwhelmingly and collectively contest the claims made by law enforcement, political officials, and even news sources who inaccurately depict the day's events. In fact, the Burlington City Council received numerous testimonies to correct the record, and we are standing here before you now to do the same. Our community has spoken to the city council about being choked, concussed, clothes ripped off, being tear gassed and pepper sprayed, federal agents pulling bodies and throwing them into cars. If the police were there to protect, where were they? I am here before you to remind you that you have a duty to your community, including your immigrant neighbors. You no longer have the luxury to think of summer clouds. It is up to you whether this will divide us. We have seen this in Burlington, and our community had borne witness to it here. We will not ignore it. We are calling upon you to uphold your duty, the power you were elected to carry to enact change. How will you proceed?

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is next. Dana or Nana, I apologize. Is after that.

[Rep. Angela Arsenault (House Judiciary, Williston)]: My name is Elizabeth. I live in Essex Junction, and I'm here today to testify on behalf of members of unions at UVM and UVM Medical Center who were at the March eleventh Dorset Street ICE raid. That morning, community members spoke with city and state police about not violating fair and impartial policing the entire day. Local officers could have examined ICE ICE's criminal warrant, determined who was inside the house and refused to let them through. Instead, they very obviously paved the way for them.

[Elizabeth (UVM/UVMMC union representative, Essex Junction)]: They didn't deescalate the situation, and they violently aided ICE in illegally detaining three of our immigrant community members. They violated FIP to help ICE carry out this raid. Local police and state troopers arrested pepper sprayed, shoved, hit and threw people down in the street, including our reunion members here today. I personally had back pain for days afterwards because of Vermont state police in particular. People had seizures. They were choked. They were shot with nonlethal rounds and were concussed by the forces that now claim that they were there to protect the community. Most importantly, three people were torn from our community and from their families and children. If community protection was that important to local officers, it would have been their obligation to protect Johanna, Camilla and Christian. When we saw despicable levels of violence in Minneapolis, hundreds of us walked out of our offices, classrooms, labs and shops in solidarity. Union members will continue to show up and stand with migrant justice and all our immigrant neighbors in demanding accountability and justice in the state of in the face of state violence. As unionists, we know that an injury to Joanna, to Camilla, to Christian, to every community member who was beaten, shoved, pepper sprayed and arrested by police and troopers is an injury to us all. On March 11, our community showed that we are willing to put our bodies on the line for our neighbors. This is what local police, state police, federal agents, elected officials, our employers and our neighbors can expect from the unions of Vermont. Solidarity forever.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Nana Brownell is next and then Cora Honigeferd is on deck. Hi there. My name is Nana.

[Nana Brownell (witness)]: Firstly, I wanna say Vermont should and is going to be a state that proudly says ice out. One that doesn't allow ice to operate within it. Even before 2025, we've seen people migrating here being targeted and attacked by ICE and DHS and by both bipartisan support. Now Trump is working towards making ICE his own secret police, and it's more evident than ever that we need to put a stop to their terror. I call upon all the representatives here to work towards halting local and state police collaboration with ICE. We know that when ICE operates alone, they are not able to act with impunity when confronted with citizens coming out to protect their neighbors. Let's be clear. It's only with state help that ICE terror is able to happen within Vermont. On March 11, people came out and tried to support our community members. I saw people singing, chanting, and putting their bodies in a way in their way, putting their bodies in the way to protect innocent people from being targeted by ICE. We were responded to with violence, not just by ICE, but by state and local police. The amount of people left seriously harmed or injured, including myself, is unacceptable. I'm proud to also say that of the many people I saw there that day were fellow queer and trans folks, myself included. Today is Transgender Day of Visibility. And while I'm proud, it's also very sad to understand and know how many other trans and queer people have been seriously injured that day trying to defend our, migrant siblings. I want to make something clear that to be somebody who's a migrant, to be trans is to inadvertently have your identity be political. And that's a shame. But we understand that we come out. We support our migrant siblings because they come for them today. But tomorrow, they will come for trans folks, for the labor movement, and for any political dissident. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Cora Honigford is next and then Cal McCullough.

[Cora Honigford (witness; certified EMT)]: I am a certified EMT who volunteered as a medic on 03/11 after police began pepper spraying people. I did not have any equipment with me because I did not realize when I left work that that is what I would need to do. In the course of providing aid to at least half a dozen people, probably more, my hands and face were contaminated with pepper spray. They burned for hours afterwards just from that tertiary contamination. I can only imagine the agony my friends were in who could not open their eyes or stand unaided, no doubt, for hours afterwards. VSP, Vermont State Police, did not stop any of this harm, did not assist me or anyone else in providing medical care, and actively hurt people, as is extensively documented and as every single witness tonight has testified to. We were there to protect each other and our neighbors. Many times, other people warned me while I was attending to someone that my incapacitated patient should be moved out of the street because of the reckless driving of law enforcement, which very nearly killed multiple people. The police did not help me with this. It was my neighbors. It was my comrades and my community members who did. They were the ones who warned me. They were the ones who kept handing me water so I could continue flushing people's eyes and washing their faces. If VSP was there for my protection, then I will take my chances against ICE. Do not condescend us by suggesting that VSP brutalized us so ICE wouldn't murder us. We all knew what our task was. I was there to protect my neighbors, and I have seen what happened to Alex Preti and Renee Good just like all of us have. I knew that could have been me. We all knew that, and we went anyways because some things are worth that cost. We are asking tonight for accountability, but I'm also asking for you to decide. Do you believe us? And if you do, which side are you on? You cannot be neutral. Next time, will you be with us?

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Cal McCullough is next, and then Pearl Benjamin. Thank you.

[Cal McCullough (witness, Winooski)]: Good evening, everybody. My name is Cal. I live in Winooski. I was present on March 11, and I believe that state and local police violated the fair and impartial policing policy, used excessive force, and impinged on first, fourth, and tenth amendment rights. A Vermont state police officer without a visible badge, number, or name tag grabbed my legs out from under me and attempted to drag me across the pavement without any clear warning or any provocation. I was later pepper sprayed while trying to assist a neighbor without warning or provocation by a masked person who I believe was an officer of the VSP critical action team. In both instances, I was standing with both of my hands visible and was not threatening the officer. Among all of the well documented instances of abuse and excessive force, I also clearly witnessed a Vermont state police officer press his arm into somebody's throat after being told that they were having trouble breathing. Officers pull another protester's legs out from under them and try to drag them across the pavement. Officers cooperate directly with ICE in arresting a protester, and an officer forced a protester's head against a car. I have seen a photograph of an ICE agent's text message exchange, which we all have, regarding the critical action team, which leads me to believe that their presence was requested by ICE and was never in the public interest. I also repeatedly witnessed local police using excessive force and cooperating directly with ICE. I believe VSP intended from the start to cooperate with ICE, confront protesters instead of protect them, and avoid accountability as evidenced by the text exchange, the masks, the lack of visible badges, numbers, or name tags. In fact, VSP stood by in complete apathy until the critical action team arrived whose first substantive action was to physically assault innocent protesters and help ICE enter a house which contained nobody on the warrant. Police, as usual, continue to lie, deflect, and avoid accountability. I demand a thorough and transparent formal investigation, prosecution of those involved, accountability from police and elected leaders, and an enforceable plan to keep police from continuing the community they falsely claim to protect. While I have extra time, I would just like to thank all of the real members of the community who were there as neighbors to help heal and protect, and personal thanks goes out to anybody there who helped me that night. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Cal. Pearl Benjamin's next, and Catherine Wohlers is up after that.

[Pearl Benjamin (witness; Burlington farmworker)]: Name is Pearl Benjamin. I'm a farm worker from Burlington, and I've been here in Vermont for over five years. On Wednesday, March 11, I stood guarding my community members front door on Dorset Street because my great great grandparents who died at Auschwitz would have wanted their neighbors to guard their house before they were taken. We sang songs, held hands and even created a human tunnel so that we could get a young child out to safety. I was not a cloaked agitator. I was there to support and protect my community. Midway through the day, state troopers in tactical gear arrived at the house and forced their way through the crowd. State troopers ripped me away from the front door and threw me down the front steps, where I was then shoved and tossed between officers before finally making it out to safety in the crowd. Vermont State Police used brute force to clear a pathway so that ICE officers could terrorize and later detain the family inside the home, none of whom were on the warrant. State and local police guarded ICE officers and shoved protesters so that ICE vehicles could leave with our community members inside. If that's not facilitating the detention of individuals by immigration authorities for suspected civil immigration violations, I honestly don't know what is. I've heard over and over again the same justification for the presence of state and local police, which was that had they not been there, ICE officers would have used lethal force on protesters. How can police officials acknowledge that ICE is a violent threat and not understand why protesters were blocking the front door? We were not armed. We were not dangerous. Peaceful protesters who are there to protect their neighbors do not pose the same risk to public safety as gun wielding, trigger happy federal agents who are trained to commit violence. When state and local police can understand this distinction and respond appropriately by protecting their communities from violent ICE tactics, they might be able to regain our respect.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Katherine Woolers and then Sherry Wormser is on deck. Is Katherine here? I don't see her. So we'll go to Sherry Wormser and then Jackson Francis is on deck.

[Sherry Wormser (witness)]: Sorry, I was crying in that last one. I was on Dorset Street from about 08:45 in the morning till about the same time in the evening. And what I witnessed was 100% initiation and escalation of violence by state police. I saw collusion with ICE, and what I've witnessed since then, a former response from many people who sit in this room normally from the police and media, they have used language such as if only the peaceful protesters remained peaceful, this wouldn't have happened. That is language of rapists. That is language that says, if she stayed quiet, it wouldn't have hurt while I raped her. That is also the language that the president of The United States uses to try to manipulate every single one of us into believing their illegal and criminal and unethical acts are justified, and many who sit in this room have adopted that language. It is inappropriate. As you have heard tonight, we weren't the ones that were yielding guns. Never once let me rephrase this. As you all doing your investigations about the violence that was committed from state police, I hope you will investigate your response and everybody's responses. I hope you will also investigate how state police allowed three of our neighbors to be illegally kidnapped. We know that Colton Riley lied to federal judges in order to get that warrant for illegally kidnapping three people, and yet he walks free. They were not there to protect us. They were there to protect ICE. And every single one of you in this room who have said things like, if you were peaceful, it wouldn't have happened. You are protecting ICE. If this was your the mother of your children in this house, if you would do everything the same way, then fine. If you would do anything differently for the way the police responded, the way the media responded, then we care about that family, and that family deserves that same respect.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. So Jackson Francis is next and then Paul Fleckenstein.

[Jackson Francis (witness; UVM student)]: Good evening. My name is Jackson. I'm a UVM student living in Burlington. I'm here today because Vermont is deeply complicit in the Trump administration's reign of terror against their immigrant neighbor. This is evident from ICE's multiple facilities across the state, including two major ones in Williston and the state prisons ICE uses to hold people they've abducted. What happened on March 11 was not Vermont's only instance of complicity. It was perhaps the most public and egregious one. When ICE, with the help of VSP, attacked us and kidnapped three of our neighbors, three neighbors, this could not have happened without Vermont State Police. That Wednesday, I witnessed VSP attack my friends and classmates in order to allow ICE to abduct these people. The narrative that state police did not aid ICE is a lie. The narrative that the state police were there to protect Vermonters is a lie. As elected officials, you are supposed to represent the people, not ICE or the police, so represent us. Take action to present the represent excuse me, to protect the most vulnerable Vermonters. Pass H eight forty nine. Strengthen the fair and impartial policing policy. Investigate VSP and condemn not just ICE's actions, but VSPs and local law enforcement's too. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Paul Fleckenstein's next, and then Maya Falstitch Hahn, I believe, is up after that.

[Paul Fleckenstein (witness, Burlington)]: Paul Fleckenstein from Burlington. I was on Dorset Street on March 11. As many of us understand authoritarian regimes taking power act to laws, policies, and normalization of escalating state violence for the Trump regime. The goals are crystal clear implementation of a white nationalist social order and unchecked economic power at the top of society. The war on migrant workers, the center stage with ice increasingly operating as unaccountable and increasingly fascist paramilitary force in the service of this project state violence is necessary to carry out ethnic cleansing and enforce apartheid inequality. So over several hours on March 11, I saw unprecedented things in our community, heavily armed ICE agents, abducted migrant workers in an illegal operation. And to be clear, this wasn't an accident or a mistake. This is their policy as migrant protectors have done in many, many places across the country over the past year, hundreds of courageous people arrive to non violently protect our community members from being kidnapped, deported, tortured, and possibly killed as happens in the concentration camps. Governor Scott deployed state troopers to assist ice and ensure the success. As we've heard troopers and police used incredible violence to ensure that this was carried out. It was a police riot in the service of the Trump regime. And to be clear, no one wanted the state police there. It was wrong to reinforce, collaborate and enable ICE. I think the charge of this committee is really simple in the immediate term is to ensure that those responsible are held accountable and that this cannot be allowed to ever happen again.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Maya is next, and then Big Hartman is on deck.

[Maya Falstikhan (witness)]: Hi. My name is Maya Falstikhan. Tough last name. This is the jacket I wore on March 11. And this is the part of the jacket that still smells like mustard and pepper. This is where I felt the wetness and then immediately this burning. These are the goggles I was wearing. The person next to me was not so lucky. They couldn't open their eyes. They couldn't see. When the explosion stopped, I guided them to the sidewalk. And this is how I held their face as I squirted water into their eyes. They were so young. It could have been your neighbor's kid, your former student, your niece freshman year at college. Almost immediately, cars started to speed by us on Dorset Street. The police, had been so committed to blocking off traffic all day long, now that there were people blinded, hurting, burning in the road, the cops had disappeared like a fart in the wind. Protecting the protesters. Yeah, right. There are a number of bills coming before you, and I'm going to save my commentary on those for my phone calls and emails. But what I wanted to say here today is I think one of the hardest and bravest things that a person can do today in this country is change their mind. I know you all as politicians know this intimately. There's sometimes really high cost. If there's anything that you've heard today, anything you saw in those videos that is starting to tug at the edges of your certainty, I invite you to approach with curiosity. I invite you to ask yourselves, what is being demanded of all of us in this moment to ensure freedom in this country? And this freedom from violence, freedom from repression, freedom from being snatched from your house in the middle of a Wednesday, but also freedom to, freedom to work, freedom to play, freedom to rest, freedom to define for yourself what it means to live a good life, freedom to go outside on a warm spring day, feel the sun on your skin. Because this is the Vermont I believe in, and I know you all do, too. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Big Hartman and then we have Wendy Beiner next.

[Peg Hartman (Executive Director & General Counsel, Vermont Human Rights Commission)]: Hi, my name is Big Hartman. I'm the executive director and general counsel at the state of Vermont Human Rights Commission. I use theythem pronouns. I want to thank the committee chairs and the committee members for holding this hearing today to hear from the public after having a really important hearing with law enforcement on the nineteenth. The Vermont Human Rights Commission is an independent commission within state government. Our primary job is to enforce Vermont's anti discrimination protections. Our office has been involved with the development of the fair and impartial policing policy, and we have a seat on the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council. Police actions that violate the fair and impartial policing policy may also violate the anti discrimination protections that we enforce under the Vermont Public Accommodations Act. Under that act, since 1989, the HRC has conducted many impartial investigations involving law enforcement action. We have investigated discriminatory conduct of police in conducting traffic stops, responding to calls for assistance, making arrests, and cooperating with immigration enforcement, among other things. HRC has legal authority to investigate whether state or local law enforcement discriminated against anyone on March 19, based on immigration status, your citizenship, race, color, sex, or any other legally protected characteristic. What we don't have legal authority to do is to publicly disclose the existence of an investigation which is confidential by law. Also, if the commission finds that there's not grounds to believe that discrimination occurred, that finding is confidential by law. So even if the HRC were to investigate the incidents of March 11, transparency and public accountability would still be extremely limited. We've asked the judiciary committee chairs to grant specific legislative authority to the Human Rights Commission to publicly investigate this issue and lawfully disclose our investigative report to the public when it's complete. We urge the legislature to find a solution that will enable a transparent process for public accountability in this and other future police actions that impact our immigrant community. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Peg. Wendy, I don't see that Wendy has come down, so I move on to Liza Cochran. And Sylvia Knight is on deck.

[Liza Cochran (witness; Vermonter/mother/teacher)]: Hello. My name is Liza Cochran. I'm a born and raised Vermonter, mother, teacher, and writer. I was not on Dorset Street, but I'm testifying as a citizen concerned about how the state is characterizing protesters in the aftermath. In Governor Scott's press conference and subsequent hearings, we heard again and again, the facts will come out in the after action review once the body camera footage is evaluated. Commissioner Morrison told us, we tend to operate from a place of fact, not feelings, and not pre assumptions about people's motives. And yet, the commissioner, the governor, and the police chiefs have not waited for that footage or those reports before blaming the escalation on March 11 on actions taken by ICE and those they call agitators in the crowd. Less than twenty four hours after the raid, the governor blamed those there to agitate, and the commissioner and police chiefs have referred to suspected agitators, rioters, and the violent agitators who cloak themselves as activists. It is premature, they've told us time and again, to remark on the conduct of police, but evidently, it is not too soon to malign protesters as agitators. I acknowledge the difficult position law enforcement is in, and yet this clear double standard only fails to restore public trust. It further divides us at a time when future clashes seem inevitable. I am also here as a concerned US resident to zoom out beyond Dorset Street, beyond these green mountains, is to realize that stamping protesters as agitators has national consequences. The term agitator has long been used to delegitimize and fracture movements into disparate warring parts. After Renee Good's murder, Trump called the protesters professional agitators and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. Here at home, regardless of intent, the term agitator implies an outsider coming to sow violence, and it is sloppy and dangerous to use it unwittingly. Until the analysis of March 11 is complete, it is our collective duty not to make pre assumptions. Imagine for a moment that the crowd's outrage wasn't part of a premeditated agenda, but simply what happens in the human body, the human heart, our bodies and hearts when we witness violence before us, when we witness the deep injustice of a small girl under a blanket taken from her mother, or women choked and thrown to the ground. The onus is on Governor Scott and law enforcement to take into account the historical context of this word's meaning as well as the future stakes of its misuse. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Liza or Liza Cochran is next. I'm And sorry, that was Liza, I apologize, Sylvia. And then Ike Malqueen Duquette is after that is on deck.

[Sylvia Knight (witness, Burlington)]: My name is Sylvia Knight. I live in Burlington, Vermont with my partner. As allies of migrant justice, my partner and I were present on March 11 at the Dorset Street site for about three and a half hours, where many were gathered in peaceful solidarity with the immigrants inside the house. When ICE agents came in the late afternoon, they were there before also, when they came late in the afternoon with a judicial warrant, migrant justice staff told them that the person named in the warrant was not in the house. ICE moved ahead anyway to raid the house with help from the state police in riot gear. They worked closely wrestling and throwing people, guarding the door throwing them off the straight steps. You heard from one of those persons. They and ICE worked with a long board to force the door open, enabling ICE to invade the home with guns. I was deeply horrified to witness this abuse of police power, terrifying to many, arresting three residents who were not even named in the warrant. Police, ICE, collaboration, egregious violation of the fair and impartial policing policy, unnecessary police action to violently break into a home, and so called collateral arrests. All single fascism and police state, we must resist. Please pass H849 and S209. Thank you for hearing us.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Just a quick announcement that we're still having issues with closed captioning. However, a full transcript of the meeting will be available and linked to our stream within seventy two hours. I apologize for that. But we'll go to now Ike. And then Russ Green is on deck.

[Ike Malqueen Duquette (witness, Montpelier)]: My name is Ike. I'm a resident of Montpelier. When I heard ICE agents were outside a home on Dorset Street

[Speaker 0]: You want a little closer to the thank you.

[Ike Malqueen Duquette (witness, Montpelier)]: When I heard that ICE agents were outside a home on Dorset Street, I drove up from Montpelier as soon as I could get out of work. Maybe I'm the outsider. I joined other Vermonters in gathering there because ICE has a consistent record of ignoring the law and civil liberties, abducting people from the street and from their homes, and moving them between states to try and deny them the due process we're all entitled to. I believe that if people's rights are being violated, I have a moral duty to show up, witness, and prevent harm to my neighbors if I can. In the end, they seized three people without a warrant and drove into the night with them. Most people would call that kidnapping. In this wrongful act, they had essential help from our state and local police, who beat and shoved people aside so ICE could break down the door and then shielded the ICE agents while they dragged three residents of the home out to their vehicle. Over the next two hours, I saw officers whose salaries we pay and who should have a duty to protect us, dealing out beatings and pepper spray against people who came with nothing more dangerous than linked arms and raised voices. If state and local officers saw that ICE had a warrant for one person, why did they work so violently to make sure they could leave with three? If some people can be snatched from their homes with no warrant and anyone who tries to protect them will be brutalized, what safety and liberty can any of us count on? I don't believe Vermonters will stand aside and allow such injustice to happen quietly. I hope our lawmakers will stand with us and help keep our state a place where liberty is respected and everyone can count on equal treatment under the law. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Russ Green is next and then Ray Beecher Zondack.

[Russ Green (witness, Plainfield)]: Hello. My name is Russ Green. I am a born and raised Vermonter and a current resident of Plainfield. I was not president on Dorset Street on March 13, but this is what I understand to be true. The person who was the target of ICE that day was not driving the vehicle that was involved in the multicar collision, nor was that person inside the home that was later raided. During that raid, three people who are not named in the warrant were unlawfully detained. Two of these unlawfully detained people were in the process of applying for asylum. This is what I understand of ICE. This is a poorly trained, racist, paramilitary group with a low bar for entry and no oversight. There's been testimony from former ICE attorney Ryan Schwanck that the that the recruitment training is, quote, deficient, defective, and broke, end quote. Schwank goes on to say that the legal use of force is no longer taught to ICE cadets and that they're they're further instructed to ignore the constitution altogether. Children are being separated from their families. Schools have been raided. People have been killed wantonly in the streets, and people have died in detentions in detention due to inhumane captors and conditions. We, Vermonters, will not accept any of this behavior from our local law enforcement. We do not want our local law enforcement to assist ICE operations. We do not want the same level of violence perpetrated on Vermonters that we've seen across the country by this rogue agency. The events of the eleventh erode our collective trust in our local government and makes the claim of protecting and serving the public illegitimate. From what I from what I know, the local and state law enforcement officers involved in the events of March 11 had not been subject to any sort of internal investigation. Qualified immunity needs to end, and we need to bring them some accountability. I implore you to take decisive action and make us Vermonter safe. Thank you to the people that were there on the eleventh and that are here today.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Ray Beecher is next, and then Jennifer Skinder, I hope I pronounced that right, is on deck.

[Ray Beecher (witness, South Burlington)]: My name is Ray Beecher, and I'm a resident of South Burlington. I was there on March 11 in South Burlington, and it was not just frightening. It exposed how policing is actually operating in this state. ICE went into that home looking for one specific person. They believed he was inside. They were wrong. They didn't find him. Instead, three other people were taken, none of them the target, and all of them later released. The option the operation was built on a mistake, but when people experienced was not hesitation but when people experienced was not hesitation in the face of that mistake, it was escalation. An hours long standoff, a commute a neighborhood filled with law enforcement, a community showing up to protect their neighbors, and local and state police did not stand apart. Vermont State Police, Burlington Police, and South Burlington Police, they were there. They cleared the path. They controlled the perimeter, and they ensured that operation continued. That is not neutrality. That is participation. And then it escalated further. Chemical irritants in the air, explosive crowd control devices, people choking, disoriented, forced to the ground. So this is not just about ICE. It's about why local state and why local and state police reinforced a federal operation that was already based on the wrong person. Because fair and partial policing is exposed to is supposed to exist in real time and make and the decisions made in moments like that. What people experienced instead was force, coordination, and alignment. And now afterwards, what is being offered is familiar, explanations, justifications, and deflection. But people were there. They saw who cleared the path. They saw who held the line, and they saw who stood with federal enforcement. That was not impartial. There is no asterisk after we and we are Vermont strong.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. I don't see that Jennifer is here, so we'll go to Quinn Roll and then Kason Hudman is on deck.

[Quinn Rawl (witness; reading on behalf of Chrissy Rose)]: Thank you for having me. My name is Quinn Rawl. I'm from Burlington and I'm reading this on behalf of a friend. My name is Chrissy Rose. I live in the Old North End, and I was present on Dorson Street for most of the day on March 11, including the end of the day when police pepper sprayed people right in front of me. We've been told that state and local police are not assisting ICE in their operations and that their purpose on the scene was to keep the public safe. What I witnessed was the opposite of that. The only people on the scene trying to keep anyone safe were the neighbors who showed up to do so. We were not there to protest. We were there to protect, and we might have succeeded if the police had not been there. I watched a person in the crowd fall to the ground, unable to breathe because they had been choked by a state trooper. Neighbors surrounded this person to shield them and offer medical assistance. State police violently shoved the crowd back into them. I implored the local police officer closest to me to tell the officer to stop, that there was a person on the ground in danger of being trampled, she replied, I can't. I wish I could. We're being told completely contradictory things. We're being told that the police were there on the scene to maintain public safety, but also that they have no authority over ICE. If police help ICE take people without a warrant, that's not fair and impartial policing. If police don't even have enough authority to order an agent not to trample someone, then they have no ability to protect the public even if they intended to. To say that that was their purpose on the scene Wednesday in that case is a farce and an insult to the people who were taken and harmed. I know this is a lot. Thank you for listening. Please protect us.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. And please do submit written testimony if you were unable to get through it all. I appreciate it. Kacen Hudman and then Boots Bouley Bouley is on deck.

[Kacen Hutman (witness; Peace & Justice Center)]: Hi, my name is Kacen Hutman. I'm the director of operations at the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington, an organization with a long history of nonviolent activism. As others have said, nonviolence and peaceful solidarity was exactly what I witnessed on Dorset Street before the state police arrived. The only violent agitators there were ICE and the police. I witnessed state troopers come in with guns, strong-arm my friends, throw them out of the way, and clear the path for ICE to kidnap our neighbors. The narrative from the police so far has been that they were there to keep everyone safe. Let me be clear. The people who were there to stop the unlawful abduction of our neighbors were not there to be safe. They were there to protect their neighbors, Precisely what the state police should have done and did not do. The law and its most cruel and malignant manifestation may have allowed ICE to enter the house. But if the state police had done their job, they would have verified that nobody in the house was actually listed on the arrest warrant. Had they done their job, the state police would have turned on ICE at the precise moment that ICE became obviously committed to kidnapping people they had no right to detain. The state police should have told ICE that detaining those Vermonters would be unlawful abduction and kidnapping. They did not do this presumably because the state troopers trusted ICE more than they trusted us. We, all of us who were there protecting our neighbors, were right. We were right about everything about this case, more right than we even knew. ICE was wrong about everything from the very beginning. If this happens again, can bet that all of us will be out there protecting our neighbors again. If the state police are really there to protect us, then they need to trust us and not trust ICE. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Boots Bule Bule is up and Suki. I apologize for, I'm sure, mispronouncing that.

[Suki (witness)]: That's actually me. I accidentally registered twice. So can call me Suki.

[Speaker 0]: So if you could identify yourself as well.

[Suki (witness)]: Dear ICE, police, and bystanders, my name is Suki. You remember Alex, Freddie, Renee Good, but will you remember me if I get detained or shot even if I'm brown? Well, I'm wearing a cowgirl hat, so that shouldn't be a problem. But I watched you hurt my friends. First, you shoved one of them because they happened to be standing too close to you. You handcuffed another, slammed them

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Chair, Senate Judiciary; Windham)]: to the ground, and dug your knee into their back until they had to turn

[Suki (witness)]: their face sideways in order to breathe after pepper spraying them, of course. You threw them down the stairs. You grabbed and shoved them by their necks. You choked them until they went unconscious that our friends had to drag them away. You did an arm bar on another and swung them into a curb. You did it again to another friend. You almost ran them over with your car. You deliberately removed their mask to pepper spray them. You casually stepped over them as they lay vulnerable on the ground and pepper sprayed them point blank. I'll never forget the two armed ice policemen sauntering toward my friends as if they were strolling on the beach with helmets, gas goggles, gas masks, and gas canisters on their torsos. In the blue headlights of that last ice vehicle, a silver cloud bloomed from the ground with the pop of flash bangs and pepper bullets. Like a phantom, the residual particles crept toward me like blue fireflies dragging a silver blue mist. The worst was already that you had to kidnap them from their own home, traumatizing their children carelessly, letting a bullet slip. But it didn't stop there. He did so much that I can't even keep track. There are so many of my friends' stories that I've yet to hear. It was already bad enough that our government funds your fear mongering, but you chose to brutalize. You chose the unnecessary violence, and you chose to call in your troops on your own unarmed civilians. And even if some of you didn't choose to do that, you watched. Bystander silence is violence. Your violence helped terrorists traumatize their own people, my friends. But guess what? I have a lot of friends.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. So Dan Boomhauer, I believe, is next. And then Evelyn Mercier.

[Dan Boomhauer (witness; Williston)]: I'm Dan Boomhauer, Williston, Vermont. The state police in the state police tactical squadron need a uniform change to make sure they can be easily distinguished from the various divisions of ICE. When I look at the video of the door being hit with a battering ram, I cannot honestly say it was being done by an ICE agent and not a member of the state police. At the moment of contact I was sure it was a state police trooper, the uniforms are too similar. I was at the Dorsey Street protest for twelve hours. I commend the demonstrators and the state and local police for maintaining a non physical interaction for most of the day. The situation intensified throughout the day and came to a crisis about 05:30 when the Vermont State tactical team came in full regalia complete with rifles to create an aisle for the ICE agents to enter the house. I saw our state troopers doing what they were commanded to do which is to keep protesters out of the way of the assaulting ICE members. By commanding our state troopers to participate in this action, our state executive leaders made our state troopers collaborators to the arrest of people not even on a warrant. It has made our troopers into Kapo. The Kapo were the prisoners who supervised other prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. We need to pass S227 to limit federal immigration agents, S28 for standards on law enforcement identification, H849 regarding civil action damages for the interference of state or federal constitutional rights. When there is an ICE action, our government must publicly directly and immediately connect with ICE in a way that all of us know about. The information regarding the ICE action must be verified before moving forward. If ICE will not comply that information also needs to be publicly put forward as a public service announcement. We need to know what's going on and we need to have our executive branch take authority and do something. Not only were citizens caught in the front lines, but also the good name of our police force was drugged through the mud. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Evelyn is up next and then Jeff Nicholson.

[Evelyn Mercier (witness; Migrant Justice intern)]: Hi. My name is Evelyn Mercier, and I'm an intern with migrant justice this semester. On March 11, many of us witnessed what will go down in history as one of the most violent attacks on our neighbors here in Vermont. I saw firsthand officers from many different agencies brutalize not only the solidary mem solidarity members who were protecting our neighbors inside the house on Doris Street, but also unlawfully arrest three of our friends inside of the house. ICE used tactics that violated constitutional rights, but who helped them? Our local police. I believe strongly that if we had not seen the police presence that we saw there, ICE would not have been able to unlawfully detain our friends. I looked in the eyes of an ICE agent and asked him, if this was his child inside, what would he do to protect him? Would he be chained to the steps, begging that nobody take him away from his father? He said nothing. He looked straight past me, nothing in his eyes because that's all it is. It's just another day on the job upholding the law. When I asked police why they were complying with ICE, they responded to keep everyone safe. But who are we keeping safe? Masked men in the streets kidnapping our neighbors? Who are we keeping safe? The state? Who are we keeping safe when dozens of protesters were pepper sprayed, thrown to the ground, even choked, while ICE officers stayed protected by their police bodyguards? The police are upholding a system of state violence, institutional racism, and a total disregard for community, and our Vermont officials are allowing it. We are calling for them to be held accountable for this because who keeps us safe when they don't? We keep us safe. We have to do everything to protect ourselves and our neighbors. This is a lesson we'll have to learn over and over. And after everyone slowly lets go of this day, after you all move on with your lives, check your watches, wondering when you can get home, you put all of this in your back pocket. Remember that your migrant neighbors still feel it every single day. Abolish the police and abolish ICE now.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Jeff Nicholson and Megan Hickey is, up next after that.

[Jeff Nicholson (witness)]: I think I'm an agitator. I'm gonna have to admit that. I'm not an outside agitator. That's not what the governor said, but I think there's a difference there. I live in that neighborhood. And if you're wondering why some people are upset, it's because we live in that neighborhood. We've said, you know, go few people up in Minnesota, and we're sorry for this, that, or the other thing. It got real, real fast here last month. And a lot of people who are our allies and a lot of people who don't necessarily agree with us and a lot of people that haven't been spending the last year and a half thinking about this aren't really ready to talk about it. And I know a lot of your people, a lot of people in the government aren't ready to talk about it either. The thing that's been bothering me, the only thing that's been bothering me, and I'll put the agitator versus outside agitator definition is the people that say, the governor had a really nice statement. Then he threw that agitator shadow in there at the end. I don't know why he had to do that. But others, like the Burlington police chief, said everything was fine until some other group came from somewhere and made it weird. And there's been state officials saying the same thing. And that's just not what happened. It got weird when the cops took the bad guy's side. That's when the arms came out, that's when things started going bang and boom. And the big flashes you saw on TV. All the protesters, the protectors were nonviolent. I didn't see any acts of violence that were initiated by the protectors. I just wanted to say that, but I also wanna know you need to know this is important. It's important to us. Agitate. I looked it up in the dictionary because I thought the governor was insulting me. It's to argue strongly for something, especially for changes in law, social conditions, etcetera. I'll own that to make someone feel angry, anxious, or nervous. I think they were angry that we were there. Or to make something, especially a liquid, move around by stirring it or shaking it. If your washing machine doesn't have an agitator, your your laundry's not gonna get clean. I'll own that position. I was an agitator, but I was not an outside agitator. It's in my neighborhood. They came to fight me. That's why I'm angry.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Excuse me. So, Megan is next then, Tenzin Chauffel. Chaffel?

[Megan Hickey (witness; South Burlington)]: I'm Megan Hickey from South Burlington, and I'm speaking independently and not representing any entities of the state. I showed up late afternoon on March 11 because I lived down the street. I walked there. And my neighbor because my neighbors were being threatened by masked armed men who kidnap and disappear people. It was a moral imperative that I do something. I arrived to a calm scene of dozens of my communities supporting and caring for one another. We chanted and sang, and some even played music and danced. What happened next were some of the most terrifying moments of my life, and I still keep reliving it. Our whistles, cardboard signs, and trash bag ponchos were no match for the weapons, bulletproof vests, and riot gear we were met with. I shook in fear as I heard loud bangs and saw anguish, tears, and anger in the faces around me as we shouted for ice to leave our neighbors alone. In the aftermath, I was witnessed agents in green and black shoving, yanking, and throwing people. I saw people pinned to the ground as onlookers pleaded with officers to please be careful. We have been told that were that police were there to protect us, and without them, things would have been much worse. But we were also told police had no authority to intervene if ICE used excessive force. What violence did they stop? I saw flashbangs deployed, chemicals sprayed into people's faces, and SUVs driven reckless recklessly. I saw people lying on the ground who I didn't know were okay or even alive. Traffic rushing by as community members performed first aid in the street. I believe the overwhelming number of local and state police may have emboldened ICE and escalated the situation, putting us all at greater risk. Some may call us agitators and rioters. Some may disagree with our methods. But what I saw that day was my community coming together, doing everything we could, putting our bodies on the line in an attempt to protect our neighbors stop an atrocity from happening. You can't protect both the community and ICE. Pick a side.

[Speaker 0]: You. So we have Tenzin is next. And Mark Gable, I think that Mark was signed up for Zoom, but I see that he's here in person. So he'll be on deck.

[Tenzin Choephel (witness)]: Various, my mayor, the the state troopers, official statements, our government and state house here, all released statements and saying same. Are we are we closer? Too far?

[Sen. Robert Norris (Franklin/Grand Isle, Senate Judiciary)]: Yep. Close.

[Tenzin Choephel (witness)]: Check one. Check one.

[Speaker 0]: That's better, sir.

[Tenzin Choephel (witness)]: Do I get a restart time too? It's still ticking. There we go. The powers that be all released statements that the state troopers in Vermont state police, the local police use no chemical irritants or any kind of nonlethal rounds or any kind of flashbang devices. Many of my friends beg to differ. My ribs beg to differ. Got a nice little photo here for y'all. You pass that around if you like. It's a little bit naked, but it's a whole bunch of bruises from Pepper Rounds. And our police are liars. Our state government are all liars. All of you, you're liars. I do not expect any kind of meaningful change. Our state police and local police fully aided ICE, and you might be wondering what kind of agitation I was doing to get a few bruises from them. And it's because I was helping a friend that was in front of a weaponized car that was moving in front of them. They had two state troopers,

[Natalia Fajardo (witness; Migrant Justice co-founder)]: pew pew pew pew,

[Tenzin Choephel (witness)]: with their pepper bullets in their face nonstop while they were already down. These state troopers are making no effort to help them up. I was trying to help them up. That's why they were trying to hurt me. My conclusion is that the police, our state troopers, ICE, my state government, and all my representatives are here to hurt me and my friends and my family, and they're willing to lie to cover it all up. See the rest of my time.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you for your time. Mark Gable's next, and then Rachel Elliott is on deck.

[Mark Gable (witness)]: My name is Mark Gable. I live in South Burlington, and I'm humbled by all the comments I've heard so far. I wanna tell everybody in the room before I start, what I have to say in no way diminishes any of your experiences, and I'm so sorry you had to go through it, and then you'll have to deal with that trauma for the rest of your lives. I drive a school bus for South Burlington Schools. I also have extensive training in mediation and conflict resolution. I witnessed the aftermath of both car accidents that were in part caused by the poor planning and actions vice officers that put students of South Burlington High School and Frederick Middle School in harm's way. It wasn't until I was picking up the high school and middle school kids at the end of the day that I got a full understanding of what was taking place in my community. My priority quickly became to get the students home safely and then to get to the protest as quickly as possible to learn, observe, document, and help in whatever way I could. What I saw between 04:30 and 06:30 started as peaceful protest and passive civil disobedience. But after the arrival of ICE's tactical team and the second group of state police, things quickly turned into a violent disruption. From where I stood, none of the players involved were without some level of responsibility for the anger and hate that ensured. However, in my mind, one of the primary differences between what took place in South Burlington that day and the no kings march on Saturday was the difference that individuals clad in orange vests were responsible for keeping protests peaceful and civil. That was missing on March 19, and it shouldn't be in the future. And that holds true not only for the protesters, but for the state police, the South Burlington police, and the Burlington police. Where were the mediators? Where were the people that were supposed to keep it peaceful? I'm in no way saying that those who stepped out of line shouldn't be held accountable. However, we are in a time where we need to collaborate and build strong relationships with groups that maybe under other circumstances we might not. We need to learn how to do better on all sides next time, not just demonize one another. The real enemy here shouldn't be fellow Vermonters trying to protect their neighbors, but an administration that has no respect for the rule of law and a president that revels in seeing us turn on one another. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Mark. So I don't see Rachel Elliott, but the next three witnesses, Emilio Morales, we're going to have a little bit longer time because we're going to have, not Elliot, I had said. But I believe the next three witnesses, I believe, are going to have a translator. So we're going to add some time because of the translation that we're going to need. So Emilio Morales and whoever the translator is. Yeah. And then Christian Gerez is on deck. And then Enrique Belcazar will be third.

[Rachel (Migrant Justice staff; they/them)]: Hi. Sorry for the confusion. The sound quality isn't too good. My name is Rachel. Theythem. I'm a staff member with Migrant Justice. I was there and involved for the entire day on the eleventh. Know, we've heard extensively both tonight and over the last few weeks from protesters, from the people who were detained, and from law enforcement across various jurisdictions. So I wanted to summarize briefly, because I know we've all been taking in quite a lot of information, the timeline of what happened on the eleventh. So just before eight a. M. On March 11, migrant justice received word through our emergency line about an attempted ICE detention in progress on Dorset Street in South Burlington. A migrant justice volunteer arrived on the scene and confirmed that there were at least three ICE agents on-site. We then activated our rapid response network at approximately 08:30 a. M. At 08:45, ICE, and not protesters, called South Burlington police requesting backup. From there on, over the course of the day, dozens of South Burlington, Burlington and Vermont State Police arrived on scene, while dozens and then hundreds of allies and Vermont community members rallied in front of the home. We sang, we shared food, someone was making hot dogs around the corner, and we made sure that the people inside knew that they were not alone. Protesters self organized to keep each other fed, warm, and relatively dry despite the cold rain. And as many have said, during the day, dozens of ICE, briefly Border Patrol, and then Vermont State Police, South Burlington Police, and Burlington Police officers were present. We've since learned that officers set up a joint command post in the South Burlington City Hall, where state and local police helped ICE plan out the home invasion, laying out the role that each agency would take. Around four witnesses saw about a dozen Vermont state police officers in riot gear gathering in the U Mall parking lot near the Hannaford, and ICE officers were there speaking with those agents. Despite all that, it wasn't until about 04:50PM that ICE was able to get a warrant, despite all of the preparation, all of the activity on scene. Then at about 05:30, heavily armed Vermont state troopers helped ICE smash down the door to the home, allowing federal agents to rush inside. Shoulder to shoulder, ICE, the stadies, South Burlington and Burlington Police maintained a channel through which ICE officers could leave after illegally detaining three of our community members. As officers dragged Gianna, Camille, and Christian out of the home, protesters chanted and called for their release and ultimately engaged in civil disobedience in an attempt to stop officers from removing them from the scene. Officers used tear gas, pepper spray, pepper balls, flashbangs, and physical force against protesters, including myself, in an attempt to keep protesters and community members from keeping their neighbors safe. They've instruct at least one person with a car. As multiple people have shared, we've been going through thousands of photos and videos over the last few weeks. We would be more than happy to provide more evidence for everything that was shared tonight, And I'll pass it along to my other colleagues.

[Speaker 0]: Appreciate it. Thank you. So we will hear from Emilio Morales and the translator as well, Will Lambic.

[Emilio Morales (witness; translated)]: Hello. My name is Emilio. I want to start by thanking the committees for creating this space so that we can come out to share our voice and speak our mind. The events of March 11 were extremely unfortunate and continue to have repercussions in our community. What happened there has long term ramifications and has created great pain in our community. On that day on March 11, we were firsthand witnesses to violations of our rights and excessive use of force. These aren't suppositions. These are facts that we witnessed ourselves. Just two nights ago, we held up a community assembly where we brought together many members of our community and heard testimony after testimony of the fear instilled in community members by the events of March 11 and the fact that people don't feel safe on the streets of Vermont. This creates great pain in our community when what we saw was on March 11, also a display of courage and solidarity from community members coming out to protect our community. The most difficult thing to watch on March 11 was the collaboration of local police as they aided ICE in breaking down the door of these these families. This has broken our trust and has broken the sense of security that we felt in this state. We don't wanna see any more families separated. We don't wanna see any more community members detained. We want to be able to live freely and in peace with the knowledge that our rights will be respected and that we'll be treated with the human dignity that we deserve.

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Chair, Senate Judiciary; Windham)]: I

[Emilio Morales (witness; translated)]: want to leave you with the message that our community deserves dignity, justice, and safety. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Christian Gerais is next.

[Christian Jerez (witness; translated; directly impacted detainee)]: Good afternoon. My name is Christian Jerez. I'm one of the people directly impacted by the events of the day I was arrested. So I want to tell you a little bit about my experience that day as I was inside my home. This is a moment of great fear, trauma, terror, because we didn't know where to turn. There was no authority that we could call on for help, no police who would who would help us in that instance. We could only count on the support of our neighbors. And I know that without that support, things would have gone much worse for us. The feeling of being in the house that day was terrible. There was a three year old girl there with us. There were two women there as well along with my nephew who is just 18 years old. All of us were inside that house experiencing fear and terror. We saw how the police advanced on the house, striking old women, women who could have been our grandmothers. We also saw them striking young people, students, people there who were protesting peacefully. This was a moment of incredible violence. And once we were taken out of the house and put into the cars, we heard the agents laughing and making fun of the people outside. We also saw through the car windows as they used pepper spray on people's faces. The migrant justice community showed up for us in that moment, and their presence was the only safety that we felt that day. It's a difficult experience to have lived through and to recount because we are human beings. And ICE is only focused on the color of our skin, on the language that we speak in order to accuse us of whatever they want. And I hope one day that the officials who violated our rights that day and the rights of everybody who were there, someday have to come here and speak to you directly and show their face for what they've done.

[Sen. Nader Hashim (Chair, Senate Judiciary; Windham)]: That's

[Cal McCullough (witness, Winooski)]: all. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. And we will go to Enrique Bellacazar next. Thank you.

[Will Lambek (Migrant Justice; translator/advocate)]: Thank you to all of you for opening this space, for hearing the reality of the people. My name is Enrique Balcasar, and I'm part of the immigrant community in Vermont. Now I've been in this state since 2014. And since that time, I've been involved in pushing forward and creating the fair and impartial policing policies that we have in the state today. Many times, I have gone to the criminal justice council, provided direct testimony, talked about the protections we need because of the the issues that happen when police in Vermont and around the country do the work of immigration enforcement.

[Enrique Balcazar (witness; Migrant Justice leader)]: Despite how many times the police try to paint a picture of their intentions that day, you are hearing tonight about the reality of what happened. Our immigrant community has organized to speak up for our rights and so that we can live in peace in the state of Vermont. The fair and impartial policing policy is needed in this situation more than any other to ensure that the resources of Vermont and people acting on behalf of the state of Vermont are not responsible for the separation of families and the detentions of immigration authorities. These actions are part of the federal government's agenda attacking our community. They should not be part of the agenda of the state of Vermont. Our responsibility is to our residents in this

[Asher Demos (witness; transgender Vermonter)]: state. And

[Enrique Balcazar (witness; Migrant Justice leader)]: we are part of this state. On March 11, I awoke to a situation of neighbors defending neighbors, of people defending their constitutional rights to be free from unlawful search and seizure, their constitutional rights to remain silent. And though I'm not an attorney, I know that what happened was a violation of the policy of fair and impartial policing. We want to ensure that this situation never repeats itself in Vermont and that the fair and impartial policing policy be respected. Peace and justice for all.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. And next is Will Lambeck Goig.

[Will Lambek (Migrant Justice; translator/advocate)]: Thank you very much, chair. Thanks, members of the committee. As you have heard throughout this evening, on March 11, police collaborated with ICE in clear violation of Vermont's fair and impartial policing policy. That policy explicitly prohibits police from, quote, accepting requests by federal immigration authorities to support or insist assist in civil immigration enforcement and from, quote, facilitating the detention of individuals by federal immigration authorities for suspected civil immigration violations. As part of their justification for their actions, police have claimed that ICE's actions on 03/11 were part of a criminal investigation, not civil enforcement. This claim is belied by the facts. ICE detained Joanna, Camilla, and Christian without any criminal charges or suspicion of criminal offense. Even if one were to accept the claim, however, the policy still prohibits police collaboration. The policy states that, quote, federal criminal immigration law is generally not a priority, specifically naming the unlawful reentry charge that was used to justify the raid and discouraging police from, quote, expending resources, investigating, or enforcing such offenses. Now to avoid accountability for these clear violations, police officials are misrepresenting the policy. They claim that the policy wasn't written for quote, any situation that even remotely comes close to this. As a point of fact, the policy was written with these situations in mind. Migrant justice knows this because in 2016, we drafted the provisions in question precisely to prevent such collaboration. Now since the horrifying police ICE raid of March 11, local and state officials have presented an Alice in Wonderland version of events. Rather than arriving at ICE's behest and coordinating actions of federal agents, police claimed that they were there to safeguard protectors' rights to freedom of speech. Rather than assaulting and brutalizing community protectors, police say they prevented greater violence. They have shifted the goalpost so far that they declare their operations a success simply by pointing to the lowest of bars that nobody was killed during the events of March 11. Now Vermonters are not fooled by officials' misdirections, victim blaming, and outright fabrications. We can see clearly that local agencies worked hand in glove with ICE to detain immigrant Vermonters and brutalize their community defenders, and we know that police will not police themselves. This is why migrant justice calls on your committees to use every tool available, including the senate subpoena power and by empowering the Vermont Human Rights Commission to conduct a public investigation to hold agencies accountable and ensure that this never happens again. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Alright. Thank you, Will. So we are next excuse me. If we want to get to the last witnesses, I need folks to be quiet on that. Sorry. So we're going to be going to some witnesses on Zoom. And we'll be starting with Natalie. Hope I was close in pronouncing your name. But Natalie, you could proceed.

[Natalia Fajardo (witness; Migrant Justice co-founder)]: Can you hear me okay?

[Speaker 0]: Yes, we

[Natalia Fajardo (witness; Migrant Justice co-founder)]: can. Okay. Yeah, this is Natalia Fajardo. I was a Vermont resident for twelve years from the Map River Valley to Montpelier to Burlington. And as a co founder of migrant justice, I remember 2012, a state trooper stopped a car in the Willistot area for speeding. White driver but the trooper saw two Latino passengers profiled them and called border patrol on them. Through much organizing and advocacy, Vermont passed a bias free policing policy to prevent such collusion from happening again. And note that this is not a collaboration. ICE or border patrol playing cop and cops playing to be ICE is pure collusion. We didn't push for this policy just to protect immigrants. We fought for this also to generate trust of local authorities so that people who experience or witness crimes could feel their call to the police to report it wouldn't end up in someone's deportation. Fast forward to 2026, an ICE agent profiles a car driver, wants to detain him, neighbors mobilized by the hundreds and ICE calls on state troopers and other local police for backup. Now the troopers become a party to a crime. Fourteen years of trying to build trust between the community and cops shattered in one day. And by the community, I don't mean the immigrant community, I mean the public. Ask anyone who's testified today who got violently attacked or saw police beat up their neighbors. See if they'll ever want to call the cops again. Lastly, if you think this doesn't apply to you because you're white or were born here or you behave, you're not a troublemaker, Be warned, what ICE is doing today is a testing ground for police or any armed agency to be deployed against anyone who this system deems undesirable or unnecessary. As more hospitals close, rent goes up and robots replace our jobs, the abuse of March 11 will be daily news unless you legislators act now. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much, Natalie. Asher Demos is next and after that, Reverend Mark Hughes. Go ahead, Asher.

[Asher Demos (witness; transgender Vermonter)]: Hi. My name is Asher Demos. I've been a Vermont resident for twenty years, and I've been in the Chittenden County for five years. We have all agreed that ICE are lawless, deceptive, incompetent, violent agents that thrive and revel in terror and intimidation. They act with no regard to safety of the public, prioritizing fear and harm. The warrant was ill obtained, and this should teach local law enforcement and state judicial officials that these agents cannot be trusted law to act lawfully. Yet law enforcement trusted their word as law on March 11. I continue to hear things I continue to hear things have gone could have gone a lot worse that day, But I tell you, I do not believe things could have gone worse that day for the Patton sisters. I put myself in their shoes. A gang of armed masked men have me in their car, tearing away to god knows where. Could it be one of their overflowing detention centers from which come reports of death, rape, sickness, or star and starvation, or am I going to the very country that I was seeking safety from, to a fate that I worked diligently to escape lawfully? Either way, now I'm in the care of men who are violent and sadistic, who mean to take me across state lines, away from any legal reach, that would prove I have a right to be here, all because of their incompetence and refusal to follow due process. I believe the only relief Joanna got that day was knowing that they did not take her child as well, thanks only to the defenders at the scene. The terrifying part is that it's not unrealistic that I, Asher Demos, may be in their shoes in due time. As a transgender US citizen, I am painfully aware of how the administration speaks about people like me. What they do to immigrants today will be done to transgender people tomorrow. Up until now, I believed I was safe in Vermont. I had put my faith in Vermont and my state government leaders that whatever madness the federal government imposed would not be tolerated in my home, in my backyard. That was until March 11. And I came to find that not only would law enforcement deliver me into the hands of the paramilitary force, they would pat themselves on the back for a job well done afterward. It seems the only answer that we can get from local law enforcement and our leaders is there is nothing we can do about ICE but shame on the civilians trying to stop them. I refuse to accept that answer. We voters handed you power. You cannot tell us that you are powerless. ICE occupation is a threat that must be addressed, I beg you to address it. We don't want to be pepper sprayed. We don't want to be tear gassed. But if you, the only people who can stop this diplomatically, refuse to protect us from ICE, then we will protect ourselves and each other. As we lay ourselves in the path of these terrorists using the only power we can we constituents have to stop them. We will remember that you did nothing to stop them.

[Speaker 0]: Alright, thank you Asher. Next is Reverend Mark Hughes and after that Jess Shapiro.

[Rev. Mark Hughes (Executive Director, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance)]: Amen. Good evening, my name is Reverend Mark Hughes. I'm the executive director of the

[Speaker 0]: I can't hear you Mark. Can you get closer to your mic?

[Rev. Mark Hughes (Executive Director, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance)]: Let me see what I can do. How's that Martin?

[Speaker 0]: That's better. Thanks.

[Rev. Mark Hughes (Executive Director, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance)]: Fantastic. Good evening. My name is Reverend Mark Hughes. I am the executive director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. Slavery created the need for civil rights in this country. It's because of civil rights that democracy has been possible at all. Without civil rights, we really don't have a democracy which is where we are today. Throughout our history policing has been one of the primary tools used to enforce exclusion through the over policing and surveillance and control of black and brown communities. That history has not skipped Vermont. Black Vermonters are still stopped more, searched more, ticketed more, arrested more, subjected to more force and that's not an opinion. That's a documented reality. We're experiencing the expansion of that and for that enforcement power right now. So what happened on March 11 on Dorsey Street. Wasn't just an immigration action, it was it was a civil rights warning. Because the same agencies involved, that's the Vermont State Police, Burlington Police, South Burlington Police, they already operate in deep coordination with federal partners. They train together, they share intelligence, they conduct joint operations. And I would hope most our legislators already know that and if you don't, you should. Vermont State Police is the hub, Burlington is the partner, the federal agencies, HSI, FBI, DEA, ATF, they're all anchors. This is not new, none of it. This is a new application of an existing enforcement network. And when you expand that network inside a system that already produces racial disparities, you're not creating safety, you're scaling injustice. And we've been warning you through the raise up justice movement. We've been calling all the way back since July 2025 for the legislature to return to session and pass civil rights protections. We've been asking the governor and mayors to issue executive orders to establish transparency and clarity about expectations around police interaction with the Homeland Security Task Force and the transfer of military equipment. Those warnings were clear. They were public and they were not met with the urgency that this moment demands. Now the consequences are here. You have the power to mitigate this through legislation, oversight and appropriations. Complete the passage of the equal protection constitutional amendment proposal four as we've asked you to. Pass S301 or the language of S301 chair Hashim. So Vermont no longer has to rely on the federal government for civil rights funding and enforcement as we've asked you to. Pass h three sixty one to establish real police oversight across all law enforcement agencies in this state as we've asked you to. Because if you fail to act, you're not neutral. You are complicit and in the expansion of a system that always has fallen hardest on black folks and brown folks, you're complicit. So democracy, it cannot exist where injustice is enforced. The responsibility, the power is all yours. It's up for you to respond. It's up for you to act. Finally closing out, you say, if you put all the ingredients for a cake in the oven, don't open it up looking for a pie.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. Have a good evening. And with that, thank you, Mark. I appreciate that. And if we could try to stick to the two minutes, the remaining folks so we can make sure we get through them all. We have Jess Shapiro and then Jill Martin Diaz on deck.

[Jess Shapiro (witness, Burlington)]: Hi, my name is Jess, I live in Burlington and I'm here to speak on the violence I personally experienced on Wednesday March 11. I was strangled until unconsciousness by a state trooper. I was standing in the street at about 06:03 following the removal of the people from the home. I was on the front line centered before the violence before the troopers began. My elbows were linked together with my hands locked together, and I felt confident because I wasn't violent and I wasn't screaming obscenities, was just standing my ground that I would be safe from assault. The state troopers were in front of us waiting and they started to push in a V formation. The state trooper that was in front of me started to try and pry apart my fingers. He told me he was sorry, but he was going to break my fingers. I responded telling him my grip strength was better than his. He wasn't making much progress on trying to break my fingers. And immediately after I said this, seeming as if the statement was the reason for the dramatic escalation, he then pushed my left shoulder down and with his left hand wrapped his fingers around my throat, pulled me into him and squeezed until I began to lose consciousness. My vision went black and I flailed trying to breathe until I became limp. I don't remember how long I was unconscious for, but I know that I was dragged limp out of the crowd, unable to breathe until I landed on the ground where nurses attended to me. The nurse, Meg, I spoke to the next day reported that she had unzipped my jacket that had been pushed up against me and my knitting, had previously been zipped into the hip of my jacket, had made it up my chest to my neck. She said there were finger sized lines on the side of my neck and I was unable to breathe for the first couple seconds. When I was able to breathe again, my breathing was short as I was gasping for air. She reported it was clear someone's fingers were over choking me and they had not pushed me away, but instead had pulled me into them. The next day I had bruises on the side of my neck and under my jaw. This assault happened within minutes of the first push from state troopers into the crowd and it was reported to me by others that my assault served as a catalyst and seemed to serve as permission for all resulting violence from state troopers and ICE agents that stood behind them towards the crowd, as if seeing their colleagues participating in the assault give them similar permission to participate in a free for all. I'm calling for all body camera footage from this day to be released. I still have no idea who did this and I want there to be accountability. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much Jess. So Jill Martin Diaz is next and then Elliot Hungerford.

[Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (Chittenden Central, Senate Judiciary)]: Thank you very much chair and members of the committees. For the record, I'm Jill Martin Diaz. I am an immigration attorney and supervisor of Vermont Asylum Assistance Project. We're a statewide legal service provider and I live in Burlington, Vermont. My pronouns are theythem, and I am very privileged to be able to use this platform on Trans Day of Visibility to uplift all of the messages that our community members and neighbors have shared with you tonight.

[Jill Martin Diaz (Immigration attorney, Vermont Asylum Assistance Project)]: I appreciate that we're over time, and and I don't want to take up any more time echoing all of the calls to action that have been echoed tonight. Thank you so much to everyone for sharing so generously of yourselves. I just wanted to give voice to a few additional calls to action from my perspective as an immigration attorney. When you hear from Christian about his own experience, when we note that Joanna and Camila are free along with Christian at this time. We must also note that there are two facts. One, those individuals would not be free to share their experiences but for access to the legal services infrastructure that these committees have authority to oversee and to help fund and sustain. And secondly, legal interventions are not possible without the frontline rapid response, accompaniment, and witnessing work of our community partners. Legal work doesn't happen in the moment, it happens afterward in the courts. The district court of Vermont has already made findings of fact in all three of the cases of Camilla, Christian, and Joanna that the detentions that took place were illegal, and we encourage this committee to defer to federal court findings of fact in addition to the its own investigation in drawing conclusions about what occurred. And we urge you to please not only support the new bills, the rights enshrined in s two zero eight and two zero nine and two two seven and eight forty nine, but to also ensure that there is legal counsel available to enforce all of these new rights when they are broken and we need remedies. There are no rights without remedies. Thank you very much.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much, Jill. So Elliot Hungerford is next and then Keith Brunner.

[Addison Tate (witness)]: Can you hear me?

[Speaker 0]: Yes. We can.

[Elliot Hungerford (witness)]: The police continue to say that their strategy on March 11 and their strategy moving forward is to stand between ICE agents and protesters in order to keep protesters safe. And they continue to reference the violence in Minnesota as justification for this strategy. What the police are, of course, referencing are the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretty by ICE. But let us not forget the other violence that has happened in Minnesota, the murders of Philando Castile, George Floyd, and Amir Locke, who are all murdered by the police. Like ICE, the police kill people too. Contrary to what the police are saying, they were not there on March 11 to protect protesters. Very conveniently for ICE, the police's strategy of standing between perfectly allowed ICE to execute the racist illegal kidnapping of three of our immigrant neighbors. Every time the police mentioned this strategy, we have to remember that in practice, this is not only a clear enabling advice, but it's doing their dirty work for them. Protecting protesters actually looked like was dozens of state police officers standing with countless dollars of weapons and military gear facing down our community, faces to us and backs to ice. As I stood arm in arm with my neighbors, multiple officers grabbed me by the neck and began to rip off my clothing, as well as the earring in my right ear. Behind them was a line of ICE agents, one of whom was taunting me by licking his lips. Shortly after, an ICE agent pulled me out of the crowd and pepper sprayed me point blank. The agent who was taunting me then ran over with deputy chief Briscoe and lied to him saying, he assaulted an officer. He kicked him in the balls. Briscoe then told the ice agents, okay, let's arrest him. And the three of them began to do so together. In the process of which they removed the rest of the clothing on my upper body, and nearly ripped my pants off entirely. Either due to the optics of the situation, friendly fire pepper spray or an awareness that the ice agent was lying, Briscoe then ordered them to let me go. I saw similar dynamics play out all around me, more often than not directed towards women, trans people and people of color. It is an abusive and toxic relationship in which the people who claim to be protecting you are in practice brutalizing and gaslighting you. These are the dynamics of patriarchy and colonialism and they're embedded into our police departments. They gaslight us in order to justify their violent actions and the siphoning of resources from our communities. Public safety is rooted in community, not the police. This was clear on March 11. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. So we next have Keith Brunner and then Addison Tate.

[Keith Brunner (witness; Burlington parent)]: Hi, everyone. My name is Keith Brunner. I am a parent of two. I live in Burlington and I was there on March 11 from about 09:30 in the morning until 7PM pretty much the entire day. I fully affirm what other people have said in terms of the horrors that they faced. I saw it with my own eyes. And this is pretty understated testimony, what I prepared for tonight. I saw masked state police wearing tactical gear, arriving in formation, and advancing on us. I saw them physically pushing, grabbing, and throwing people throwing people in order to create and enforce a corridor for ICE agents to break down the door and extract people who were inside. And I saw state and local police using violent force to clear people around me who were in the street preventing ICE from getting away with our kidnapped neighbors. So what should we take away from this? It was a clear violation of the state's fair and impartial policing policy, which exists to prevent exactly this kind of situation from occurring. Vermont state employees used force against Vermont residents to facilitate federal immigration authorities in terrorizing our communities. And I think that gets to a deeper point. The purpose of ICE operations are to terrify people into accepting the policies of this administration. Today, they're going after immigrants, our trans family, those of us who are unhoused. Tomorrow, it'll be union leaders, elected officials, librarians, registered nurses, you name it. And on March 11, our state and local law enforcement chose to stand with these thugs against the community they're sworn to protect and serve. It's outrageous that law enforcement came before these committees and chose to completely evade responsibility and blame people like myself and everyone else who just spoke for the events of March 11. But we should not be surprised. We know that it takes civilian oversight to hold law enforcement accountable, and it takes social movements like us. This is your job to hold them accountable. I appreciate you holding this public hearing. I would urge committee members to use your authority and do everything possible to make sure this never happens again. We need you to have our back. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. So we have about five more witnesses. Addison Tate is up next. And then Tom Proctor is on deck.

[Addison Tate (witness)]: Hi, can you hear me all right?

[Speaker 0]: Yes, we

[Addison Tate (witness)]: can. Great. Good evening. My name is Addison. Hehim. Thank you to the community for being here and to the legislators for hearing us, especially to at least one of you who I know was there with us on March 11 and spoke about it in ways that actually meet the moment. I'd like to connect the events of March 11 to two moments in US history. The first is 1700s Virginia. The origins of modern policing in The US is rooted in the slave patrol. Slave patrols establish a system of terror to legally squash uprisings and capture and return people escaping slavery to people who thought they owned them. Tactics included the use of excessive force to control and produce desired behavior. 03/11/2026, Vermont. ICE agents racially profile a driver and trap people inside a house. Community members gather to protect those in the house. Vermont law enforcement arrives in riot gear, thrusting people aside to form a tunnel for ICE to get to the door, smash it down, and detain three people not on their warrant. ICE and the police use excessive force to produce desired behavior. The second historical event is March 29, two days ago, but in 1942. Public proclamation number four ordered the forced evacuation and detention of 120,000 Japanese American residents on the West Coast into internment camps where they stayed for at least two years. As of February 2026, there are over 80 there are over 68,000 people currently held in ICE detention centers. 68,000 people. This year, there have already been thirteen deaths in these centers. Ninety five percent of them were deemed preventable. There are, of course, many more moments of state oppression and community resistance I could name. Indigenous colonization, civil rights, labor struggles, Black Lives Matters, queer and trans rights, and times where people in office have fought for justice and changed their minds in order to support it. Please consider your role in this history. Please consider the role of Vermont law enforcement. The police violence was widespread that day and clearly inherent to the way Vermont police operate. Yes, please continue the one investigation into officer Gonzalez, but do not scape scapegoat him as one bad apple to let off the rest of the police. To relay a a line from comedian Harry Kondabolo, isn't the full version of the saying one bad apple spoils the bunch? Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you, Tom Mienka Proctor, and then Kimberly Olsenault Walters is on deck.

[Tom Proctor (witness; Burlington)]: Hello, can you hear me?

[Speaker 0]: So, Tom, if you could just move closer to your I we couldn't hear you very well. Can you hear me now? Yes. That's good.

[Tom Proctor (witness; Burlington)]: Hello. My name is Tom. I'm a resident of Burlington. And on March 11, I joined hundreds of community members on Dorset Street to defend our neighbors. State and local police did not protect the community. They protected ICE agents. In fact, thanks to their shared use of face masks and lack of identification that state police and ICE agents were nearly indistinguishable. Because of this, I cannot say whether or not it was a state police trooper or a federal agent who threw my sister-in-law to the ground with enough force to cause a black eye and concussion. She is five foot one and posed no threat. Shortly afterwards, I was assaulted by a member of BPD. I was walking backwards with my hands raised, non violent, and clearly not a threat. Despite this, an officer sprayed me directly in the eyes of pepper spray. Since then, I've needed medical care for ongoing eye discomfort, and the incident left a psychological impact. You've heard the argument that without state and local police, the situation may have escalated further. But if we rely on hypotheticals, we must also consider another, a scenario in which federal agents acted with violence and local law enforcement chose to defend and protect their community. This moment requires a choice. Vermonters have already made theirs. People showed up to defend their neighbors, even at risk to their own safety. But it appears law enforcement has aligned with the federal government while deflecting responsibility in the aftermath of this debacle. As lawmakers, you have power. If you direct law enforcement to stand with Vermonters to protect them from harm, you'll be remembered for that decision as an act of courage and principle. I also ask you to consider accountability for Vermonters who engaged in state sanctioned violence that day, including Vermont based ICE agents such as Colton Riley and his colleagues. You should pass legislation barring them from future public sector employment. For state police officers who obscured their identities, there must be consequences. Such actions breach public trust and should be grounds for termination. And for any officers that committed violence against unarmed peaceful protesters, they should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There must be a clear standard. Violence against peaceful Vermonters will not be tolerated. It will be punished. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. So I believe the last person we have on Zoom and I'll double check to make sure the other two people are not here in person, but Milo Grant please is up.

[Councilor Milo Grant (Burlington City Council)]: You for creating this space for people to talk about what happened and what needs to be done. My name is Mila Grant. I have lived in Vermont for forty plus years. Served in the City Of Burlington on a special committee to review policing policies. I served in Burlington on the Police Commission. I am currently in my second term as a City Councillor. What we have here is a failure, a failure to follow-up on oversight and accountability in policing across our state. We still do not adequately train our law enforcement personnel. We know and it has been said ad nauseam including by leadership in our agencies, South Burlington Police, Burlington Police, Vermont State Police, and the governor that ICE is reckless, incompetent. They did something unnecessary. We see them across the country doing unlawful. The rule of law means nothing. The constitution means nothing. We knew all of this, yet our law enforcement agencies were not prepared. I am stunned that without doing a proper review of what happened, they are all saying that the fairness and impartial policing policy was not violated. That is stunning. The basic fact that individuals were detained by ICE and they were not listed on the criminal warrant. The fact that no attempt was made to peacefully go into the home, identify who is in the home, allow anyone not listed on the warrant to leave is a failure. This would not have happened to them if they were white. And we really have to think about that. We have to look about that. No law enforcement agency should be saying that there wasn't a violation. We keep hearing we can't control ICE's behavior, but we can control the behavior of our own agencies, and there needs to be accountability for that. Similar to 2020 when we had a reckoning over the murder of George Floyd, Vermont, this is our reckoning. Trust in our law enforcement has been gravely affected. Stood with ice. They assisted ice. And for them to deny that is unacceptable. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. I just want to make sure Kimberly Olsen Walters, is she here? I don't see or Leaf Toronto. Leaf, take us home. Thank you.

[Leaf Toronto (witness; de-escalation/nonviolence trainer)]: Can you hear me?

[Speaker 0]: Yes. Thank you.

[Leaf Toronto (witness; de-escalation/nonviolence trainer)]: Thanks. My name is Leaf, and I am a professional de escalation and nonviolence trainer. I was there on the eleventh, and I'm also part of the community investigation that has spent thousands of combined hours combing the footage of the incident. We found extensive evidence of police and ICE collusion, federal, fair and impartial policing policy violations, and documented uses of excessive force. By limiting testimony to two minutes and no slides, you are restricting this evidence. And if you would like to see some of what we have, we have brought a projector, and we have a slideshow outside if you'd like to look at it. With the little time I have, I want to address the idea that police were there to protect us and that they followed their own laws and policies. This is a lie. Vermont State Police, BPD, and SBPD collaborated with ICE in a civil immigration enforcement raid whose origin has been admitted by ICE as a clear cut case of bias based policing and mistaken identity. Vermont state police critical action teams staged with ICE and state police officers threatened civilians with use of force and legal action hours prior to the existence of a judicial warrant. State and local police helped agents enter and leave the house with three dice detainees

[Peg Hartman (Executive Director & General Counsel, Vermont Human Rights Commission)]: who they did not have

[Leaf Toronto (witness; de-escalation/nonviolence trainer)]: a valid warrant for, who ICE then attempted to traffic across state lines and whose detention was immediately ruled by federal courts as illegal. If police were there to protect, why are there multiple videos of Vermont state police officers leaving the scene literally seconds prior to ICE's deployment of flash bangs, pepper balls, tear gas, pepper spray, and vehicle attacks against the crowd? Why did local and state police assist ICE in arresting and brutalizing unarmed civilians? The VSP use of force policy requires officers who witness excessive force to intervene to stop it. They didn't. Instead, VSP officers repeatedly used strangulation and carotid hold maneuvers that are always prohibited by the use of force policy even in situations where lethal force is allowed. I keep hearing that officers were in a difficult position. It is not hard to not attack innocent community members. It is not hard to keep your hands off of someone's throat. I it is also not that hard to stand up to ICE. I know this because I've done it, and I've seen people do it. They were doing it all day on the eleventh without weapons, without protective vests, without qualified immunity that protects them from the consequences of their actions. All that is required to stop ICE is to say no, to have just a shred of courage and integrity, and to care just a little more about your community than you do about things being easy. This is not a hard choice. Surrounding that house as more and more agents showed up with assault rifles and chemical weapons and literal murder in their eyes, I knew that myself or my friends could die, and I knew that there were kids inside. And deciding to stay and hold that line is the easiest decision I have made in my life. Every single officer and every single elected official is making that same choice right now, and so far, you are choosing the wrong side. We are in a moment now before the full authoritarian takeover of our state where you can still choose. Please let the record show that you had this opportunity to change your minds.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. And and if you could if you could, Leaf, if you could provide a link, send a link to the videos that you mentioned to the committee assistant, I'd appreciate it. Thank you to everybody who came out tonight. Really appreciate hearing from