The Department of Corrections is working to create a public dashboard with data on detained immigrants in Vermont after months of meetings with concerned activists — some who say the dashboard is a good first step, but doesn’t meet the most pressing needs of detained immigrants.
The dashboard will include information such as the number of immigrants in custody in Vermont at any given moment, as well as the average length of stay for immigrants in DOC facilities. Demographic data is being considered, though it’s unknown whether it will be in the end product. The dashboard will not list the names of specific detainees because of privacy concerns, according to a Corrections official.
“The dashboard was originated so that we could better understand trends in this population,” said Haley Sommer, Communications and Legislative Affairs Unit director for the DOC. “They have some unique needs, that population, because there’s a lot of transfer. They’re typically in our facilities only for a few days.”
Immigrants detained by federal authorities in Vermont are typically held at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans and Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington.
The department’s strong data-tracking capabilities and desire for transparency with the public were motivations for the dashboard, Sommer said. The Corrections Department runs other public dashboards, including the Incarcerated Population Interactive Dashboard that provides point-in-time data for incarcerated people at state facilities.
The dashboard comes as U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement has faced criticism for its lack of transparency nation- and statewide.
“It’s a clear tactic to instill fear in all of us so that we will be intimidated into submission … ICE agents, without any visible IDs, without any official markings on them, with masks, they’re acting more like vigilantes than agents of our government. ” U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., said June 26 during House floor remarks regarding ICE agents wearing face coverings to obscure their identities as they work.
A VTDigger investigation also revealed emails from Vermont Corrections officials who criticized ICE for its lack of transparency in their operations with the state.
Despite the charitable intentions behind the dashboard, advocates said the department is moving too slowly at a time when immigrants are being detained and deported at an unprecedented pace.
“The time now isn’t just for data. It’s about action,” said Jill Martin Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project. “There are detainees being filtered through the Vermont DOC system every week who are not getting access to any legal counsel but for DOC’s inability to come to the table and make some really low-hanging fruit decisions.”
Martin Diaz and the asylum project have pushed for block scheduling at state facilities that hold detained immigrants. This would be routine scheduling for lawyers to meet with detained immigrants so they could receive legal services.
In emails provided to VTDigger, Martin Diaz proposed a “recurring weekly legal visit … during which VAAP can mobilize volunteer attorneys to conduct timely in-facility legal screenings for ICE detainees in need.”
“We’re coming to them with the solution and they’re saying, ‘No, how about this other thing that you didn’t ask for?’ So like, now we get a dashboard which is lovely, but what we actually need is block scheduling,” Martin Diaz said.
“We are working closely with the advocates to ensure that they do have access to their clients,” Sommer said, but declined to comment on specific complaints, citing ongoing discussion between DOC and immigration advocates.
Sommer said the department will release the dashboard when it is ready, but that the department does not have a confirmed release date yet.
Clarification: This story has been updated to use the correct last name for Jill Martin Diaz on second reference.
