Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained 10 people working at a private construction site in the town of Newport on Wednesday, marking the second large-scale immigration enforcement incident in Vermont in just two months.
The arrests took place near Newport Crossing, an affordable housing project in Newport Center by RuralEdge, a nonprofit housing developer.
Patrick Shattuck, executive director of RuralEdge, said in an interview that the Newport project is being built by H.P. Cummings Construction Company but the 10 detained individuals were employees of subcontractor — Patriot Buildings System, a Londonderry, New Hampshire, company. Shattuck said the workers had finished work for the day and had left the construction site when the arrests took place nearby.
As of Friday morning, the individuals were being held at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, according to a Friday press release from the Burlington-based migrant advocacy group the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project.
“Five or so” of the individuals were carrying proof of their immigration status at the time of the incident and are being scheduled for release, the press release stated. The immigration status of the other detainees was not immediately clear.
ICE did not immediately respond to VTDigger’s requests for comment.
The episode marks the second mass-detainment incident in Vermont in as many months as federal immigration officials ramp up enforcement efforts across the country to carry out the policies of President Donald Trump.
Last month, eight migrant workers were detained at a dairy farm in Berkshire after Customs and Border Protection agents responded to a call alleging that suspicious looking men had crossed onto the farm property. Four of those arrested have already been deported to Mexico, while others remain in ICE custody.
The arrests correspond with what advocacy groups have said is an alarming increase of ICE’s use of commercial flights to transfer detainees out of the state.
On Friday, in the latest such incident, ICE transferred seven women on a United Airlines flight from Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport to Chicago, according to the release from the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project.
The women, who had been detained at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, were observed on the flight among commercial passengers with a plainclothes federal escort, the release stated.
Legal observers awaiting the arrival of the flight said the ICE detainees did not get off the plane in Chicago and the plane subsequently reboarded for a flight to Washington, D.C., according to the release.
Former state Rep. Kiah Morris, who was apparently on the same flight, posted a video to social media in which she drew attention to the incident.
“I have great concerns about the fact that this is happening and not certain on what we should be able to do as a public to really be able to really help support folks right now,” Morris said in the video. “(These are) some terrifying things to see happening right in front of our faces.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story contained the wrong day of the week of the arrests due to an error in the statement by the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project.
