Dear Editor,
The whole community owes profound thanks to the activists who have exposed the plight of people who are being forcibly removed from Vermont by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It is welcome news that the Burlington airport’s director of aviation, Nic Longo, and Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak are seeking ways to ensure that everyone who is being moved through our airport has access to legal assistance. We can be proud that Gov. Phil Scott reportedly has said that his administration will support efforts to ensure that everyone detained in our state is treated fairly and afforded due process under the law.
As the author of a book on the Dutch resistance, I know the public officials we honor today are not those who said they couldn’t do anything about the deportations. Instead, they are the ones who looked for every possible method they might use to slow the monstrous mechanism down even a little.
Now it’s up to Vermont to treat people as we would wish to be treated — whether by asking every person whether they are flying of their own free will, making sure they have access to an attorney, enforcing parking policies for ICE vehicles, requiring that public doorways be used or other ways we haven’t imagined yet.
This is your chance to do what you think you would have done in World War II. Let Scott, Mulvaney-Stanak and Longo know the community is behind them in doing the right thing.
Mary Dingee Fillmore
Burlington
