In what could be the first case in which activists have successfully intervened to stop immigrants in the custody of ICE from being flown out of Vermont, three women escorted by agency officials early Wednesday morning turned around, left the airport and were returned to the jail where they had been held for several days.
This surprising turn of events comes after activists have spent months tracking the transportation of immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport and asked local officials to intervene and discontinue cooperation with deportations that have skyrocketed under the second Trump administration. More than 57,800 people were held in ICE custody as of June 29, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data research organization housed at New York’s Syracuse University.
A study the loose group of activists presented to the airport commission in early July showed at least 450 people detained by federal law enforcement in immigration cases have been transferred through Vermont’s largest airport since the start of January.
Lexington Kennedy, a 21-year-old Burlington resident, said they arrived at the airport together with another Burlington activist around 3:50 a.m. to observe the movement of ICE detainees through the airport.
Around 4:15 a.m., the two said they observed a white Sprinter van pull up to the airport with Department of Homeland Security license plates. Around 4:30 a.m. the van doors opened and three plain clothes officials emerged and took three women from the van into the airport. They were joined inside by a fourth plain clothes official, the two activists said.
While the activists said the officials had no identifiers beyond the van that could identify them as ICE agents, VTDigger confirmed that at least two of the three women seen at the airport were in ICE custody and were returned back to Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. VTDigger was able to confirm these details through information the activists provided, including A numbers — the nine-digit number ICE uses to track detainees — from papers the detainees’ carried. The activists said they obtained the information directly from the detainees in the airport.
People VTDigger interviewed differed in their description as to why the women in ICE custody ended up not boarding the flight. The activists said airline officials turned away the people in ICE custody after being informed their policies allowed them to refuse to board someone on a flight who did not want to go. The activists said they made the case to the airline officials, and the three detainees were visibly crying as they stood at the airline check-in counter.
A spokesperson at American Airlines denied it was the company’s decision to keep the ICE officials from boarding a flight with the three women in their custody. Instead, the airline spokesperson said the ICE officials and the three detainees chose not to travel Wednesday morning and that it was not an airline decision. The airline said it could not confirm flight details of the ticketed passengers.
ICE did not return a request for comment.
While Julie Macuga, a Burlington resident, was not present Wednesday morning, she said she witnessed an earlier transport of seven female ICE detainees through the airport around 4 a.m. on May 30. Macuga also attended the July 3 airport commission meeting where activists encouraged airport staff to make a statement about ICE transportations through the hub. She said the interaction between ICE and activists on Wednesday morning was part of their ongoing work to monitor the transport of people in the custody of ICE at the airport.
“I’m hoping this sets a precedent for airlines at the airport that there is something they can do that’s already in their policies,” Macuga said.
Macuga said she and other advocates are continuing conversations with local officials like the airport commission to secure a statement describing, or even condemning, the use of the Burlington airport by federal immigration officials.
A video of the incident shared with VTDigger by the activists shows a pair of community members approaching the three women in ICE custody outside the airport and asking in Spanish if they had phone numbers that could be used to contact anyone.
“Nope,” an agent replied, and asked the two activists to back up.
The activists said they had asked the women for their names and emergency contacts before ICE officers stepped in front of them and formed a wall with their arms and bodies. They said the officers told the three detainees not to speak to the advocates.
The activists said two of the detainees provided their A numbers and gave directions on how to reach out to emergency contacts or family members, underscoring a desire by the women to fight back against ICE detention if given a chance, they said.
ICE officials brought the detainees to the American Airlines desk, according to a photograph provided by the activists, who said they witnessed the interaction as they stood to the side. They said airline officials told the group that if the three women were expressing an unwillingness to travel, the airline could not let them on the plane because the airline could be liable. The activists told VTDigger that the ICE agents argued with airline staff before departing the airport with the three women.
The activists declined to name the airline fearing its employees could face retaliation, but flight logs show the flight ICE officials intended to board with the detainees was likely American Airlines 1015 to Washington National airport scheduled to depart at 6:10 am. The activists said ICE agents told them the planned final destination for the three women was Phoenix, Arizona.
Airport officials said they could not confirm flight details.
Vermont’s Department of Corrections jail tracking system shows two of the detainees were re-booked at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility later Wednesday morning, about an hour and a half after they left the detention center.
The two detainees, a 21-year-old and a 28-year-old, were initially booked on July 11. They were released just after 4 a.m. Wednesday and re-booked the same day at around 5:30 a.m. They were released again just after 12:15 p.m., but their current location could not be confirmed.
Kennedy said they and the other activists who converged at the airport Wednesday are not affiliated with any particular group and were merely civilians concerned about human trafficking.
“Our primary objective is to make sure anti-trafficking laws and policies that already exist are being enforced,” Kennedy said. “Ideally that would be the job of somebody at the airport, and until that happens, civilians can and will show up and do that ourselves.”
Nic Longo, aviation director at the Burlington airport, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he had heard about the interaction between members of the public and ICE agents, but neither he nor any airport staff were involved. Longo said he was not at the airport at the time. He said it was the first time he has heard of such a situation unfolding at the airport.
“Interrupting or disturbing our activities is a really, really tough scenario here at the airport,” Longo said.
Asked why airport officials allowed ICE to transport detainees through the airport, Longo said that, “I can’t pick and choose any federal agency that can and cannot access this public use facility,” he said. “It’s no different that I can’t pick and choose which members of the public can use this facility.”
Longo said it is extremely rare for airport staff to interact with any outside agency, including ICE. The airport, which accepts federal grant funding through the Federal Aviation Administration, is obligated to cooperate with the federal government, he said. The funding includes about $30 million in grants the airport will use in fiscal year 2025 and about $180 million the airport will request over the next couple years, Longo said.
“Our obligation is to cooperate and not impede U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action,” Longo said.
The activists argued that the fact that ICE is a federal law enforcement agency doesn’t make its actions legal.
They noted the case of Kseniia Petrova, a genetics researcher at Harvard Medical School, who was detained at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility and flown through the Burlington airport this spring before a Vermont judge declared her detention unlawful in May.
Kennedy said they believe it is the first time the transport of ICE detainees through an airport has been stopped.
Law enforcement officers, including immigration officials, are supposed to provide detainees with meaningful translation services, notice of their rights and an opportunity to communicate with counsel, said Jill Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project.
“But what we see in practice is that ICE is moving so quickly and carelessly that we’re seeing people who are getting detained without being charged with an immigration violation,” Diaz said.
It is not clear how or why the three women were in ICE custody.
Ethan Weinstein and Henry Fernandez contributed reporting.
