Ben & Jerry’s leadership wanted to put out a social media post last week in support of migrant community members detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Vermont, but London-based parent company Unilever denied them, according to sources familiar with the matter.
“The recent detention and deportation of migrant farmworkers in our home state isn’t just a threat to individuals – it’s a threat to the fabric of our communities and our human rights,” the post, crafted by the ice cream making behemoth’s independent board, read.
The post, which VTDigger viewed, named two individuals recently detained by ICE, Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz, 29, and his stepdaughter, Heidi Perez, 18, a recent high school graduate.
Both are prominent leaders with Migrant Justice, a Burlington-based migrant advocacy organization. De La Cruz, a former dairy worker turned construction worker, helped launch the group’s Milk With Dignity campaign, which seeks to provide worker rights and a better life on dairy farms. Ben & Jerry’s was the first major company to join the campaign and agree to purchase milk only from farms that meet the standards of the program. The participating farms the company sources from represent about a fifth of Vermont’s dairy industry.
“We stand with Migrant Justice and call for transparency, accountability, and the protection of constitutional rights for all,” the proposed post read. “Join us and urge the release of Nacho and Heidi so they can return to their families and community in Vermont.”
The post then linked to a Migrant Justice web page that included an Action Network petition demanding the release of De La Cruz and Perez. VTDigger is not naming the sources who shared the post due to their concerns about retaliation.
De La Cruz and Perez were driving home to Chittenden County from delivering food to migrant farmworkers in Franklin County when they were pulled over by U.S. Customs and Border Protection due to “suspicious border activity,” according to a CBP spokesperson. De La Cruz’s window was smashed and they were detained.
De La Cruz is currently held in the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton and Perez is being held at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, according to the state prisoner locator. They are both citizens of Mexico without legal immigration status in the U.S.
Unilever did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the time of publication on Tuesday.
The Vermont-based ice cream maker has long aligned with progressive causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement and Palestinian rights campaigns in recent years. The company does so under an independent board that was established when Ben & Jerry’s was acquired by Unilever in 2000 to maintain the brand’s social mission.
But disputes between the brand and Unilever have ramped up since the election of President Donald Trump last year.
In November, Ben & Jerry’s sued Unilever in U.S. District Court in New York, claiming the parent company shut down statements to support Palestinian rights. In January, they alleged Unilever barred them from criticizing Trump in a social media post on the day of his inauguration.
In March, after Unilever fired CEO David Stever, Ben & Jerry’s again sued Unilever, alleging Stever was fired for his commitment to the social mission and without properly consulting the brand’s independent board, according to court filings.
Stever had been with the company since 1987 and moved into the role of CEO in 2023. The complaint stated that the motive for removing Stever was “his commitment to Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission and Essential Brand Integrity … rather than any genuine concerns regarding his performance history.”
The dispute comes as the arrests of Vermont’s migrant residents have ramped up under the second Trump administration, including detainment of nine farm workers in April and the deportation of four. In May, four landscape workers and ten construction workers were also detained by Border Patrol agents in northern Vermont.
