Burlington’s police union and the mayor signed a three-year contract this week expected to help address longstanding hiring and retention issues and make the city’s police department a more attractive place to work.

“I think we secured some benefits that are incredibly important, both for recruitment and retention,” said Joseph Corrow, president of the Burlington Police Officers’ Association.

The 76-page contract signed Wednesday increases the base salary over a 15-step salary scale that ranges from $88,400 to $114,979. It adds retention bonuses after 5, 10, 15 and 20 years of service and stipends for full time police officers who are on call.

It also increases benefits like life insurance, pensionable overtime, and allows up to eight years of pension buy-in for lateral hires.

These are big wins, Corrow said, because it will allow certified officers from other police departments to transfer more easily to Burlington, allow a portion of their overtime pay to go toward their pensions, and be able to buy back years in the pension system instead of having to start from scratch. For lateral hires, officers would be able to come into the department at the stepped salary depending on their years of experience.

Union members called it a strong contract that will help rebuild morale and staffing in the department, Corrow said.

“I am encouraged by the agreement, as it signals strong support for policing in Burlington and provides the salary and benefits package necessary to retain and recruit the best,” Interim Chief of Police Shawn Burke said in an emailed statement.

The department currently has 61 officers and eight vacancies, he said.

Policing Burlington is “both complex and demanding,” said Burke, who stepped in to fill the post vacated by Jon Murad in March. Murad led the department for five years and recently became the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections.

An internal anonymous survey of rank-and-file officers conducted by the police union last summer showed a department struggling with both recruitment and retention issues, with 75% of officers surveyed calling morale “poor” or “terrible.”

This contract aims to fix some of those issues and positions Burlington as one of the most competitive police departments statewide, Corrow said. 

“It makes us stand out at the top,” he said.

The contract comes a week after the City Council passed measures pertaining to City Hall Park amid continued debate about public safety enforcement downtown. 

Contract negotiations ended in July and the terms were agreed upon and unanimously approved last month by the Burlington City Council.

The mayor and members of the council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the story on VTDigger here: New 3-year contract aims to better attract and retain Burlington police officers.

An adult and a juvenile pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges Tuesday in connection with the Aug. 11 beating in Burlington and subsequent death of a South Burlington resident.

Scott Kastner, 42, was allegedly the victim of a “frenzied mob style assault” by a group of people around 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, according to Burlington police. 

The attack began in an alley off Church Street and spilled on to City Hall Park. The victim was “savagely punched and kicked” while he was on the ground, causing a severe brain bleed that prompted emergency intubation and surgery at the University of Vermont Medical Center, according to court documents.

Kastner died five days later from complications due to blunt force trauma to the head, and the medical examiner preliminarily ruled his death a homicide, according to police. 

Originally from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Kastner leaves behind four children, six siblings and his parents, according to his obituary.

Police arrested one of the suspects on Friday and another on Saturday. At least three other minors have also been charged in relation to the case, police said.

Isaiah Argro, 26, of Queens, New York, and a 16-year-old Colchester resident VTDigger is not naming, were ordered held without bail by Judge Timothy Doherty after arraignments Tuesday morning in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington. The juvenile was charged as an adult. 

A second-degree murder conviction carries up to a life sentence, with a presumptive minimum term of 20 years, according to the charge sheet filed by the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Argro, who also uses the last name Agro, allegedly punched Kastner in the head approximately 10 times, police wrote in court documents. He is being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.

The teenage defendant allegedly hit Kastner in the head approximately six times and pointed a gun at him, according to court documents. 

The judge further ordered the defendants must not have contact with each other nor with a woman who was a witness, according to court documents. Argro has previous criminal charges in New York, police said.

Amid continued debates about safety downtown, the Burlington City Council last week passed a resolution that includes increasing police presence, among other measures, to help create a safer and more welcoming City Hall Park. It also passed  a companion ordinance for some less serious violations to be processed through a restorative justice system.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Two plead not guilty in downtown Burlington ‘mob-style’ beating death.

Representatives for Amazon are appealing the Essex Development Review Board’s July decision to nix an application to build a 107,000-square-foot warehouse in town.

The applicant “has failed to meet its burden by providing incomplete, contradictory, and unreliable information on critical traffic issues,” the town board’s decision, published July 17, states.

Gravel & Shea PC, representing Scannell Properties and Allen Brook Development Inc., filed the appeal dated Aug. 15 in the environmental division of Vermont Superior Court, according to documents shared with VTDigger.

“We’ve filed an appeal to thoughtfully address the concerns raised by the Essex Development Review Board, because we believe our traffic analysis is thorough and that our proposal fully meets local requirements,” Amber Plunkett, a spokesperson for Amazon, wrote in an emailed statement Friday.

Town officials received notification of the filing from their lawyers on Aug. 21. A hearing date has not yet been set.

Named Project Moose, the site plan for the application outlines a 107,000-square-foot facility and 500 parking spaces at 637 Kimo Drive on 22.94 acres of mostly vacant and wooded land in the Saxon Hill Industrial Park off Thompson Drive. If built, it would be the first Amazon facility in Vermont.

“With the applicant’s appeal of that decision, the project now goes to the State’s Environmental Court and the Town will await the court’s decision,” Town Manager Greg Duggan wrote in an email Friday.

A court hearing would give Amazon “a second bite at the apple” and community members the opportunity to reassert their arguments, this time in a judicial forum, according to Jared Carter, one of two lawyers representing Essex residents opposed to the project. In response to the project, residents have formed a nonprofit called ACRES —  Alliance of Concerned Residents Envisioning Solutions.

“Of course we’re disappointed that Amazon has decided to appeal this despite the fact that the DRB, I think, pretty resoundingly said no. It’s certainly their legal right to do,” Carter said.

Starting over

The legal review is independent of the board vote, however, which essentially means starting over, he added.

Residents who remain opposed to the project are ready to argue why the proposed project should be rejected.

“The story unfolding in Essex is nothing short of a modern David vs. Goliath,” said resident Lorraine Zaloom in a statement on behalf of ACRES. “Our town’s Development Review Board made a sound decision in rejecting Amazon’s proposed warehouse, citing serious concerns that remain unresolved.”

After protests, heated debates and objections from residents during extensive public testimony this summer, the town’s project review board issued its 4-2 vote July 17 denying the site plan proposed by Scannell in the Saxon Hill Industrial Park.

The basis for the board’s denial was the project’s failure to comply with town zoning regulations, and particularly, its “failure to meet the burden of proof by providing unreliable traffic data” that “fails to meet the Town’s standards for data quality and methodology,” according to the decision published last month.

The decision further states that the applicant did not provide additional information requested and provided “misleading” information about an alleged state review.

At the July 17 public hearing, the town board “was led to believe that the project’s traffic impacts had been reviewed and accepted by the Vermont Agency of Transportation,” the decision notes. Upon further investigation, town officials found the VTrans traffic engineer had not given an opinion on the applicant’s traffic study. 

“This admission revealed that a key state agency with expertise in traffic safety had not, in fact, reviewed the traffic analysis for this specific high-intensity proposal,” the decision states.

Residents who testified against the project remain opposed due to traffic, noise, pollution, stormwater management and other environmental and quality-of-life issues.

Town regulations exist to be implemented, not waived, reads the ACRES statement sent by Zaloom. Residents claim the Amazon proposal is unsafe, and puts drivers, pedestrians and school traffic at risk.

“It is still a terrible location in our community for large scale distribution, far from the interstate,” Zaloom stated. “Yet Amazon presses forward, relying on unlimited financial resources — and the local developer’s outsized influence — to steamroll local opposition under the guise of civic generosity, while acting in pursuit of profit.”

Patty Davis, one of the area residents who testified against the project, said she wants the developer to build an alternate access road to take potential traffic pressure and hazards off the nearby residential neighborhood where she lives.

“We are not moving. A permanent injunction from trucks accessing lower Sandhill Road is personally all I want ASAP no matter what company comes here. Why? Because, we live here!” she added.

Amazon says it is committed to serving the Burlington area with faster delivery and reliable service. 

“Beyond improving delivery service for Burlington-area families and businesses, this facility would bring new jobs and contribute to Essex’s economic growth. We look forward to continuing the conversation and sharing more about the positive impact this project can have for the community,” Plunkett wrote in the statement.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Amazon appeals Essex board’s rejection of warehouse project in Saxon Hill.

Updated at 7:35 p.m.

BURLINGTON — The City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution Monday night intended to create a safer and more welcoming City Hall Park after hearing extensive testimony.

Sponsored by City Council President Ben Traverse, D-Ward 5, the 3-page resolution aims to “revive City Hall Park as a more accessible, family-friendly gathering space” by enforcing existing laws “to address criminality and other unwelcoming behaviors.”

This includes keeping the park closed to the public from midnight to 6 a.m. as posted, maintaining a “more consistent presence” of police and public safety personnel, and developing a standardized response to low-level drug issues in the park.

The 9-2 vote — Melo Grant, P-Central, and Marek Broderick, P-Ward 8, voted no — comes six days after a man died after he was allegedly assaulted by a group of teens in the park. Interim Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke identified the victim Tuesday as Burlington resident Scott Kastner, 42.

Burlington residents and leaders have hotly debated the challenges of addressing increasing homelessness and public drug use downtown in recent months. At Monday’s meeting, some business owners claimed they are losing business and staff. Meanwhile, some residents said they find downtown unsafe and unwelcome, while others opposed further criminalizing the unhoused and called for greater compassion and creative solutions.

The resolution is meant to reach that middle ground and is “one step forward in starting to do what we can as a city,” said Progressive Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak who has recently sparred with Gov. Phil Scott on  how to improve conditions in the city.

“I oppose this because it’s inadequate to meet the moment that we find ourselves in and it’s harmful to the most vulnerable members of our community in a way that will not solve anything,” Broderick said, citing continued gaps that exist in housing, mental health care treatment and an overburdened criminal justice system.

More than 75 people attended the public hearing that lasted more than an hour.

“City Hall Park has become a major hot spot for lawlessness, drug abuse and other bad behavior,” said Dave Marr, a New North End resident for 50 years. “This has gotten to the point where many are afraid to go to the park, let alone stay and enjoy it.”

He encouraged the city to “enforce our rules and start cleaning up our city.”

Some business owners said the ongoing safety issues and the Main Street construction project have been detrimental to attracting staff and customers downtown.

Sheri Campbell, a salon operator downtown, said she lost 80% of her staff in the last 12 months. Leslie Wells, who owns restaurants downtown, said business is down 30%. Mad River Distillers founder John Egan said since 2024 they’ve been losing staff at the corner store downtown “because they felt unsafe.” All of them urged the council to pass the resolution.

Others pushed back on the language used in the resolution and the assumption that those who are unhoused or battle substance abuse or mental health disorders are the reason downtown is deemed unsafe.

At a time when the Trump administration is limiting access to Medicaid, food stamps and “encouraging the criminalization of homelessness everywhere,” downtown resident Sam Bliss said he is sad to hear his neighbors blaming the victims of a housing and affordability crisis.

“On the one hand, I’m hearing folks complaining that the police aren’t doing their jobs, and, on the other hand, also calling for more police at the same time,” said Bliss, who is an organizer of the Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs lunch program that has also faced some debate this year. He asked the city to be “more imaginative than calling for more police” to address the issues downtown.

FaReid Munarsyah, South End resident and co-organizer of The People’s Kitchen, a volunteer-led community effort that is serving free hot food three nights a week in the park, asked councilors to visit during the Tuesday night dinner.

Ed Baker, a North End resident and former social worker, urged the city to open the long promised overdose prevention center that he said would save lives. Forty-five people have died due to opioid-related deaths through May this year, according to the health department’s data.

After robust discussion, councilors voted to pass the resolution at 9:40 p.m., with one member absent.

Traverse, the council president, said he continues to hear that public safety downtown is a top priority for families, visitors and businesses, especially given recent incidents of violence, substance use and drug trafficking in the park.

“What we have going on in the park is a very troubling mix of not only criminal behavior but evidence of a mental health crisis in our state, substance use disorder crisis in our state and our affordability challenge,” said Shawn Burke, interim chief of the city’s police department.

Despite challenges of enforcing the park ordinance and staffing shortages, Burke shared data showing a majority of the department’s time and resources have been invested in policing the downtown area. 

As police continue to work with the city, courts and businesses “to make Burlington as vibrant and safe as humanly possible with the resources that we have,” Burke said he appreciated the resolution but warned there are no quick fixes to these issues.

The council also unanimously passed a companion City Circle ordinance Monday to create a rapid response process for civil and criminal ordinance violations to be processed through a restorative justice system in partnership with the Burlington Community Justice Center.

“People who receive tickets will be referred to the City Circle,” Burlington City Attorney Jessica Brown said at the meeting. “And the hope is that they will engage with the City Circle and address any harm that may have been caused, any accountability and repair harm to the extent possible.” 

“I see these efforts as happening in partnership with continued investments in substance use recovery and treatment services, of expanding our available mental health resources, of growing our affordable housing stock,” said Mulvaney-Stanak, who supported the resolution.

The mayor said she plans to review national best practices for resolving the issues of “non-violent illegal and anti-social behavior in public spaces, including new community health based strategies to reduce open illegal drug use,” according to the resolution passed, which calls for a report from the mayor and police by Sept. 29.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington City Council passes resolution to make City Hall Park safer.

BURLINGTON — Upbeat music, colorful lights and delicious smells drew a crowd to a table set up at the corner of City Hall Park downtown Tuesday night.

Amid volunteers dishing out heaped plates of pesto salad and biriyani from a fold-out table was a man expertly folding and filling dough triangles with mixed veggies, while another fried them in a pan of hot oil set up on the sidewalk.

“Free food, free people, free speech,” chanted a cheerful FaReid Munarsyah, a Burlington resident and co-organizer of The People’s Kitchen, a volunteer-led community effort to cook and serve free hot food.

Well-known for his community activism, particularly around food insecurity, Munarsyah and the People’s Kitchen banner are often present at local community events, such as the World Refugee Day celebration at Leddy Park in June.

When he heard about the recent struggles faced by Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs — another mutual aid free food distribution group in the city — Munarsyah decided to join the effort to feed hungry downtown residents.

“Businesses and the City Council don’t like us being here so we are here harnessing people’s power,” he said as he folded paper-thin egg rolls.

For many years, Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs has served free lunch out of the Marketplace Garage downtown. This summer, 150 area businesses signed a letter alleging the effort “has had a negative impact on the area.” They sent it to the mayor asking that the food distribution “be relocated to a more appropriate and secure setting.”

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

That led to a counter letter signed by dozens of organizations and businesses expressing support for the meal program, followed by a protest outside City Hall before the May 20 City Council meeting. Sam Bliss, one of the organizers of the lunch program, also wrote an op-ed stating that Food Not Cops makes downtown safer.

Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak signed a resolution allocating $10,000 to support the program’s relocation “to a more accessible and better-resourced location.” Bliss recently told VTDigger the volunteers have not collected the funds. 

“There’s not agreement within the group that it’s a good idea to take the money,” he wrote in a message.

The attention the issue has received led to “The People’s Potluck Protest Picnic & Distro,” hosted Tuesday nights by the People’s Kitchen, according to flyers posted on social media. The group recently began serving hot food in a corner of the park off College Street three nights a week and plan to continue, especially through the winter, according to Munarsyah.

“The city needs to be taking care of its people, right? You want safety, then you start feeding people. People who are not hungry are less desperate,” he said.

It was a slow night this week, but the previous two Tuesday dinners served about 120 and 150 people, he estimated.

This week’s meal included a green salad, pesto chicken pasta salad, vegetable biriyani, seafood biriyani, and fresh peaches with whipped cream for dessert that was donated by a resident.

“It’s delicious,” said a woman who identified herself as Tanya and helped herself to two freshly fried, crunchy eggrolls. 

She said she used to work at a soup kitchen her parents started in Brattleboro about 45 years ago.

“I worked there my entire life all the way ’til they died. Now I’m in need of food,” she said. “I never thought that the tables would turn but here I am on the other side of the table.”

Munarsyah, originally from the Phillipines, is known for cooking food and hosting dinners at his home where all are welcome to cook and eat. So not all who stopped by to volunteer or eat were unhoused. 

Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, was among the volunteers there. They said they first started helping during the Occupy Vermont movement in 2011, and continued serving food to the encampment at Sears Lane in 2021 and during the wave of evictions as the state’s motel program was scaled back.

“We saw horrible things,” Cina said, their voice cracking as they described people dying and freezing in the cold and having to call the hospital or arrange for blankets and emergency help.

People’s Kitchen intends to continue serving hot dinner in the park three nights a week and provide essential supplies to those in need in partnership with other efforts, such as the Street Community Action Team of Burlington. It does so with the help of donors like farms and businesses, as well as public donations.

The recent attention Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs garnered has Munarsyah worried about whether the city will target the volunteer-run effort for removal or impose permit and licensing requirements.

“I think they’re going after the wrong people,” he said. “Politicians, who were responsible for the housing crisis to begin with, are in no position to criticize people who are actually doing something about the housing crisis. And we’re doing something. We’re helping people who are unhoused and anybody who wants a meal, and it’s free.”

As volunteers packed up leftovers and cleaned the area, a plastic LED sign on the table continued to flash colorful messages: “Free food. Good Food. Good mood. 100% halal.”

Disclaimer: The reporter of this article has volunteered to serve food with People’s Kitchen on several occasions.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Food as protest: People’s Kitchen serves free hot meals downtown in solidarity with Food Not Cops .

Gov. Phil Scott has responded to the U.S. attorney general’s recent letter which labeled Vermont as a sanctuary jurisdiction, reiterating that the state does not hold that status and does not violate any federal immigration laws.

“I believe this designation of Vermont as a so-called ‘sanctuary jurisdiction’ has been made in error,” Scott wrote to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in an Aug. 19 letter shared with VTDigger.

Scott’s comments refer to an Aug. 13 letter in which the attorney general’s office identified Vermont as a state that “engages in sanctuary policies and practices,” threatening criminal charges, civil action and potentially withholding federal funds if it does not cease.

That letter comes on the heels of the Justice Department announcing its latest list of 35 sanctuary jurisdictions, which includes Vermont, as part of the federal government’s continued effort to target communities it believes are interfering with immigration enforcement.

Scott pushed back on the assertion. 

“Vermont does not have any law or policy that impedes the enforcement of federal immigration law. In fact the opposite is true,” his letter states. “Vermont State law is very clear that the State does not prohibit or impede any public agency from complying with the lawful requirements of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1373 and 1644.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont wrongly labeled by feds as a sanctuary jurisdiction, Gov. Scott says.

Winooski’s Mayor Kristine Lott announced Tuesday she would be stepping down as of Sept. 15. She is expecting her first child and said she is looking forward to prepare for a new chapter in her life.

“This was not an easy decision — the seven years I have served my neighbors has been the honor of a lifetime,” Lott stated in a press release. 

Deputy Mayor Thomas Renner will serve as interim mayor until Winooski residents elect a new leader next Town Meeting Day.

Lott, 40, who is from Michigan, came to Vermont in 2009 and has lived in the Onion City since, she said. She served on the City Council before she was elected mayor in March 2018, beating fellow council member Eric Covey.

At the time, she said she was excited to be the first woman to be mayor of Vermont’s most diverse city. She draws an annual stipend of $1,700 for the volunteer position.

Lott first got involved in government when she volunteered to be on the housing commission in 2017 “just to be a part of problem solving around housing issues and to be more connected, more engaged in my community,” she told VTDigger on Tuesday.

And community seems to have become the cornerstone of her term there. She has reached out and participated with residents at various levels — from building ties with the local mosque to joining a clean-up crew to pick up dog waste.

“Local government, it’s supposed to be by the people, for the people,” said Lott. She sought to hear directly from constituents and plugged the feedback back into the system to make decisions that benefitted the community, she said.

“Kristine was good about connecting with and listening to a wide range of community members, which is such an important aspect of governing,” City Manager Elaine Wang wrote in an email. “With me, as the Mayor is Council’s liaison to the City Manager and staff, she struck a great balance between acting as a partner while maintaining the authority of Council.”

Wang said she first met Lott for a chat in a local cafe in 2022. Wang had just been hired after a nationwide search but hadn’t started work yet. 

“She signaled a good mix of high expectations, yet interest in being supportive, which was buoying me as a first-time manager,” Wang stated.

The community engagement is what Lott remains most proud of.

In her first year as mayor, Lott said she visited the local mosque to foster a relationship that has lasted, and joined a downtown riverbank cleanup where volunteers cleared dog poop from the area. 

“I was really interested in just doing more community engagement and adding more transparency and outreach. And I think we certainly have made improvements there,” she said. “That has been really rewarding for me, to build more relationships and see more people engaged in local government.”

Mukhtar Abdullahi recalled meeting Lott at the Islamic Community Center of Vermont during her visits, where she always wore a head covering.

“A lot of people come to us, most of the time they’re looking for something,” he said. “For her, she comes in, she makes eye contact, respects the people, listens to them, never interrupts. She’s a wonderful, wonderful human being.”

As a Somali and Mai Mai language liaison in the Winooski School District and a prevention educator at Winooski Partnership for Prevention, Abdullahi said he has crossed paths with Lott many times since, and that she has either helped directly or guided the community in the right direction. 

Lott has always been welcoming, supportive and accessible, even on short notice, he said, so he is sad to see her go.

Renner, who is about to step into Lott’s role, wrote in an email he has enjoyed her mentorship and will miss serving by her in the council chambers.

“Kristine is a dedicated public servant who has spent years working to make Winooski an incredible place to live, visit, and work,” Renner wrote, adding he is happy her expertise is just a phone call away.

Lott highlighted several achievements in Winooski during her term — from closing out the 20-year Tax Increment Financing debt that has helped invest in essential services, to zoning regulations that have led to more affordable and family-friendly housing amid a statewide housing crisis. 

As she leaves behind multiple ongoing projects — the Main Street revitalization that’s expected to be completed this year, for instance — Lott said she feels good about leaving the council and interim mayor “in a good position” to keep advancing this year’s priorities and the upcoming budget process.  

She hopes they will “continue the focus on deep community engagement in the decision making process,” she said.

“While I’ll always care deeply about public service and what comes next for this incredible community I call home, it is the right decision to focus my priorities and energy on family, career, and personal life,” she stated in the release.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story misstated the term length Thomas Renner will serve as interim mayor.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified who was hired as Winooski city manager after a nationwide search and was incorrect on the amount of the mayor’s annual stipend.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Winooski mayor resigns, looks back on ‘deep community engagement’.

State officials maintain Vermont is not a sanctuary state but received a letter Monday from the U.S. attorney general’s office alleging it has immigration enforcement policies in place the federal government sees as unlawful.

“For too long, so-called sanctuary jurisdiction policies have undermined this necessary cooperation and obstructed federal immigration enforcement, giving aliens cover to perpetrate crimes in our communities and evade the immigration consequences that federal law requires,” reads the letter dated Aug. 13, shared with VTDigger.

Studies show immigrants in the United States commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S.-born population. Meanwhile, immigration authorities this year have been detaining and deporting record numbers of immigrants who have little or no criminal record, according to the Marshall Project.

Gov. Phil Scott is reviewing the letter from Attorney General Pamela Bondi and is preparing a response to push back on that assertion, according to Dustin Degree, a spokesperson for the governor.

“You are hereby notified that your jurisdiction has been identified as one that engages in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration and enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States. This ends now,” Bondi’s letter states.

Degree rejected Bondi’s assertion Monday.

“Importantly, Vermont is not a sanctuary state. Vermont does not have any law or policy that impedes the enforcement of federal immigration law,” Degree wrote to VTDigger in an email.

“In fact, the opposite is true: Vermont State law is very clear that the State does not prohibit or impede any public agency from complying with the lawful requirements of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1373 and 1644,” he stated.

Those laws state local law or governmental entities may not prohibit or restrict the sending or receiving of information from federal authorities regarding a person’s immigration status.

Any policy or practice that existed in Vermont that conflicts with federal immigration requirements has been abolished, according to Degree.

“Governor Scott will convey these important details in a response to the AG, which we expect will be sent tomorrow,” Degree wrote.

The letter, which was sent to multiple communities, threatens criminal charges, civil action and potentially withholding federal funds if entities don’t comply.

The letter comes on the heels of the Justice Department announcing its latest list of 35 sanctuary jurisdictions, which includes Vermont, as part of the federal government’s continued effort to target communities that it believes are interfering with immigration enforcement.

An earlier list in May named more than 500 jurisdictions across red and blue states in response to President Donald Trump’s April 28 executive order directing federal authorities to identify so-called sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide that are “deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.”

The whittled down list naming about three dozen sanctuary jurisdictions, largely Democratic, makes no reference to the older list which has been quietly removed from the Department of Homeland Security’s website.

Read the story on VTDigger here: US attorney general tells Vermont it’s violating Trump’s immigration policies.

When Nathan Fry served in Afghanistan, he said he met dozens of people who believed in the idea of a free, democratic society and worked tirelessly alongside the U.S. military toward that dream, often at the risk of their own safety.

“They still want to live in a free and democratic society,” he said. “If they can’t do so in Afghanistan, then any endeavor that we can embark on to get them to the United States and help them be a member of a free and democratic society, like part of their dream, I think that’s a worthy cause.”

Fry, of Hinesburg, is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013 and teaches international relations as an adjunct professor at the University of Vermont.

Four years after the Taliban regained control of Kabul and U.S. troops withdrew from America’s longest war, Afghan refugees across the U.S., including in Vermont, are still waiting to relocate with their families as the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on all forms of immigration has significantly slowed the process.

“Afghans in Vermont continue to express fear and worry over their loved ones who have not yet been able to join them here,” said Tracy Dolan, director of the state refugee office. 

“Parents, spouses and children remain stuck in dangerous or difficult circumstances and there are many Afghans here who feel that their hearts are torn between Vermont, and Afghanistan and Pakistan or other countries where some of their family members remain waiting for word that they can finally come to join their families in the U.S.,” she wrote in an email Friday.

Vermont has rehomed about 650 refugees from the Central Asian country where Taliban extremists continue their repressive rule going into a fifth year amid continued violence. Recent reports from the United Nations outline worsening human rights in Afghanistan, including restrictions on women’s rights, access to health, education and freedom of movement.

“The U.S. Government has an obligation to keep its promise to these Afghan allies. This 4-year anniversary, we also recognize the resilience, strength, and contributions of Afghan allies across Vermont to our state and communities,” Molly Gray, executive director of the Vermont Afghan Alliance, a Burlington-based nonprofit that supports Afghans resettling in the state, said in a press release.

The Trump administration’s efforts this year to reverse protections granted to Afghan allies and block federal funding for refugee organizations has added to the uncertainty refugees already faced. 

The situation has been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, including threats to deport Afghan allies and a sweeping travel ban, while neighboring countries turn away Afghan refugees terrified of being sent back to an unstable, hostile country.

Becoming refugees, relocating to a foreign country and waiting four years to reunite with families has taken “an unimaginable toll” on Afghans in Vermont, according to Drew Gustafson, an immigration attorney at the Vermont Afghan Alliance.

“I think people are obviously very anxious to be reunited with their families,” he said. “It takes a lot of effort just to keep that sort of hope alive because it’s been a really long and tough process.”

A handful of the organization’s clients in the greater Burlington area are going through that process, along with others in central and southern Vermont. That coupled with the situation in and around Afghanistan is part of what makes the family reunification process so difficult today, he said.

There is currently no U.S. embassy in Kabul, so cases must be transferred to a post outside of Afghanistan. He said Islamabad — the capital of Pakistan —  is likely the closest place to get to, but the recent acceleration in deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, and the difficulty they face getting visas from Pakistan, is compounding the problem. 

The situation is similar for Afghans in Iran. The U.S. travel ban and the freezing of refugee program funding has made matters worse.

“It just feels like the Afghan community, sort of globally, is going through a really difficult period,” Gustafson said, one that makes the family reunification process particularly tough at the individual level.

For refugees trying to adjust to life in a new country without the knowledge of when they might see their families again — or ever — is “something I can’t even imagine,” Gustafson said.

“These were people who were evacuated from their country or told by the U.S. you have to leave for your own safety, your life will be endangered if you stay,” he said. “So this is a different sort of story of immigration because they’re not people who came to America with a plan or even a dream.”

In an emailed statement late Friday, Gov. Phil Scott asked Vermonters to celebrate the contributions of “our Afghan neighbors” and “ensure those who seek peace, freedom, and the rule of law only our democratic republic can offer, are always welcome in America.”

These refugees “have become our friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Many – due to their cooperation with the United States government during the war – would face deadly consequences if they were forced to return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule,” he said.

Around the world Fry said he has seen people banding together to make their country and lives better — including in Afghanistan and among Afghans resettled in the U.S. The effort to encourage free and democratic societies at home and abroad is “something that we need to see more of,” he said.

“I think we’re all striving for the same thing … for us now and for our children in the future,” Fry said.

The work the alliance is doing to help Afghans in Vermont is invaluable, he said, and “bringing people to Vermont who are going to contribute to our communities in ways that enrich the overall fabric of Vermont — and I think that’s important for us to consider as well.” 

Last year, the organization directly served about 250 Afghans statewide. It helped 35 obtain driver’s licenses, placed 65 people in jobs and provided 50 with interpretation services. Since March, it has helped resettle 12 Afghans on special immigrant visas and hosted Eid celebrations for 250 Afghans, according to the press release.

Some of the Afghans helped by the organization are now case workers in the office, helping others.

“We are determined to help keep a promise made to those who risked their lives to support U.S. military and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, and to ensure that families are evacuated and brought to safety here in Vermont,” Gray said in the release.

Meanwhile, the organization is facing significant federal funding cuts and has issued an urgent appeal for donations, as it is unlikely to continue beyond Sept. 30 without additional funds.

“Please stand with those who stood with us and donate today to help close our funding gap,” the alliance wrote on its donation page.

On the nonprofit organization’s board is Afghan war veteran Vince Mazzucca.

“If not for our Afghan interpreters and colleagues, I’m not sure I’d still be here today,” he said in an email. “I feel an obligation to do my small part to keep a promise to this community and to stand by them as they stood by me.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: 4 years after the fall of Kabul, Afghans in Vermont face ‘a really difficult period’.

The city of Burlington lifted a water conservation notice for some city and Colchester residents Thursday morning, two days after it was announced.

Tuesday’s advisory affected customers who receive a water bill from Burlington Water Resources or Colchester Fire District 2, which the city also serves. The reservoir and tanks serve about 10,000 customers in Burlington and about 2,800 in Malletts Bay.

“The cause of the conservation notice was the booster pump failure on the water main that supplies the Colchester water tank,” Chapin Spencer, the city’s director of public works, wrote in an email Thursday. “Without the booster pumps, our regular supply lines to the tower could not keep up with the higher water demand that we saw during the heat wave.”

The alert was sent midday Tuesday after the water in a Colchester tank fell 2 feet below the minimum desired level, Spencer said earlier this week. On Thursday morning the drinking water level was back to normal and the alert was lifted. 

“With our customer’s water conservation efforts, now both the Colchester water tank and the Burlington reservoir are replenished and up to normal levels,” Spencer wrote.

The two booster pumps feeding the Colchester water tank that failed are approximately 25 years old, said Spencer, who oversees upgrades to Burlington’s aging infrastructure. One is fixed, and despite significant maintenance, the other pump is not online yet.

“We do exercise the pumps weekly, but moving forward we are now going to exercise the pumps for a longer duration to more fully test them,” Spencer said in the email.  

Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington lifts water conservation alert.

COLCHESTER — On a warm Thursday evening, a group of residents gathered at Bayside Park with signs they used to protest a hotel and resort proposal at a recent Development Review Board meeting.

They pointed out a long marina in the bay and two parcels of private property at 166 and 180 West Lakeshore Drive that were largely hidden by a cluster of large trees.

They imagined what the area would look like when the majority of those old trees are removed. That’s part of the plan proposed by Hazelett Strip-Casting Corporation, which is seeking to combine the two lots and to construct five large buildings into the slope overlooking the bay. 

The plan envisions a $8 million hotel comprising five “cottage-style” buildings for “a 20-room inn” with a restaurant and event space at the lakefront site of a former motel.

“The town should protect us and the bay,” said Phyllis Bryden, who bought a house on East Lakeshore Drive nine years ago and has been disappointed with overcrowding of the area, the diminished water quality and increased traffic on the scenic stretch of Malletts Bay.

Marilyn Sowles, a resident of Porters Point Road and a former selectboard member, is concerned about diminished views — both from the lake and the road. 

She held up a photo of what the shoreline now looks like as taken from a boat on the bay. It looks like a verdant stretch of green on the sloping shore. The project renderings replace it with five shiny glassfront buildings as proposed by consultants Scott Homsted from the engineering firm Krebs and Lansing, and Benjamin Avery of Greenfield Growth Consulting LLC, formerly a developer with Black Rock.

“There is no way to build that huge monstrosity on this skinny piece of land and maintain the views from the lake,” she said at a packed Development Review Board hearing on July 23 that ran almost four hours, like the previous June 11 hearing.

Residents, including those gathered last week, continue to protest the $8 million project. At both hearings, they reiterated concerns about environmental and traffic impacts, and with setting a development precedent for the Malletts Bay shorefront.

Between the two hearings about 20 concerned residents hired Brice Simon, a lawyer in Stowe, who sent a letter to town officials July 21 reiterating a litany of concerns. These range from the project’s lack of stormwater and runoff treatment to its adverse scenic impacts.

“I hope that the DRB will deny the application,” said Simon, who outlined how and why the proposal does not meet the definition of an inn, as the developers call it. He said it is a hotel, which is not allowed in the area according to the Colchester Town Plan.

“The site plan approval is not appropriate for a project that is so out of conformance with the surrounding area, and which would cause such undue adverse effects on the surrounding ecological, scenic, state and municipal resources,” he wrote in an email.

Simon also submitted a petition at the last development review board meeting signed by more than 50 residents opposed to the project.

Town officials declined to comment.

The board is expected to issue a written decision on the project in September, 45 days from the last hearing, according to Zachary Maia, development manager in the town’s planning and zoning office. He confirmed Simon’s letter was received as testimony by the Development Review Board.

Many of the residents who gathered at the waterfront last week shared views on why they believe the project is out-of-character in the bay.

Longtime resident Jerry Allyn said he is concerned about added water pollution it could bring. A big project without a stormwater runoff plan is irresponsible, he said. And with most of the 98 parking spots proposed across the street, drop-off and crossings would create a major traffic hazard, he added.

“When I first came here there was one traffic light in town. Now West Lakeshore Drive is one of the busiest sections in town,” he said referring to the traffic. It has been exacerbated since the Malletts Bay sewer project began.

Nancy Cloutier of Church Road, who has been living in Colchester for 22 years, said she and her husband are “appalled” the town would consider such a large project that would “destroy the view,” affect traffic and does not meet the Town Plan’s guidelines. 

“The aesthetics are horrible,” she said.

Cloutier said she has a background in event planning and takes issue with the proposed capacity numbers presented by the developer. What is projected to be a 40-person capacity restaurant can hold much more, she said, if tables and chairs are removed for an event. She shared her concern at the last hearing.

“I feel that the board and the planning and zoning commission have been given enough testimony and information from citizens to reject this permit out-of-pocket on very good, solid ground,” said resident Jeanne Welch, who commutes daily and is concerned about the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and that the development could circumvent local regulations.

The developers and consultants did not respond to comment.

Meanwhile, all await the town board’s decision.

As the rays of the setting sun dappled through the trees at Bayside Park, the residents lowered their signs and walked slowly up the hill to head home.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Colchester residents outline concerns with hotel project; await town decision.

Burlington officials continue to monitor water levels after the city issued its first water conservation notice this year asking residents to “limit non-essential water usage” and “delay other important water-intensive tasks.”

Sent by email and posted online, the alert went out Tuesday after the water in a Colchester tank fell 2 feet below the minimum desired water level by midday, according to Chapin Spencer, the city’s director of public works.

While that may not sound like a lot, Spencer said it is important to maintain high levels in the water tanks because the 7 million gallon reservoir and its tanks serve the University of Vermont and UVM Medical Center’s Level 1 trauma center — in addition to other city residents and businesses. 

“So we clearly need to make sure we’re able to serve any fire or emergency,” he said.

To that end, the alert asks residents in Burlington and Colchester to help conserve water by delaying outdoor watering, turning off taps and reducing the time of showers, dish washing and teeth brushing. It also asks users to delay laundry and dishwashing until a full load can be run, and to avoid peak times: after 8 p.m. and before 6 a.m.

The advisory applies to customers who receive a water bill from Burlington Water Resources or Colchester Fire District 2, which the city also serves. The reservoir and tanks serve about 10,000 customers in Burlington and about 2,800 in Malletts Bay.

The water level dropped because people use more water during heat waves and because the aging pumps that supply a water tower in Colchester stopped functioning Tuesday morning, according to Spencer.

“We did an emergency repair on one and so the water tower level is going back up in Colchester, but our ability to fully fill both the water tower and our reservoir are dependent on people not using as much water,” he said.

Burlington’s water infrastructure is aging and the two pumps that failed are about 25 years old, he said. One has been repaired and the department is working to fix the second one. There is no estimate of how long the advisory will be in place and the department will continue to monitor water levels daily.

“We will be looking overnight at our storage capacity and how we’re trending and we’ll have an update tomorrow morning,” Spencer said. “The best place to check, besides social media, is our website.”

Failing pumps and water conservation alerts are not common. In his 12 years, Spencer said Tuesday’s alert is the first time the city has issued a water conservation notice during peak summer.

Residents have reached out with queries but have mostly been understanding, he added.

“We have a great customer base. I think everybody understands intuitively that when there’s a heat wave like this that our water system is stressed,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Water department asks Burlington and Colchester residents to limit water use.

BURLINGTON — With shovels in the ground and hard hats on, officials chucked soil, throwing up clouds of dust at a construction site off North Avenue on Thursday afternoon.

The event celebrated the groundbreaking of 100 Cambrian Way. Come next year, there will be 40 new, permanently affordable apartments in the mixed housing development at Cambrian Rise, in Burlington’s North End, built in partnership with Champlain Housing Trust and nonprofit developer Evernorth. 

The building will run mainly on solar and geothermal power and will not rely on energy generated from fossil fuels, according to Eric Schmitt, COO of Evernorth.

“But we’re not only delivering on climate solutions,” he said. “100 Cambrian will be a long-term asset to the city. It means that these homes will give families the stability to raise their children here and know that this housing will still be affordable for their children and their grandchildren.”

The new building will be the third to offer affordable housing at the site. Ten apartments have been set aside for families with vouchers from the Burlington Housing Authority, which could help lift recipients out of homelessness. 

The trust and Evernorth completed the 72-unit Laurentide building there in 2019, and Cathedral Square’s Juniper House with 70 apartments for adults 55 and older opened in 2021. 

A fourth building planned — Shale Beach Condominiums — will add 30 permanently affordable condos through the Champlain Housing Trust’s shared equity program, offering homeownership at a fraction of current prices, Michael Monte, CEO of the housing trust, announced at the event.

“These 40 apartments will help people feel safe and secure in a home,” Monte said.

State Treasurer Mike Pieciak said housing is Vermont’s number one economic issue. He has heard from employers who fail to attract or retain talent because it is too expensive for people to rent or buy a home in Vermont, he said. It’s also a social issue, he added.

“The lack of housing is one of the leading drivers for homelessness,” Pieciak said, underscoring the importance of building more homes, particularly affordable ones, statewide. 

Apartment sizes at 100 Cambrian will vary and, on average, cost $1,325 for a one-bedroom, $1,530 for a two-bedroom and $1,840 for a three-bedroom apartment, according to a Champlain Housing Trust press release.

The $23.8 million project has been funded by 14 sources. A third of it came from federal and state tax credits through the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, $8.8 million came from state and federal funds committed by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, $3 million came from the City of Burlington, and $1 million came from a donor that wanted to help the homelessness situation in the city, according to the release.

It is designed by Duncan Wisniewski Architecture. Wright and Morrissey are the general contractors. Eric Farrell is the master developer of the neighborhood, the release stated.

The new development is part of Burlington’s effort to build 7,200 new homes in 25 years, particularly affordable housing.

The event drew more than 50 partners, politicians and stakeholders to the site on a hot afternoon. 

“Ensuring our community has ample safe and affordable housing is a top priority for my administration,” Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak said in the release.

Speakers also noted the opening of Fox Run — a similar climate-friendly 30-unit complex in Berlin on Wednesday. Built in partnership between Downstreet Housing and Development and Evernorth, it is the first new affordable development built in Berlin in a decade, MyNBC5 reported.

As the federal government pursues massive tax cuts, Vermont may receive more federal tax credits to support housing development, said Maura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, which administers the federal tax credits.

Collins quoted a song from Hamilton which goes, “What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.”

“Not all of us are going to be able to be here at the ribbon cutting, and not all of us are going to be able to see the dozens and dozens and dozens of families who live in this building to come,” she said. “But this is a legacy of the good work that is done by all of these organizations.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Eric Schmitt’s role at Evernorth.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Champlain Housing Trust breaks ground on 40 affordable apartments in Burlington’s North End.

Forty-four asylum-seekers, most from Haiti, were found packed in the back of a 16-foot U-Haul truck in southern Québec early Sunday, according to Canadian authorities.

Canadian police also arrested three people on smuggling charges.

Cpl. Erique Gasse, a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, estimated the asylum-seekers walked a few miles in the United States to cross the border before getting into the truck in Canada.

Working off a tip, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Sûreté du Québec intercepted the box truck just south of Stanstead, Québec, minutes north of the Vermont border station at Derby Line, Sunday at 2:20 a.m.

The truck was carrying 44 foreign nationals — including a 4-year-old child and a pregnant woman — packed in dangerously hot and cramped conditions in a suspected case of human trafficking, according to Gasse.

“They could barely breathe because there’s no opening like a bus — it’s like a closed box. So they were pretty relieved to see the police opening the door but at the same time, obviously, they got caught,” he said.

Many of the smuggled migrants were wet and told officers they had to walk for about two hours in the forest and had to wade through waist-high water before they got into the truck on the Canadian side. The weather was getting cold and Gasse said officers provided blankets and shared water and food with the asylum seekers. 

“They were hungry. They were thirsty, and they needed some energy,” he said.

It was an unusually large number of people by the Canadian police’s standards, he said, as they usually apprehend families or small groups of people trying to cross the border. 

“We see that a lot in Europe,” he said. “I hope it’s not a new trend.”

The 47 people were arrested and brought to the Canada Border Services Agency at the Stanstead Highway 55 border crossing, according to Guillaume Bérubé, a spokesperson for the agency. 

Ogulcan Mersin, 25, Dogan Alakus, 31, and Firat Yuksek, 31, were arrested on charges of aiding and abetting to commit an immigration offense as well as a charge of assisting people to enter Canada outside of a designated customs office.

They are detained in Sherbrooke until their next court hearing on Aug. 28, for a bail hearing, according to Alessia Bongiovanni from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

“The investigation is ongoing and additional charges may be laid. The (Canada Border Services Agency) cannot comment further as the matter is before the courts,” Bérubé wrote in an email Wednesday. 

Most of the asylum-seekers were taken to the agency’s refugee processing center in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle and are set to be subject to individual immigration assessments, he wrote.

Canadian news outlets, such as the CBC, have reported that many of them were sent back to the U.S.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment.

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch’s office is aware of the incident and is working with the delegation and partners involved, said Elisabeth St. Onge, Welch’s press secretary.

Welch has condemned the Trump administration’s decision to reverse the temporary protected status and a humanitarian parole program that allows people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to legally enter and stay in the U.S. for two years.

The reversal of temporary protected status for people from Haiti endangers the safety and well-being of refugees and asylum-seekers seeking a better life, St. Onge said.

Temporary protected status is based on the circumstances in the country and Haiti has long been facing a severe humanitarian crisis involving gang violence, food insecurity and a collapsing health care system.

The situation in Haiti is actually worse this month, according to Yvonne Lodico, founder and executive director of the Grace Initiative Global, a nonprofit that provides services to several refugee groups living in Vermont, including Haitians.

Almost 1.3 million people are displaced in Haiti, which some say has the highest homicide rate in the world, according to the Human Rights Watch report Lodico cited. Violence continues to escalate, and more than 5,600 people were killed there in 2024.

“The Haitians love Vermont. It is welcoming, peaceful, and they have all been able to work and become economically self-sufficient,” she said. “However, the situation is frightening, and the prospect of being sent to a detention center provides compelling reasons for individuals to seek help and a chance to survive. So it seems that Canada, even though there is no guarantee that they will be able to stay, is worth the effort.”

Canada looks to tighten border control

The Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police work with partners “to disrupt human smuggling networks and to combat international criminal organizations that seek to profit from the desperation and vulnerability of others,” Bérubé wrote in the email.

So far this year, the agency has processed 14,874 asylum applications as of July 27 in Québec, a dip from the same period last year when it processed 22,337 asylum applications, according to data shared by Bérubé.

“People who attempt to enter Canada illegally by smuggling across the border can easily find themselves in vulnerable risky situations and may be exposed to extreme climatic and environmental conditions … leading to malnutrition or serious injury,” Bérubé wrote. 

Those who enter Canada in violation of immigration laws illegally could face criminal charges, court-imposed fines, jail terms and deportation, he said.

Meanwhile, similar to the Trump administration’s continued crackdown on immigration in the U.S., Mark Carney, Canada’s newly elected Liberal prime minister, has proposed the Strong Borders Act. 

It outlines sweeping changes to prevent refugee crossings, the BBC reported, and has been criticized by advocates and Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic Party and advocates.

President Donald Trump has long made claims about undocumented migrants and drugs moving across the U.S.-Canada border. He recently increased tariffs on Canadian imports, citing the country’s alleged failure to curb fentanyl smuggling into the U.S. But many imports will avoid the increase thanks to an existing treaty, the BBC reported.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Canada intercepts U-Haul truck carrying 44 migrants in case of suspected human trafficking.

Vermont is not officially a sanctuary state, but it again found itself in the U.S. Justice Department’s latest list of 35 sanctuary jurisdictions as part of the federal government’s continued effort to target communities that are seen as interfering with immigration enforcement.

“Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Tuesday Justice Department press release, calling sanctuary policies “harmful” and threatening to sue those who refuse to comply with federal law.

The Justice Department first released a longer list in May in response to President Donald Trump’s April 28 executive order directing federal authorities to identify so-called sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide that are “deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.”

The list, which earlier this year named more than 500 jurisdictions across red and blue states, met strong pushback. The new list of about three dozen sanctuary jurisdictions, largely Democratic, makes no reference to the older list which has been removed from the Department of Homeland Security’s website.

The sanctuary movement began in 1982 with some American churches declaring that they would provide refuge to Central Americans after civil conflicts erupted in Guatemala and El Salvador. San Francisco was the first city to enact a sanctuary policy in the U.S. in 1989. The term has since been used to describe communities that limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In 2017, Gov. Phil Scott signed legislation and published guidelines for municipalities to consider when adopting policies on municipal law enforcement interactions with federal immigration officials. But in taking these actions, the governor stopped short of officially declaring the state a sanctuary jurisdiction.

A fact sheet put out by Scott at the time stated, “Vermont’s response does not put federal dollars at risk because it does not establish Vermont as a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction.’”

In May, when Vermont first appeared on the Justice Department’s list of sanctuary jurisdictions, Amanda Wheeler, a spokesperson for Gov. Phil Scott, insisted that the state has not established itself as a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” 

“Vermont maintains full compliance with federal law while protecting the Constitutional rights of citizens and the State. This means, Vermont doesn’t stand in the way of the federal government carrying out federal immigration laws in Vermont,” Wheeler said at the time.

Wheeler could not be reached immediately for comment on Tuesday.

Advocates were quick to defend sanctuary policies and Vermont’s stance this week. Federal immigration authorities have in recent months targeted an Upper Valley resident with legal residency status, a Middlebury student on a valid visa, and a U.S. citizen and Winooski school superintendent. 

Policies that protect residents and help foster trust between them and law enforcement are important, said Lia Ernst, legal director at the ACLU of Vermont.

“Cities and states have every right to focus on serving their own residents — not enabling Trump’s mass deportation agenda — and that’s exactly what Vermont’s leaders should continue to do,” Ernst said in an email to VTDigger on Tuesday.

The Trump administration recently sued New York City for having a sanctuary city policy claiming that it led to the non-fatal shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer in a Manhattan park, the Associated Press reported.

This week’s list, which the department plans to update, names four counties, 13 states and 18 cities from Boston to Seattle, according to the Justice Department release.

The Justice Department has filed several lawsuits to “compel compliance with federal law,” according to the press release, which encourages communities to revoke sanctuary policies as a Kentucky city did recently.

Last month, Democratic Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg reversed course to say the city would comply with the Trump administration’s 48-hour immigration detainer requests and in exchange, the federal government planned to drop the city from its list, The Hill reported.

Read the story on VTDigger here: US government includes Vermont in its latest, shorter sanctuary state list.

Northfield Police Chief Pierre Gomez was dressed in his uniform and heading into the town office on Main Street on Tuesday morning, when he said he was accosted by a resident who “ranted and raved” at him using racist terms.

The man, whom Gomez later identified as Northfield resident Gary Allen Smith, proceeded to call him “boy,” “scumbag chief,” told him to “do your fucking job” and to “go back to Pennsylvania,” according to an audio recording of the encounter Gomez shared with VTDigger.

“He was cursing. He was getting in my face, pointing and referencing me as ‘boy’ several times,” said Gomez, a Black Latino man. 

He said he had never met the man before and did not provoke him.

Gomez said he encountered Smith in the vestibule of the office building, as Smith held the door open for him. Gomez said he thanked him but told him he was not exiting. 

That’s when the man yelled, “Get out of here,” he said.

Smith could not be contacted to comment for this story. Calls to phone numbers associated with someone with his name and age were not answered.

Scott Kerner, owner of the nearby Good Measure Pub and Brewery, said he was on his way to the bank next door when he witnessed the incident.

“I heard somebody yelling, and I looked up, and there was a guy with a tie-dye shirt yelling and pointing very close to Chief Gomez’s face in front of the town office,” he said. “It felt very threatening.”

Kerner said he walked up toward them because he was worried about the man’s tone and how aggressive he sounded. 

“I like Chief, and it just seemed like this guy was really out of hand,” Kerner said.

He said he heard the man call the chief “boy” and say “do your fucking job.” 

“The guy continued to yell at Chief, walked across Main Street yelling, then walked back and got back in his face and yelled at him again, all while I was standing right there,” Kerner said.

Through it all, he said, Gomez remained calm.

Trained in his past law enforcement work on how to react “as far as race-baiting is concerned,” Gomez said he was able to not react in a negative way. Although, as a person of color, he said he found the multiple “boy” comments racially charged.

Smith, who is 54 and was recorded as recently living in Northfield Falls, according to court documents, was convicted for assaulting a Northfield police officer in 2023.

Gomez said he reported the latest incident to Northfield Town Manager Jeff Schulz and others. Schulz said he is aware of the encounter and has the recording of the confrontation that occurred in front of the municipal building.

“The incident is very unfortunate and very disrespectful to the Chief,” he wrote in an email Wednesday. “Please note that as the Town Manager and a representative of the Town of Northfield, I strongly condemn all forms of racism and harassment.”

Mia Schultz, president of the Rutland Area NAACP, said Gomez has faced the everyday pressures that come with the job and has carried the weight of systemic racism since the day he arrived in Northfield. She said town leaders must publicly declare their support for the chief.

“Chief Gomez was verbally attacked in broad daylight,” Schultz wrote in an email. “He was repeatedly called ‘boy,’ a word with a long and violent history that has been used to strip Black and Brown men of their humanity and authority. This is not just a personnel matter. This is a moral failure.”

Merry Shernock, the co-chair of the Northfield Selectboard, has been the most vocal of the five board members — at the last meeting and via email — in her condemnation of the continued racism and harassment Gomez has faced.

“I have nothing except respect and admiration for Chief Gomez,” she wrote in an email this week, adding that the sentiment is shared by the majority of residents. She prefers not to pay attention to those who express hate, she wrote, “but I am aware, much to my dismay, that they are among us.”

The board has initiated an investigation related to Gomez that remains ongoing, she said. Schulz and Gomez said they are unable to discuss details of the investigation itself as it involves personnel issues, which fall under protected information.

Shernock said she has been charged with organizing the racial bias training that was started at the April 28 meeting by a member of the state Office of Racial Equity. She expects that training will resume in October. A Northfield resident has also requested community racial bias training, and she said she is hopeful she can look into it this fall.

While Schulz wrote he condemns racism and found the harassment Gomez faced this week “unfortunate,” the town manager has not responded to multiple rounds of emails from VTDigger asking if he explicitly supports the police chief and his work. 

A pattern of harassment

Originally from Pittsburgh and in law enforcement for about 20 years, Gomez, 58, was a Philadelphia police officer and, later, a detective in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

He was hired in September 2023 as chief of police in Northfield, a Washington County town of about 6,000 and home to Norwich University. Gomez told VTDigger he has faced multiple instances of harassment and discrimination in the overwhelmingly white town since he took the job in wake of former chief of police John Helfant retiring amid controversy in May 2023.

Vermont has had only three police chiefs of color — in Northfield, Montpelier and Brattleboro. Brian Peete became the capital’s first Black police chief in 2020 but left for a job in Kansas after two years. Norma Hardy has led the Brattleboro police department since 2021 and is the first Black woman police chief in Vermont.

Earlier this year, at an April 8 selectboard meeting — a YouTube recording of which now has 1,600 views —  Lynn Doney, a disgraced former selectboard member, took issue with Gomez wearing a gray hoodie on duty instead of his uniform: “so he looks like a police chief and not a gangster off the street that’s just driving our cruisers around,” Doney said.

On April 23, more than 60 residents packed the room at the following selectboard meeting, the majority in support of Gomez. Many of them denounced Doney’s racist remark at the earlier meeting and wore hoodies themselves in a show of solidarity.

Gomez said he sent a letter to Doney asking him to cease and desist from such personal attacks. “It is unlawful for an individual to make deliberate statements that intend to harm the reputation of another party without factual evidence or simply based upon hearsay,” the letter he shared read.

Doney did not respond to VTDigger’s requests for comment then or this week but responded to Gomez’s letter in April. The letter signed by Doney, shared by Gomez, reads, “I will not apology to you or anyone else as everything I have said is true.”

Since that incident, residents and racial justice leaders have pointed out that racism and retention issues are problems many predominantly white towns face when they hire people of color and urged Northfield officials to be better about calling out racism and in vocalizing support for the chief. 

“He’s an excellent leader for our town and I am well aware … of what he’s had to deal with here. So, you know, we support him,” Kerner said Thursday.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Northfield Police Chief Pierre Gomez faces racial harassment again.

Updated at 12:46 p.m.

William Breault, a police chief in New Hampshire, has been chosen to lead the South Burlington police department starting in October.

“Chief Breault represents the best of modern 21st century policing,” City Manager Jessie Baker wrote in a Tuesday press release. “His commitment to implementing best practices, leading an accredited department, and ensuring all neighbors feel welcome receiving public safety services stood out throughout the extensive process.”

Breault has 26 years of experience in public safety and has been head of the Dover Police Department for seven years, where he oversees 54 officers, according to the release. 

He is filling the spot vacated by former Chief Shawn Burke, who resigned in March to become interim chief in the neighboring Burlington Police Department. Burke joined the South Burlington Police Department in 2018, becoming chief in 2019 when Police Chief Trevor Whipple retired.

Breault joined the New Hampshire seacoast region city of more than 33,000 in 1998. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, a Master of Public Administration and graduated from the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy in 2018, according to the release.

South Burlington — Vermont’s second largest city — has a population of more than 20,000. The police department has a budget of $8.3 million and employs 53 people, including 40 police officers, according to the recruitment brochure shared.

Breault was chosen by Baker after a nationwide search drew 14 applicants. He is set to receive a salary of $160,000.

“The rigor of the selection process for our new chief was thorough and inclusive. Chief Breault was impressive throughout,” City Councilor Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who was part of the advisory team created for the hiring process, said in the release.

Breault is set to join the department on Oct. 6. Deputy Chief Sean Briscoe, who has been serving as interim chief since February, plans to return to his deputy role at that time, according to the release.

Read the story on VTDigger here: South Burlington hires a new police chief from Dover, New Hampshire.

Vermont and other states sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its effort to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a day after a judge granted the health care organization’s request to block the cuts.

Advocates of health equity and access in Vermont welcome the win but said the fight is not over.

Vermont is among 22 states and Washington DC that sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers to Medicare and Medicaid Services for continuing to target Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in the sweeping tax and spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this month, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Filed in the U.S. District court in Massachusetts Tuesday, the complaint argues that the provision in the bill to defund — which prevents the use of federal funds for any health care obtained at Planned Parenthood health centers — is unconstitutional. The suit states the administration continues “to target and punish” the nonprofit “for advocating for abortion access.”

Earlier this month, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America sued the Trump administration and a court issued a temporary restraining order mandating the federal government must continue reimbursing Planned Parenthood clinics for Medicaid-funded services. That order expired last week but a federal judge in Boston issued a new court order Monday to protect Medicaid funding for all Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide while the case continues. 

U.S District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston ruled the defund provision in Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” violates the First Amendment, the Equal Protection clause, and the prohibition on Bills of Attainder in the U.S. Constitution. 

Well known for providing abortion care, Planned Parenthood plays a critical role in Vermont’s health care access especially for low income people, those in rural areas and those who have historically faced barriers to care.

Beyond providing abortion care and sex education, about 200 Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation — including six across Vermont — provide cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and wellness exams to those who do not have other options.

In fiscal year 2024, Planned Parenthood clinics served 16,000 patents in Vermont, of whom 24% were covered by the Medicaid program. It provided 32,192 STI tests, 1,781 cervical cancer screenings and 1,049 breast exams to Vermonters, according to data shared by the organization.

If the nonprofit was forced to scale back or close clinics, it would create dangerous gaps in access, according to Daniel Barlow, executive director of the People’s Health and Wellness Clinic in Barre that provides free health care to uninsured and underinsured adults in Central Vermont.

“For many patients on Medicaid, Planned Parenthood is not just a provider of choice, it’s often the only provider available that offers the full range of reproductive healthcare services in a welcoming and inclusive environment,” Barlow wrote in an email. “Efforts to defund or discredit Planned Parenthood don’t just target an organization — they threaten the health, dignity, and autonomy of our communities.”

More than 70 million people rely on Medicaid, the federal government’s insurance program for low-income people, according to federal enrollment data.

Medicaid insures about 200,000 people in Vermont and costs approximately $2.4 billion, of which about 62% is federally funded, according to a press release from Attorney General Charity Clark’s office announcing the lawsuit. Vermont Medicaid covers reproductive health and preventative services and Planned Parenthood “plays a critical role in delivering that care,” the release states.

“In a rural state like ours — where medical providers are few and far between — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood will leave Vermonters without access to basic care,” Clark stated in the release.

The lawsuit argues the provision is “impermissibly ambiguous,” unlawful and would lead to “widespread disruptions in preventative care and increase health care costs.”

The continued effort to defund Planned Parenthood is “a direct attack on the health care access of millions of low-income Americans, disproportionally harming women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and communities of color,” the release stated.

Planned Parenthood remains “one of the only affirming places” where young people in Vermont can access affordable and gender-affirming health care, Dana Kaplan, executive director of Outright Vermont, wrote in an email Tuesday. 

“Bodily autonomy is at the heart of both reproductive rights and gender-affirming care, and in this political climate where both are under attack, losing Planned Parenthood would create devastating gaps for youth—especially those on Medicaid,” he wrote.

While the lawsuits and this week’s court decision are good news for the organization, the fight is far from over, said Jessica Barquist, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund, in the release.

The attack is politically motivated, she said, and the nonprofit remains committed to providing care to anyone who seeks it. 

“During these turbulent times, we know our Medicaid insured patients won’t be able to access care elsewhere, which is why our commitment to see them is so critical,” she said in the release.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont sues Trump administration for efforts to eliminate federal funding for health care provided by Planned Parenthood.

For 60 years, all families across the United States, including in Vermont, have had access to Head Start, a federally funded preschool program that has become a national model for positive early learning, health and nutrition outcomes.

On July 10, however, the Trump administration announced the program will require immigration status verification, a new restriction that could affect scores of families enrolled across Vermont. 

“Fundamentally, Head Start programs believe in meeting the needs of all children so they can thrive in adulthood. Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as ‘illegal,’” Christy Swenson, director of Head Start in Vermont, wrote in an email.

The mandate follows a number of hurdles for the program. The Trump administration has threatened its federal funding, a computer glitch led to the temporary suspension of some programs and its staff have endured mass layoffs, the Associated Press reported.

Those programs will be repackaged as federal public benefits, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier this month. The move is part of a broad effort to limit access to federal benefits for immigrants who lack legal status and protect “vital resources for the American people,” Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated.

This comes two months after the department celebrated the 60th anniversary of the federally funded program, when Kennedy said he would “ensure that the next generation of families living in poverty have access to this vital program that offers what they need to thrive.”

Head Start educators in Vermont told VTDigger declined to comment as they wait to receive further guidance. 

Meanwhile, Vermont is among 20 states that filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the Trump administration’s broad demand to screen legal statuses before allowing people to access a slew of federally funded services — from domestic violence shelters to soup kitchens — including Head Start.

According to an agreement reached Friday, the federal government will pause implementation of the new restrictions until at least September 3rd.

The lawsuit claims restricting enrollment based on immigration status violates federal law. Two of the seven programs could be affected by the rule change, while five appear to be exempt based on their private, non-profit status, according to Swenson, who sits on the board of the National Head Start Association.

“I filed the lawsuit because the Trump Administration cannot violate the Constitution or federal law. These unlawful attempts to restrict access to critical safety net programs will harm many of our neighbors here in Vermont and undermine the health and wellbeing of entire communities,” Attorney General Charity Clark wrote in an emailed statement.

The challenge argues the federal government acted unlawfully by issuing these changes without following required procedures under the Administrative Procedure Act, and by misapplying the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to entire programs rather than to individual benefits. 

The mandate further violates the Constitution’s spending clause by imposing new funding conditions on states without fair notice or consent, the lawsuit states.

More than 750,000 children have access to Head Start programs nationwide this year through schools, non-profits and community organizations, according to the department’s May 19 press release. 

In Vermont, Head Start has more than 12,000 students enrolled across seven programs, employs more than 600 staff, and had a budget of $26.8 million in fiscal year 2024, according to a program factsheet. The programs run by Capstone Community Action in Barre and the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity in Burlington are the two largest and serve multiple counties. 

The program has far-reaching effects beyond helping the children enrolled, Swenson said. For instance, it also served 203 unhoused families, 17 military members or veterans, 352 fathers and employed 752 families in school or training.

Others denounced the latest federal policy as un-American and difficult to implement because Head Start has for 60 years been open to any child based on their age or their family’s income, regardless of immigration status.

“When we deny children access to early learning opportunities like Head Start, we not only undermine their chances of success in elementary school and beyond, we also place additional pressure on our elementary schools due to the child’s lack of preparedness,” Erica McLaughlin, assistant executive director for the Vermont Principals’ Association, wrote in an email.

As an elementary teacher and principal, she said she saw first-hand the benefits of the program that has historically played a pivotal role in leveling the playing field, giving low-income and marginalized children a strong start to thrive academically, socially and emotionally. This includes access to health screenings, nutrition assistance and early identification of special needs and developmental resources that are “lifelines for children who already face significant barriers and/or have experienced significant trauma.”

“Restricting Head Start access based on immigration status will have profound and far-reaching consequences, especially for our most vulnerable children,” she added.

The effort mainly affects undocumented children and families and those who don’t have paperwork at hand. Some immigrants, such as children of Green Card holders and certain refugees, remain eligible to enroll, but no further guidance has been issued. For now, the classes in Vermont continue.

“Programs funded by U.S. taxpayers must follow federal law in determining eligibility,” a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. “This ensures fairness and integrity in the use of public resources, particularly in programs that serve vulnerable populations.”

Eligibility will be “based on the immigration status of the child” and new guidance will be issued soon by the Administration for Children and Families, the statement said.

Head Start officials are not sure how to implement the mandate in the interim because they don’t know what documentation would be required to determine U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status, according to Swensen.

“We do not want to see an added burden for children to enter our programs. Many families of our enrolled children do not have legal documentation at hand even though they have been U.S. citizens for generations,” she wrote.

Rebecca Callahan, a professor and researcher of education policy with a focus on immigrant children at the University of Vermont, is concerned about how the rule will impact immigrant families. 

She emphasized the importance of the landmark 1981 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision that guarantees education for all children regardless of immigration status, including undocumented children. 

“The vast majority of our children of foreign-born parents are U.S. citizens themselves. And one of the protections that’s been in place for K-12 and for preschool, for Head Start students, has always been the Plyler v. Doe decision,” she said.

Because the new rule does not distinguish between undocumented parents, undocumented students, Green Card holders, refugees or others who are in the country legally, Callahan said she is worried it will have a chilling effect and deter parents from enrolling their children in the longstanding program.

She referred to recent incidences of federal immigration overreach in Vermont. “They’re blurring everybody together, they’re stopping U.S. citizens,” she said. 

The mandate “hurts our society in the long run,” Callahan said. “These are low-income children and our society is strong because we educate our youngest and are our least able to fend for themselves. That’s why we’ve been a strong society.” 

Gov. Phil Scott has said the focus should not be on law-abiding people, especially children, and that Vermont will continue to be a welcoming place for those seeking a better life for themselves and their families, according to an emailed statement from Scott’s office. 

“It’s long past time for Congress and the President to pass legislation to allow greater pathways to citizenship rather than forcing them to live in the shadows,” the statement reads.

Read the story on VTDigger here: New restrictions for immigrants could chill Head Start enrollment, advocates say.

Updated at 5:15 p.m.

WILLISTON — Wilmer Chavarria and his spouse flew out of Managua, Nicaragua, on a direct flight to Houston on Monday, expecting to reach Burlington that night. Instead, he experienced an “extreme verbal and psychological ordeal” at the airport in Texas.

A United States citizen since 2018, Chavarria, 36, was visiting his family in Nicaragua — a trip he has made multiple times without issues since he was a 15-year-old student.

“It was my usual summer visit during the break. All of my family are there — my brother, my siblings, my extended family. Nothing unusual,” Chavarria told VTDigger at his home in Williston on Tuesday evening, shortly after his flight from Denver landed in Burlington.

Instead, the superintendent of Vermont’s most diverse school district since 2023, said he was detained and questioned for hours at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday night, with no reasons given.

He said he didn’t imagine they could “just hold a U.S. citizen for five hours without telling them why.”

“I never get stopped,” said Chavarria, a frequent traveler. Usually, he said, officials take a quick photo of his face, scan his passport and wave him along in a matter of seconds.

So he was concerned when a customs official waved him out of the Global Entry line he had used multiple times in the past and directed him to an immigration officer who called for an escort. 

“It happened very quickly and very aggressively,” Chavarria said of being targeted and ushered away to a different part of the airport. 

The first room he was placed in had about two dozen others, he said, all Black or brown, except for a German traveler. Some of them had been there for a while as they were in cots with warming blankets, Chavarria said.

What followed was a “surreal” and “dehumanizing” experience, first reported by Seven Days, that involved him being separated from his spouse, with multiple officials, many in plain clothes, interrogating him in windowless rooms without clocks.

‘You have no rights here’

According to Chavarria, the first federal official informed the man who arrived to escort the traveler that Chavarria and Cyrus Dudgeon are married and should not be separated because they are a family.

“And the guy looks at us — and this is where it became very ugly —  and said, ‘What do you mean they are married?’” He then proceeded to ignore the directive and walked away, gesturing for him to follow, Chavarria said. 

“If they think that’s OK to do in front of a married couple, to make that face and say that with so much disdain, then we’re in for something real ugly in there,” Chavarria said he thought at the time.

In a separate room, authorities demanded access to his phone and laptop along with his passwords. 

Chavarria said he agreed to share the equipment — which they took — but declined to give them consent to access confidential school district records, barring a court order or legal counsel. 

He said he repeatedly told officials he is a school superintendent and a public servant, so he is bound by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. They did not seem to understand or hear him, he said.

“We are the federal government,” one of them reportedly stated.

Chavarria said authorities questioned and mocked the validity of his 15-year marriage, suggested he was making up the fact that he was a school superintendent, and threatened him with job loss if he did not give them full access to information on his devices. Chavarria said he stayed firm in his explanation that he was prevented by federal law from doing so.

“I guess they just didn’t believe I was telling the truth,” Chavarria said.

When asked if he was being detained, Chavarria said an official laughed and told him he was not. He then asked if he was free to go and the woman said he was not. When he said that seemed to mean he was being detained, the woman told him, “Well, you’re not being handcuffed.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not directly respond to a request for comment about why Chavarria was detained. A spokesperson in Houston shared general guidelines about searches. 

“Every traveler entering the United States is subject to inspection, which is essential to safeguarding national security,” Rusty Payne, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson and chaplain, wrote in an email Wednesday. He said all travelers are treated with “integrity, respect, professionalism, and according to law.”

Searches of electronic media are “rare, highly regulated” and follow “strict policies and directives,” Payne wrote.

Citizens whose devices cannot be examined “will not be denied entry into the United States based on CBP’s inability to complete an inspection of their device,” he wrote, adding that the device “may be subject to exclusion, detention, or other appropriate action or disposition.”

Chavarria said he was denied legal help and a phone call. When he asked about his rights, a Customs and Border Protection official allegedly told him to stop asking about rights. “You’re in a port of entry. There’s no rights here,” he reportedly said.

“You mean a U.S. citizen with constitutional rights loses his rights in this place?” Chavarria asked.

“Yes, you have no rights here,” the man repeated, according to Chavarria.

Hillary Rich, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, refuted that. People do not lose their constitutional rights at a port of entry, she said, and shared a document outlining rights when encountering law enforcement at the airport.

“Discriminatory detainments and intimidation do not make us safer. And try as it might, this administration cannot override our most basic constitutional freedoms in an effort to achieve its political goals,” she wrote in an email.

The protections guaranteed in the Constitution, particularly those relating to individual rights, “should have been afforded to him immediately,” Yvonne Lodico, founder and executive director of the Grace Initiative Global, a Vermont NGO that serves several refugee groups in Vermont, wrote in an email. Due process of law is a cornerstone of constitutional protections and enshrined in the Fifth Amendment to ensure individuals have adequate legal safeguards, she wrote.

A state webpage updated in June further informs Vermonters about civil immigration enforcement at entry points. It states that enforcement officers may sometimes detain and question individuals about their immigration status without a warrant or evidence of any crime. It also states that individuals have the right to remain silent, ask authorities to identify themselves and also agree to obey an order without granting your consent. 

At one point, Chavarria recalled, he was sitting on a metal chair with four officials towering over him, asking questions in what he said was an aggressive way. None of them had IDs or identified themselves to him, he said.

After four and a half hours of calmly repeating the same information, Chavarria said he was released and had no idea how long he had been questioned or what time it was.

Dudgeon, 36, who was waiting anxiously in the baggage area, also without any answers, said it was around 10:30 p.m. when Chavarria was released. They missed their connecting flight and had to spend the night in the airport.

A white man born in the U.S., Dudgeon said he felt powerless not knowing where Chavarria was being held and why. When he asked officials about Chavarria’s whereabouts, he said the communication felt “very dehumanizing” and “lacking compassion.” He said they aggressively shut him down and directed him to wait in the baggage area.

As he took the elevator down, Dudgeon said he saw three big posters advertising three immigration entities – Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. ICE was depicted by a picture of two white men on horses galloping through a river that he said reminded him of a 2021 photo of agents shoving Haitian migrants toward the Rio Grande river bordering the U.S. and Mexico.

“It feels a little terrifying,” said Dudgeon, who works as a teacher in the Essex School District. “It’s state-mandated terror.”

‘My future is uncertain’

On Tuesday morning, Chavarria found out via email that his yearslong Global Entry pass that allows “expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers” through immigration, according to the Customs and Border Protection website, had been revoked. No reason was given.

Chavarria said his experience was an act of intimidation by a federal government carrying out its promise to crack down on immigration and an indication he will likely be subject to scrutiny during future travel.

A veteran traveler, Chavarria was born in a Honduran refugee camp and grew up in Nicaragua. He moved to Canada to complete high school and attended Earlham College in Indiana, where he studied cinematography and met Dudgeon. He holds two master’s degrees in education from the University of New Mexico and Harvard University.

Chavarria said he will reconsider making trips home to see his elderly mother. He said he must also reconsider what he can say to families in Winooski — many of whom are people of color and immigrants.

The concept of citizens not being allowed to visit their family is shocking for Dudgeon. 

“I just feel anxious and sad that this is going to be a new reality for Wilmer whenever he wants to go home,” he said.

“I think my future is uncertain,” Chavarria said. “I think they are sending me a message. They’re saying we are giving ourselves permission to do this every time you visit your home, every time you see your mother we’re allowing ourselves to do this to you and you better watch out.”

This is not the first time the Chavarria family has been affected by the Trump administration’s immigration policy. 

His brother, Dino Chavarria, who came to the U.S. in 2023 as part of a temporary parole program, was affected after the Department of Homeland Security issued a March 25 order to end the program. That order has since been upheld by the Supreme Court. 

His brother’s family was among the half-million nationals nationwide from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who received the letter terminating parole. The government offered those who chose to self-deport $1,000. Chavarria said his family found it insulting and did not take it.

“They left before they became eligible for deportation because Trump gave them the April 24 deadline,” said Chavarria, who traveled with his nieces in April when they went back to Nicaragua.

Both attended Champlain Valley Union High School and their departure sparked an outpouring of support and anger in the community. The school organized an early graduation to give them their diplomas.

His latest brush at the airport has changed Chavarria’s stance as a superintendent whom scores of immigrant students and their families in Winooski look to for answers, particularly in the increasingly hostile immigration climate. He said he has always assured them if they have U.S. passports, they have constitutional rights and are safe to travel without fear. Now, he said, he needs to reframe the message.

“It’s not about immigration status really. It’s about being Black and brown immigrants,” he said.

Chavarria sent an email early Tuesday to school and district leadership informing them of the “extreme verbal and psychological ordeal” he and Dudgeon experienced.

“It’s been rough and this was a whole new territory of terror for me and my family,” he wrote.

In a statement sent Tuesday afternoon, the school board called him an “exemplary leader” and called on Vermont to stand in solidarity with him and for elected leaders and federal authorities to investigate the incident they said was “deeply disturbing and unacceptable.”

“While we are aware that such detentions are increasingly becoming more common across the country, we must be clear: this is not normal. It is wrong. It is inhumane. It is unjust,” the school board wrote in the statement.

Sanders: ‘Unacceptable’

U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., took to the U.S. House floor Tuesday night to express her outrage. 

“We are furious because of what happened yesterday to a Vermonter, a U.S. citizen, as he attempted to return home,” she said. “This kind of violation of our constitutional rights is how leaders use terror to intimidate us into silence.”

While any period of detention is “significant, harmful and traumatizing,” Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George said in an email that this incident is “truly outrageous and terrifying.”

“We all need to be vigilant and aware of these incidents so that we can, at the very least, highlight them and make sure that our community members don’t get kidnapped by our Government,” she wrote.

Rich wrote she is troubled by “the growing footprint of immigration enforcement in this country and its chilling effect on our freedom of movement.”

Meanwhile, area educators said they are “appalled at the unjust interrogation and detention” and condemned how Chavarria was treated in Houston, according to a joint statement from the Vermont-NEA, the state’s teachers union, and the Winooski Education Association, the union’s local chapter.

“As masked government agents snatch migrants from schools, hospitals, courtrooms, and places of employment and border officials unjustly detain citizens, we must reaffirm our support of all people who call America home,” the unions wrote in the statement.

Jill Martin Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, said such instances are on the rise.

 “(The Department of Homeland Security) is dressing up otherwise illegal discrimination and ideological repression as legitimate and routine exercises of border enforcement,” they wrote in an email.

With more than decade of experience in immigration legal practice and education, Martin Diaz wrote in an email the system is “rooted in a history of bigotry, xenophobia, workforce exploitation, and ideological repression—a long and shameful history that has caused irreparable harm to millions of people, including people in Vermont.”

They said they hope Vermont can seize this moment to push for meaningful change to an immigration system that has long been broken — and fight these instances case by case.

American citizens are able to continue to travel beyond borders safely –– with extra precautions, Martin Diaz added, quoting the National Immigration Litigation Alliance to state, “Don’t concede, but don’t impede.”

“What happened to Wilmer is unacceptable,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in a statement. “Let’s be clear: We are witnessing racial profiling by ICE and CBP across the country. This is another example of Trump’s reckless approach to immigration, of which the majority of Americans now disapprove. Now is the time for all of us to stand together against these dangerous and harmful policies.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Winooski superintendent navigates ‘a whole new territory of terror’ after being detained, interrogated in Texas.

Updated 4:47 p.m.

ESSEX JUNCTION — The Development Review Board in Essex, after another hourslong meeting Thursday night, nixed Scannell Properties’ proposal to build an Amazon distribution facility in Saxon Hill.

After months of debate, the decision came at 9:08 p.m. when the seven-member volunteer board reconvened in the Essex High School auditorium after an hourlong private session.

Ian Carroll, chair of the board, said a vote to approve the application failed 4-2, with one board member yet to weigh in. 

The result came after careful deliberation, he said, and was based solely on the merits of the application and current zoning regulations.

The announcement drew cheers from the remaining members of the public at the late hour. Some of them grouped outside to discuss the matter after the meeting ended.

“It’s an inflection point for Essex in terms of people speaking (out) in wanting to uphold the town plan,” said resident Lorraine Zaloom, who saw the vote as “a victory for Essex and the surrounding communities.” 

Named Project Moose, the site plan outlines a 107,000-square-foot facility and 482 parking spaces at 637 Kimo Drive on 22.94 acres of mostly vacant and wooded land in the Saxon Hill Industrial Park off Thompson Drive. If built, it would be the first Amazon facility in Vermont.

Scannell, the commercial real estate development company headquartered in Indianapolis, is seeking a waiver for the required 50-foot buffer between the property and Kimo Drive.

The applicant could appeal the decision to the state’s environmental court, according to Town Manager Greg Duggan.

The vote was an important victory and “resoundingly rejected the merits of the application,” said Jared Carter, one of two lawyers representing about 23 Essex residents and a newly formed nonprofit called ACRES — an acronym for Alliance of Concerned Residents Envisioning Solutions — who oppose the project.

Jeffrey Polubinski, an attorney representing Scannell Properties, declined to comment Friday. Amazon emailed a response.

“We’re disappointed with this decision as our proposal was developed through collaboration with town officials and staff and designed to comply with all applicable regulations, while also supporting local economic development goals and the needs of our customers in the Burlington-area,” said Steve Kelly, Amazon spokesperson, in an emailed statement.

The company will share next steps after it reviews the board’s reason for declining to approve the plan, he added.

In an email Friday, Duggan wrote a letter will be released within 45 days outlining the reasons for the denial.

Meanwhile, a similar project is slated closer to the Canadian border in Champlain, New York, north of Plattsburgh, where Amazon recently bought a 17.76-acre parcel, Channel 5 reported. 

The hotly debated project has continued to gain public opposition since it was proposed earlier this year. In hours of testimony over the last few months residents opposed to the project cited health and environmental concerns and highlighted Amazon’s record of hazardous and low-paying working conditions.

Thursday night, protesters gathered at the entrance of the high school building at 6 p.m. with posters and a song before the start of the fifth public hearing.

Earlier this week, Phoenix Books announced an open letter to town officials calling for “whatever measures are necessary to prevent a decision from being made that will have negative and lasting impacts on our regional roads, traffic safety, flood resilience, economy, and job market for the entire state.”

The letter has garnered more than 400 signatures, including area small business owners, according to Joanna Grossman, a Burlington resident and community relations manager at Phoenix Books, which has a store in the Essex Experience mall in Essex.

Grossman was among more than 80 people who attended the public hearing Thursday, held this time in the high school auditorium. About 70 people attended remotely online. A majority of those who spoke made comments opposing the proposal at the meeting, which began at 6:30 p.m.

Speakers reiterated concerns of traffic congestion, increased noise and road safety — particularly during school dismissal times — and emphasized the need for multiple access points to the site for fire safety.

At its previous meeting on July 26, the town board had asked Amazon to present a more realistic traffic study.

At Thursday’s meeting, members of the board and the public criticized a lack of answers, particularly trip generation estimates from comparable facilities and better peak hour traffic estimates.

Daniel Clarey, senior traffic engineer at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, said the proposed “super rural facility is very unique to Amazon,” which makes it difficult to provide actual on-the-ground data. 

The proposal further included post occupancy monitoring and would have to pass the state’s Act 250 process, which also considers traffic, he added.

“I don’t think the answers that have been given are satisfactory,” said board member Trefor Williams.

Anthony Stout, a senior planner and local expert for the attorneys representing town residents, said he analyzed the traffic studies submitted. He took issue with the traffic counts submitted as unrealistic given the existing traffic on Rte. 117, among other things.

He said it was suspect the applicant could present operation data — how many trips going in and out and when — but not a comparable traffic analysis.

“If they’re relying upon this operation schedule and they want you to base your decision on that, then (they should) produce it, provide you the data,” he said at the meeting.

Representatives at the meeting said they did not have comparable data to present.

Ultimately, residents opposing the plan said that is what tipped the balance in their favor.

“I think it was quite telling that Amazon refused to provide comparable traffic estimates from comparable sites around the country. I think that was a critical component of the testimony last night,” Carter said Friday.

Ken Signorello, the chair of the town’s conservation and trails committee — and the person who composed a protest song and led residents in singing outside the meeting space — said the committee 10 days ago filed significant concerns about removing the buffer zone and advised the board to reject the waiver and the proposal.

A handful of residents, including developer Al Senecal of Allen Brook Development who owns that parcel and several others in the Saxon Hill industrial park, spoke in favor of the Amazon project.

“I don’t see the traffic impact being any different” than what folks already face trying to get onto Route 117, said Dana Sweeney, a Sand Hill Road resident who said she never hears trucks going into the industrial park, which is home to a few manufacturers.

Zoned reservation District-Industrial (RPD-I), the area is slated for development that will be good for the town, she said, “because we need to increase our tax base, we need to increase jobs in our community.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the location of the Essex Experience mall.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Essex town board votes down proposed Amazon development in Saxon Hill.

BURLINGTON – On a hot Tuesday, several people stopped for food and water by tables set up in a tree-shaded spot on Church Street at the entrance of City Hall Park.

A longtime volunteer-run free lunch program, Food Not Cops, served an estimated 50 to 75 people by 1:45 p.m. with brioche, peanut butter, kale salad and kale chips, fried plantains, white beans, pizza and more.

Running quietly out of the Marketplace Garage for years, the effort received more public attention this year after 150 area businesses signed on to a letter alleging the operation in the garage “has had a negative impact on the area” and asking that it “be relocated to a more appropriate and secure setting—not eliminated.”

That led to a counter letter signed by dozens of organizations and businesses expressing support for the meal program, followed by a protest outside City Hall before the May 20 City Council meeting. Sam Bliss, one of the organizers of the lunch program, further wrote an op-ed stating that Food Not Cops makes downtown safer.

Amid intense debate, Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak signed a resolution last month allocating $10,000 to support relocation of the effort “to a more accessible and better-resourced location.”

The money has not yet been claimed, however, and the City Council-imposed deadline for the mayor to come up with a proposal for relocation passed Monday. Meanwhile, volunteers two weeks ago relocated the mutual aid effort to the park downtown on Church Street. 

Whether that is a better or worse location depends on who you ask. 

Some who came for lunch Tuesday said they like the visibility that makes the free food more accessible to those who didn’t know about the program. Others said the central location makes them uncomfortable, pointing to heavy police presence in the park.

“I just think it’s a lot better here because there’s a lot of people who didn’t know about it before,” said Amberina Gonzolas, who stopped for a bite there.

Originally from Puerto Rico and in Vermont for 12 years, Gonzolas said, “I like that people like me who have issues with the state (such as access to food stamps) can get free food.”

A social worker and volunteer since 2022, who declined to be named without her employer’s knowledge, said she used to come from St. Albans to eat at the Food Not Cops lunch. 

She said it’s unfortunate there is police scrutiny over a free food distribution program, a basic necessity. “It keeps a lot of people away now that there’s this social barrier, so we are thinking of moving again,” she said.

There were three police officers and two community service officers in the vicinity Tuesday. At least two arrests were made in the park during the last half hour of the 1-2 p.m. lunch distribution. Volunteers weren’t sure if they were among those who came for the lunch program.

“We have not directed staff to increase patrols in response to the food distribution program,” Shawn Burke, the city’s interim police chief, wrote in a brief email. “We have been providing a strong presence in the park, and the downtown in general, since April.”

At Monday’s City Council meeting, organizer Brian Clifford from Essex said he didn’t want the mutual aid service to become a fight between the group and the city.

“So I know we’ve arrived at sort of an awkward situation here, but I’m hoping that the city can take this as an opportunity to recognize our legal rights to do our little daily anti-capitalist and abolitionist protest in public places, and just to back away from the idea that you can decide where we go without respecting our consent and agency,” he said.

Mulvaney-Stanak, who has been engaged in talks with Food Not Cops since last October, wrote in her June 3 memo that she is looking to find “a mutually beneficial path forward” and that “the insistence upon placing a deadline on these efforts has only hindered our ability to make progress.”

She plans to continue to engage with the volunteers while considering the needs of all who enjoy City Hall Park, she said this week.

“The administration is committed to supporting people accessing food in our City given the high number of community members living with food insecurity, while also remaining committed to everyone being able to access and safely use public spaces,” her July 14 memo states.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington struggles to find solution as Food Not Cops program moves to City Hall Park.

Neighbors who have long opposed a proposed housing project adjacent to the 110-acre Wheeler Nature Park in South Burlington are now appealing to the city’s elected board.

After their latest arguments opposing a 32-unit mixed housing project were dismissed by the Vermont Supreme Court last month, more than 290 residents have signed a petition calling on the City Council to buy back the 7-acre parcel or encourage landowner JAM Golf, LLC, to donate it back to the city.

The council has not discussed the project since the parcel at the intersection of Dorset Street and Park Road was created as part of a settlement with JAM Golf in 2015, according to James Marc Leas, an appellant and neighbor who has fought against development there.

“But now things have really changed in South Burlington because there wasn’t even a glimmer of thought that we would fill up CityCenter. … It was just a dirt road then,” he said, arguing the project would be better situated farther away from the nature park that has the “last remaining views of the Green Mountains from anywhere along Dorset Street in South Burlington.”

The project aims to build a mix of duplexes, single-story carriage homes and two-story single-family homes with roadway and utility access on the undeveloped 6.9-acre parcel, Benjamin Avery, president of construction and development at BlackRock Construction LLC, said at the time. 

BlackRock Construction won development review board approval to build on the land in 2021 and cleared the state’s Act 250 permit in 2022, but the state permit was soon appealed by a group of 125 neighbors and the Neighbors Committee to Stop Neighborhood Blasting. 

It has been tied up in environmental court since, with more than 26 competing motions entered and ruled upon by the court. Last month, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in favor of the developer.

The petition filed by residents last week claims the proposed development will destroy the wide trail, obscure the last remaining views of the hills, endanger park wildlife, and, most notably, lead to disruptive drilling and blasting of the rock ledge.

“JAM Golf is a private company and should not be allowed to develop on preserved Nature Park Land for such destructive private purposes. It is morally wrong for it to do so, and it sets a dangerous precedent for all developers who see green spaces as potential sources of private income that can be taken from the public,” the petition stated.

The developer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The city acquired the 110-acre nature park in 1992. It consists of mixed forest, grasslands, shrublands, wetlands, about 2 miles of walking trails, a tree nursery and a 14-acre Wheeler Homestead area that includes community garden plots for rent. City planning documents have referred to it as “the green lungs of the City Center.” 

The Wheeler parcel at 550 Park Road was created in 2017 as part of a settlement agreement between the city and James McDonald, who still owns the property through a limited liability corporation called JAM Golf. It is one of several developments approved in the original master plan for the Vermont National Country Club and golf course over 434 acres.

“Overpriced apartment complexes,” such as the proposed, can be particularly detrimental where there is a real need for affordable housing, said Kitty Cameron, one of a handful of residents who shared her views at the June 27 City Council meeting.

She said the impact would be devastating to the beauty and wildlife of the adjoining park that she and her partner visit daily. She is also concerned about how construction runoff could affect the fragile ecosystem there.

“There’s just so much to treasure in that space,” she said, urging the council to take a pause and really assess the long-term impact of the project.

Jeanne Zagursky, who presented the petition, said residents want to avoid creating a precedent of cutting up and developing portions of a nature park that’s supposed to be preserved in perpetuity.

The council accepted the petition last week and is considering an executive session July 7 “for the purposes of discussing the negotiation or securing of real estate purchase or lease options, and specifically the JAM Golf parcel,” according to the posted agenda.

With approvals in place for 550 Park Road, the property owner is now free to seek a zoning permit for site work, such as building the road and then building the homes, according to Paul Connor, director of planning and zoning for the city.

“We’ve not received any of those yet, so I don’t have a timeline,” he said. “But they could come whenever they’re ready.”

As City Center grows so does the need for this parkland to be preserved, said Leas, who likened the spot to New York City’s Central Park.

“Hundreds of residents think it’s worth a try,” he wrote in an email.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Residents opposed to South Burlington housing development file petition and appeal to City Council.

COTS, a housing and shelter services nonprofit, has announced a new campaign to help complete a new, larger adult overnight shelter in Burlington that’s expected to open in December.

Having successfully met the $200,000 challenge grant announced in May, COTS has launched a final $200,000 challenge grant, provided by the Courtney and Victoria Buffum Family Foundation, to close a final funding gap, according to a press release.

“This project is about much more than bricks and mortar, it’s about dignity, hope, and a fresh start,” Jonathan Farrell, executive director of COTS, formerly known as the Committee on Temporary Shelter, wrote in the release.

The $400,000 COTS is hoping to raise will help renovate a downtown former Social Security building bought in January to create a more modern, spacious, ADA-compliant night shelter.

The current night shelter on Church Street, called the Waystation, has long outgrown the space and demand. In the last fiscal year, it served 159 people.

The new 7,361-square-foot property at 58 Pearl St. will triple the space available in the Waystation and provide beds for up to 56 adults, allowing COTS to expand its shelter services by 55%. The current location will be converted into permanent affordable housing.

Meeting this match “will allow us to expand shelter, improve accessibility, and provide the wraparound services that empower people to rebuild their lives,” Farrell said in the release. 

Tom Gauntlett, president of the Buffum foundation board, called COTS’ work “life-changing.”

“We’re proud to support this campaign and hope this challenge will inspire others to help COTS cross the finish line,” he wrote in the release.

Read the story on VTDigger here: COTS announces challenge grant to complete new overnight shelter.

ESSEX JUNCTION — The town’s Development Review Board has asked Amazon to provide traffic assessments of three comparable sites after residents took issue Thursday with the traffic study filed for a proposal to build a 107,000-square-foot distribution facility in Essex’s verdant Saxon Hill.

The site plan, dubbed Project Moose by developers, calls for building the facility and 482 parking spaces at 637 Kimo Drive in an area zoned Preservation District-Industrial (RPD-I), and seeks a waiver for the required 50-foot buffer between the property and the street. If the plan passes, it would be the first Amazon facility in Vermont.

The board on Thursday discussed a traffic impact study submitted by Langan Engineering and a peer review of it by Stantec commissioned by the town.

“Through our conversations, we find that one of the most important and vital pieces to us is really the greater detail about the traffic studies,” board chair Ian Carroll said at 10:07 p.m., after a two-hour private session in the middle of the 6:30 p.m. public hearing on the project proposed by Scannell Properties.

The commercial real estate development company headquartered in Indianapolis has spearheaded warehouse and distribution facilities for Amazon in several states.

“We’d like some post-monitoring assessments of three identified comparable sites, both comparable in size to the current proposal as well as to population,” Carroll said.

Jonathan Greeley, economic development lead for Amazon in New England, pushed back on the request. He said they have “more than accurately overestimated what our traffic impact is going to be” for the proposed project, and that it wasn’t just a study “taken off a shelf.”

“It’s in light of our own self interest that if we’re putting forth traffic counts and putting forth projections, and if we know we’re going to be monitored, that we’re accurately doing so, and so I just want to make sure the board understands we didn’t just make some stuff up,” he said.

Daniel Clarey, senior traffic engineer at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, further clarified that the overall traffic study was approved by the town, the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the town-appointed consultant Stantec.

Slated as a distribution site, the project would bring “even traffic” with vehicles dropping off packages, loading and leaving quickly, he said.

Besides daytime van trips by workers, the proposal estimates one or two tractor trailers per hour between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., arriving possibly from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Workers at the proposed facility would sort and load packages into Amazon-branded vans to be delivered to homes and businesses within roughly 70 miles.

While Amazon responded Wednesday to the Stantec review of the traffic study, the town has not yet had a chance to examine the letter, said Carroll, who called for a continuance before a decision is made.

Earlier in the evening, resident Duane Millar Barlow said he had contacted several engineering firms to conduct a review he was willing to pay for but found they were reluctant to challenge a peer company’s work.

He submitted a letter disputing the town-commissioned Stantec assessment. 

“Though written in a diplomatic tone, it is a thorough discrediting of the Langan statement’s central conclusion: that the project’s traffic impacts are acceptable and that no further study is warranted.”

Others took issue with a study looking at potential scenarios and said Amazon needs to come back with a study that looks at the actual traffic impacts at similar facilities.

Linda and Tom Merchant, truck drivers and neighbors near Sand Hill Road, said the plan isn’t realistic, especially when accounting for the weather, traffic, accidents and inspections.

Process “unfair”

The third continued hearing drew resident criticism of the plan to clear almost 23 acres of woodland and add construction and truck traffic in an area that is currently forested and near a residential neighborhood.

More than 70 attended the meeting Thursday night with an additional 58 joining remotely, according to town officials.

Emotions ran high from the start of the four-hour long meeting as the chair of the volunteer seven-member board administered an oath calling for civility and limited comments to two minutes.

Speakers cited health and environmental concerns and highlighted Amazon’s record of hazardous and low-paying working conditions in continued opposition to the proposed project.

Those who live by the proposed site “will be directly impacted by its noise and air pollutants, and will suffer traffic safety impacts and congestion impacts,” said Jim Dumont, a Bristol-based attorney representing 23 Essex residents and a newly formed nonprofit called ACRES, an acronym for Alliance of Concerned Residents Envisioning Solutions.

Residents also pointed to the fire department’s March recommendation that the project be required to complete the road connecting the end of Kimo Drive to Thomson Drive. Without it traffic will be forced to one choke point, causing “substantial risk for crashes in winter” and increased traffic on Sand Hill Road.

Residents were particularly upset when the board cut short public comment around 8 p.m. to go into a private deliberative session — but not an executive session — that ran two hours.

“It’s a kangaroo court,” Dumont called out as members left the room.

“I’ve seen enough stuff here that undermines my confidence in this town’s governance, in particular over Saxon Hill,” said Bruce Post, a former selectboard member.

As residents and the consultants waited late into the evening for the board to resume, the owners of Phoenix Books, which has stores in Essex and Burlington, provided pizza and seltzer.

Many said they were upset they haven’t been given the same courtesy of time and information as the developers. 

The applicants had known about the meeting since June 10, but the town didn’t post the agenda until one hour after the window for submitting written testimony had passed last Friday, Barlow said.

“The process has been unfair,” he said. “So by the time we knew that this meeting was happening, we couldn’t even submit a letter.”

The public has until 9 a.m. the Friday before a scheduled meeting to provide any written comment, according to Katherine Sonnick, the town’s community development director. The agenda and packet are published around midday Friday, after which no new information can be provided to the board.

The continued public hearing — possibly July 17 — will be confirmed by Monday, Sonnick wrote in an email Friday.

The industrial park where the proposed project would be located is home to several manufacturers such as Autumn Harp and Blodgett.

Although the area was rezoned industrial 50 years ago, the 22.94-acre lot off Thompson Drive eyed for the project in Saxon Hill is largely undeveloped, consisting mostly of woodlands and meadows where Vermonters bike and hike, and has historically been mined for sand and used as a tree farm, Scanell’s memo, dated Jan. 30, states.

The lot was established in March after the Development Review Board approved a five-lot subdivision as Phase 2 of the Saxon Hill Industrial Park.

As public opposition to the Amazon facility gathers steam in Essex, Ken Signorello, the chair of the town’s conservation and trails committee, has written a protest song.

“With buffers cleared, paradise gets lost to make a parking lot for Amazon town,” he sings, strumming a guitar in the woods of Saxon Hills.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Essex board asks Amazon to present a more realistic traffic study for proposed Saxon Hill facility.

An $8 million lakefront proposal for a hotel with a fitness center, restaurant and event space currently under town review has some Colchester residents concerned.

Named The H at Malletts Bay, the development would be out of scale for the area and could exacerbate traffic and environmental issues on West Lakeshore Drive, residents said at a packed Development Review Board public hearing June 11 that ran almost four hours. 

“Any development on the water’s edge will cause more damage to the bay. It’s just common sense. Any development like this will increase traffic problems on West Lake Shore Drive. Any development like this will negatively affect our visual access to the bay,” said resident Jeff Spengler at the meeting.

Nothing like it exists anywhere on the bay, resident Kelly Mancini Becker wrote in an email to VTDigger this week. She is particularly concerned about the project’s potential impact on the water quality of Malletts Bay and fears it would change the look and feel of that scenic stretch.

Others told VTDigger they were not aware of or didn’t grasp the scale of the development planned at the site until recently.

“I only learned of this proposed development by chance. Very few people know what’s going on, even now,” said resident Jeanne Welch, adding that the amount of information filed so far is “daunting.”

The 105-page site plan submitted by Hazelett Strip-Casting Corp. outlines five “cottage-style” buildings for “a 20-room inn” (plus a manager’s room), a standalone rental building, a 48-seat restaurant and a 60-person event space at 166 and 180 West Lakeshore Drive.

The project plan includes a 1,536-square-foot maintenance building and a 67-space parking lot at 135 West Lakeshore Drive across the street. It also has space for a future building that could sleep six to be approved in a separate process.

Built on a slope, the buildings would appear as two stories from the road and three stories from the bay side. The main building would include a restaurant on the lower level, an event space on the ground floor and a fitness spa on the top level, according to consultants that represented the plan for the developer at the meeting.

The town board is reviewing the application for the proposed  plan — which is about the mid-stage of the review process. The developer “updated the submission extensively” since April 9, said Zachary Maia, development manager for the town, by adding a new building, a fire hydrant and adjusting shoreland encroachment, among other changes.

Because the developer added “critical review items” late on the day of the meeting, town officials had not had the time to review it, he said at the meeting.

Benjamin Avery, principal at Greenfield Growth Consulting LLC (and formerly a developer with Black Rock), who represented the developer with a team of four other consultants, gave a brief overview of the changes.

He said they addressed some of the town’s concerns from the last hearing such as reducing some encroachment items, realigning the “cottages” and adding the fifth building “just so the project you’re reviewing is in its totality.”

“Where the alignment of the original five buildings has moved around, those buildings have not changed from an elevation standpoint,” Avery said.

Growing concerns

About 45 residents packed the continued public hearing on June 11 and questioned consultants about the height, density, stormwater and wastewater capacity and took issue with a filed winter day traffic study that does not account for summer vehicular traffic nor bicycle or pedestrian traffic.

“Why wasn’t a study done in the summer?” resident Julie Collins said.  “As it is now, it’s hard to get home in the summer with all the campers and the boaters and the swimmers.”

Jennifer Conley, director of transportation in Vermont for VHB, an engineer and planning firm, said they added new counts from April, in addition to the ones submitted from January. They “followed the typical steps of a traffic study,” considered peak times and provided a conservative analysis, she said.

Tom Berry said he would like to know more about the new easement set aside for the bike path.

“I think it’s the most significantly needed piece of infrastructure in Colchester right now and what’s, you know, probably the most dangerous piece of road for a bicyclist between Colchester village and downtown Burlington.”

While the plan may meet regulations for the amount of stormwater that must be treated for the size of the project, it would still allow untreated water to flow directly into the bay, according to Becker. 

“I’m also concerned about wastewater,” she wrote. “They are accounting for the minimal amount of numbers in their projection.”

She said she believes the new building has been counted as one unit when it is a two-bedroom addition that could easily house six or more. 

“That is a big discrepancy as far as the amount of waste water that could be created from just that space alone,” she wrote in the email.

Consultants at the meeting said they have provided accounts of the wastewater capacity for the project which meet the town’s limits for the parcel. Board members said it amounts to a little over 4,000 gallons per day.

Several residents have submitted letters to the review board since the meeting, outlining their growing concerns regarding the proposed development.

“In no way does the proposed development of five large buildings along the lake in the small area preserve or enhance views of the bay,” Faith Brown wrote to the Development Review Board, referring to language in the 2019 Town Plan that serves as a guiding document for land use. “Driving by people will see the buildings and be bothered by the foot traffic across the road to those buildings, not enjoying the magnificent views of the bay.”

The developer is looking to merge two lots. Several residents at the meeting expressed concerns that that would allow more intense development on the merged parcel.

“For instance, sidewalk setbacks would go away. They’d be able to build a building right on top of the property line,” said John Louchheim. “So my question for the development review board is, in light of the 2019 town plan, why would you approve that merger of the parcels that’s going to increase development?”

The property owned by the developer currently has a marina and recreational space for Hazelett employees that would remain after the proposed buildout. Residents wondered if it would expand in use as a commercial marina once the development is approved, and whether moorings would be used by guests or available to the public.

Resident Jeanette Berry asked in an email to the board whether the use of the marina, which has historically operated as a small private facility for Hazelett employees and become “essentially a commercial marina,” would be reviewed for compliance in light of the project.

Some residents criticized language used by the developer to describe what they said looks like a resort-style hotel that belongs in a city rather than an “inn” with “cottages” in a bedroom community. They wondered how much access the public would have.

Consultants at the meeting said the marina would remain as it is, the restaurant would be open to the public, the rooms and meeting space would be up for rent and the spa would be available for guests only. They offered no details about marina use nor cost estimates of what bookings could cost.

Residents have also expressed concern the proposed development could circumvent local regulations.

“It would behoove the town to close these loopholes that are being exploited,” Welch wrote in an email to the Development Review Board.

“It’s already a David and Goliath situation: developers with the will, unlimited financial resources, time and manpower deluging a very capable yet understaffed small town planning and zoning with 100+ page applications,” Welch wrote. “Just tell them if it’s not in the regs they can’t do it!”

Some residents said they are worried the details are murky.

The developer’s filing estimated 47 sleeping spaces in the rooms, 48 seats in the restaurant, 69 in the spa and meeting space for an estimated total of at least 164 people at capacity plus six more in future for the sixth building planned.

“By blending modern hospitality offerings with a deep respect for the natural landscape, ‘The H’ is poised to bring fresh energy, innovation, and year-round activity to this iconic waterfront location,” the filing reads.

The public hearing will continue on July 23 at 7 p.m. If approved by the town, the project would also have to pass the Act 250 process that governs statewide development review.

Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified one of the residents.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Colchester residents share concerns about $8M hotel proposed on Malletts Bay.

BURLINGTON — Shabir Ayoubi and his wife were approved to resettle in the United States more than a year ago, but navigating bureaucracy stalled the process for months and required expensive visits to U.S. embassies in Pakistan. They eventually arrived in Vermont one snowy evening two months ago.

One of the state’s newest residents, Ayoubi, who now lives in Burlington, was among the people celebrating World Refugee Day Saturday at Leddy Park.

“I came here by chance today,” said Ayoubi, 34. He heard about the event and got a ride from a case worker. He didn’t know it was a party and left his wife behind, he said. They don’t have a vehicle.

They are among the more than 600 Afghans resettled across Vermont after fleeing a country taken over by the Taliban, an extremist group, after what became the longest war in U.S. military history.

The U.S.-led invasion began in 2001 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack and ended in 2021 after U.S. troops withdrew and the Taliban took control of Kabul, the capital city.

Designated by the United Nations, World Refugee Day is celebrated worldwide on June 20 to honor the strength and resilience of people forced to flee their home countries and to shine a light on their rights and needs.

On a sunny summer afternoon, more than 100 refugees enjoyed food, games and camaraderie with their families, resettlement groups, volunteers and allies in a celebration organized by the local chapter of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit international organization that addresses and fights for the needs and rights of refugees and immigrants. 

Since 1980, USCRI has helped resettle more than 8,500 refugees in Vermont, many of whom were forced to flee their homes because of war, genocide, torture and repressive regimes. These include survivors of the Rwandan massacre, Congolese fleeing war, Afghans persecuted by the Taliban and Ukrainians whose villages were destroyed, according to a Friday press release from USCRI.

Sonali Samarasinghe, field office director of USCRI in Colchester, said the annual picnic aims to celebrate the contributions of new residents in Vermont, many of who showed up Saturday in colorful clothes and traditional attire.

“You enrich us with your culture, your religion, your skills, your food and your commitment to hard work,” she said in a brief speech Saturday. “In this beautiful diversity that we see here today, we are all unified.”

Between games, chatter, plates of heaped food — donated by community partners such as People’s Kitchen, American Flatbread, Grand Buffet, Lake Champlain Chocolate and Hannaford — families enjoyed a picnic in the sun on the shores of Lake Champlain.

Children laughed while rolling off a large ball representing the earth, kicked around soccer balls, spun hula hoops around their bodies, ducked under a large parachute and lined up for fast-melting ice cream on a warm afternoon.

Under a tent, FaReid Munarsyah of The People’s Kitchen served up generous portions of barbecued meats.

“It’s good,” said Aline Kwizera, who came from Burundi and is a multilingual instructor in the Burlington schools. “I love that people can come, talk and share their experiences like this.”

Ellen Skapski, 76, hugged another woman and said she was her star pupil.

Relocated from Afghanistan in 2024, “best student” Hamida Panjshiri was among former members of the Afghan judiciary who were relocated to the U.S. She lives in Brattleboro, is learning to drive through the Afghan Alliance’s driving program and continues to take weekly English lessons.

“I’m good. I’m happy,” she said. “Because people in Vermont are very kind.”

A French and Spanish interpreter and English tutor with USCRI for more than two decades, Skapski said, “I just love seeing my students, their progress and how much they give to the community.”

While some of the refugees were reluctant to speak about the Trump administration’s roll back of refugee aid, travel and rights, some advocates did not hold back.

“Refugees make Vermont great,” said Tracy Dolan, director of the state refugee office in a brief speech. “We need refugees in Vermont. We need immigrants in Vermont. And we are happy to share our home with you. And no matter what is happening outside of Vermont, no matter what is happening in the country or with the government, we can be together and we can focus on the positive. And we will keep fighting. We will keep fighting for you.”

State Treasurer Mike Pieciak said generations of refugees and immigrants have helped build a stronger nation, from the first Pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in England to his own ancestors to the new refugees who call Vermont home.

“As state treasurer, I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of the Vermont economy,” he said. “As I stand here today with you and enjoy the music, the food and the culture, I can tell you that it’s so clear that refugees do so much more than simply grow our economy. You strengthen our communities all across the state.”

“Refugees so often represent the best of what America means at its core,” he said, thanking the community for leaving behind their hardships and suffering and bringing their strength and resilience to build a life, find community, adjust to a new language and culture – and then having “the strength and the grace” to give back to Vermont with their labor, culture and presence.

Though he is happy to finally be here, to have housing and a job, Ayoubi acknowledged it has been a rough few years for his family, between fleeing Afghanistan and managing the paperwork and delays that stalled their relocation. “It was frustrating,” he said.

Before the Taliban takeover, Ayoubi said he worked in quality control and security for organizations that supported U.S. troops. Barely settled in, Ayoubi is eager to get back to work. 

“I am happy to do anything,” he said.

Ayoubi resettled in Burlington in May as part of a partnership between the Vermont Afghan Alliance, USCRI, Central Vermont Refugee Action Network, and No One Left Behind to continue to welcome Afghans fleeing their homes. He has secured a job with a security services company in Burlington, the Alliance confirmed.

In the face of escalating Trump administration cuts to refugee programs and funding, the theme of this year’s celebration – solidarity with refugees – rings hollow for many refugees across the nation and in Vermont. It’s particularly egregious for the Afghans who served the U.S. but now “face significant challenges and unmet promises,” Molly Gray, executive director of the Vermont Afghan Alliance, noted in a Friday press release.

“These Afghan allies risked their lives and the safety of their families to support U.S. missions. In return for their invaluable service, the U.S. Government promised them relocation to the United States and the opportunity to reunite with their families here in Vermont. Unfortunately, almost three years later, many of these promises remain unfulfilled,” the release stated.

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘You are welcome here’: World Refugee Day draws new Vermonters to celebrate with allies, volunteers.

BURLINGTON — Sailing on Lake Champlain on a beautiful evening was an “uplifting” experience for Roshaunda McLean who recently moved to Vermont from Chicago.

She and her husband have been on the water before but this wasn’t like boating off the busy Lake Michigan shore.

“It felt like we were the only people on the water,” said McLean, 33, who was among a group of Black Vermonters coming off two classic sailing sloops — the Wild Rose and the Friend Ship — behind the ECHO Center at the Burlington waterfront Wednesday evening.

McLean experienced one of the six sails organized for Black Vermonters this week to commemorate Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Texas and told enslaved African Americans of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. (Originally eight sails were planned, but two were cancelled due to bad weather.)

“This is often the first thing they say they’ve done in community in Burlington,” said Ferene Paris, a Black resident and entrepreneur who created the Juneteenth sails five years ago, in partnership with the Whistling Man Schooner Company, to make sailing accessible to the Black community.

Many who set sail yesterday said the event is the highlight of their Juneteenth festivities this year. Often called America’s second independence day, Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the United States. It was declared a federal holiday in 2021 and is a state holiday in Vermont as of this year with several events planned across the state.

Black freedom, however, can be a loaded concept for some in the U.S. and in Vermont, the third whitest state in the nation. Paris said she left her university job due to a toxic culture and systemic racism, issues many Black professionals continue to face here. While sailing and water sports are popular in the Green Mountain State, they remain largely white activities, often seen as elitist and exclusionary by communities of color.

That’s something Paris is hoping to change.

First wind

Paris said she was nervous when she quit her university job in 2020 and started a business — All Heart Inspirations. But she also wanted to celebrate. 

A graduate student suggested a sail with a local company and Paris was intrigued.

It was June 2020 and the world was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic so she wondered how a group sail would work. She messaged the Whistling Man Schooner Company, bought a picnic basket, donned a mask and hopped on board a classic sailing sloop downtown.

“It was so peaceful. I didn’t realize how much my mental health would enjoy the openness of the water, and what that would feel like,”  said Paris, who has struggled with anxiety and depression.

When Black and brown communities do come together, she added, it’s often a reaction to suffering and anchored in pain. That first sail felt soft, she said. It felt like something she deserved. It felt so good she teared up. 

It’s not something most Black Vermonters have the privilege of experiencing, she admitted. 

“You don’t get this unless you have access to a vessel to put you on the water. And not a lot of folks who look like me are doing this,” she said.

Born to immigrants from Haiti, Paris has fond memories of the community and care she grew up with. She wanted to create that in Vermont. And she wanted to recreate what she felt during her first sail. So she did.

In partnership with the sailboat company, Paris created the Juneteenth sails in 2020.

“It’s been a wonderful thing,” said Cory Dalsimer, owner of the sailing company.

Paris sets an intention for each sail telling participants to leave the stress behind in what is “the perfect complement to the sailing experience.” She’s a true professional and the people who do the Juneteenth cruises “really leave refreshed,” he said.

Setting sail

Now in its fifth year, the event has helped more than 250 Black Vermonters experience the lightness and wonder she felt when she first went out on Lake Champlain. 

Out on the lake for the first time Wednesday, Stephanie Holden, 39, from Essex Junction, said it was an incredible experience, not just to be out on the water on a beautiful evening but to be surrounded by other Black Vermonters and find how much they have in common. “That was very surprising,” she said, and quite the “freeing experience.”

Paired with storytelling and snacks in community, the event has become an annual tradition for Danila Dinan of Burlington, also from Haiti, who enjoyed her third Juneteenth sail this week.

“I love coming to this because it’s wonderful to see other LGBTQ and Black folks on board,” she said. It’s been a great way to meet new friends in a shared experience that “warms your heart.”

As one group came off the dock at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, another group was preparing to board. They were quick to greet each other and were soon sharing contact information, hugs and joy.

Among them were former city councilor Zoraya Hightower, former gubernatorial candidate Esther Charlestin and Harmony Edosomwan who runs a popular soul food popup and catering business – Harmony’s Kitchen. 

Wearing a sash that read Miss Black Vermont, Edosomwan from Winooski, was invited by Paris to host the second boat yesterday. 

“I’m really excited. It’s a beautiful evening and I’m happy to be a part of it,” she said, stopping to pose for photos with some of the participants. “I think Ferene is doing a great thing trying to bring the community together and supporting local businesses.”

Paris partners with local businesses to raise funds for the sails, which in turn benefits a local organization. This year, the money raised from the Juneteenth sails, after costs, will be donated to the Richard Kemp Center in Burlington, Vermont’s first community center for people of color that is run by Black and brown Vermonters. She hopes others who support the sails will donate to the center too.

For Paris, her work as a Black woman and storyteller has always been about community and “holding space.” She sees the annual event as a mutual aid initiative connecting and supporting local Black businesses.

“When I think about the climate right now, people are looking for spaces where they can just be. And it’s always been my value to do that with All Heart Inspirations,” she said. “I got you. Be on the water with me. You, yourself. We give food, we give drinks. … If all you can do is just get yourself down to the waterfront, we got you. And I don’t think we have that enough in this community. We got you.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated where Ferene Paris was raised.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Juneteenth sails create access, cultivate joy and build community for Black Vermonters.

WINOOSKI – Sita Luitel was all smiles as she pointed out the two strips of woven cloth she created.

“It makes me happy,” said Luitel, 66, in Nepali, with her daughter translating, as she ran her fingers over one of the long striped multicolored pieces.

This was her first time weaving on a hand loom, she said, it feels good and brings back old memories but she has back problems so she isn’t sure she can continue it.

“I love all the colors,” said Hari Luitel, 25, admiring her mother’s work at the Winooski Senior Center Thursday, where strips of colorful weaves made by women in a recent workshop were exhibited.

The Luitels came to Vermont 14 years ago from a refugee camp in Nepal. Hari said she has fond memories of Nepali women gathering to knit colorful sweaters, shawls, blankets, even rugs for their families in the refugee camps, where they didn’t have a lot of options and couldn’t afford to buy such items.

“It brought me joy to see how much they enjoyed it,” Hari said.

That connection to country and community was nurtured and celebrated in backstrap weaving classes held twice a week in May and June at the Winooski Senior Center, in collaboration with the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum.

The free activity drew 14 seniors from across Chittenden County, including a small group of Nepali women, who learned how to wrap yarn and weave long strips on small hand looms in colors that represent a timeline of their lives, said Miriam Block, executive director of the museum.

“That got a little complicated with the language gap, so we focused on colors from places they lived in,” she said.

Block has a background in textile design and took on a teaching artist role for the summer program. She used a traditional backstrap loom that literally ties the weaver to the craft.

“You could see the pride when people came in to watch their family members weave the way they had weaved in Nepal,” she said. “They weaved together in the refugee camps but many of them forgot it.”

There has been a lot of interest in the Nepali-Bhutanese community about such crafts, according to Block. Last year, some of them participated in a quilting project, each making colorful squares they stitched into a larger piece, which is now displayed in the senior center. Some were quite skilled in tapestry making, Black said.

The project drew their families to the mill museum to learn about the French Canadian immigrants who came to work there a century ago, and they were excited to make the cultural connection, she added. 

It’s been particularly heartwarming to see multigenerational families stroll through the doors to watch or weave this year, said Barbara Pitfido, program director at the Winooski Senior Center.

What started as a fun summer activity grew into something deeper, she said, giving participants a space for connection and creativity, helping them learn or hone a skill and resurrect techniques and memories. Some of the women have taken home the mini looms provided during the project so they can continue weaving.

On Thursday they celebrated the culmination of the weaving project with Nepali and Indian food for lunch.

In Vermont for a decade, Beli Wagley from Colchester said she enjoyed watching her aunties knit. She fingered the familiar patterns on the strips exhibited on a white wall and said it reminded her of the vibrant colors they weaved and wore years ago in Nepal.

“Just by looking at it I can tell the pattern is from Nepal,” she said.

One of the weaves hung on the wall is particularly special, with green and red triangles alluding to Nepal’s flag and the Himalayas, said Wagley, who didn’t participate in the project but came to see what her aunties created. The familiar patterns are reminiscent of how women would weave hats and scarves back home in Nepal.

Some of the colors and shapes are great to make for Vermonters, especially at Christmas, she said, pointing at the mountain-like patterns in the weave made by her aunt Chhali Poudel, 61, who came to the Green Mountain State about a decade ago and lives in Winooski.

Nepal’s flag is the only non-rectangular one in the world, made up of two red pennants with a crescent moon and a sun, bordered by a thin blue line.

Another weaver, Chhali Khadka of Burlington, said, via translation, that she was happy to participate in the project. Khadka, 64, lives in Burlington and came to Vermont 13 years ago via the refugee resettlement program. She used to weave a long time ago and it reminded her of home. She’d like to continue it, but her fingers are too stiff, she said.

Bhutanese refugees of Nepali descent first started to relocate to Vermont around 2008. They were part of a larger diaspora who were forced out of Bhutan amid political violence and ethnic cleansing in the early 1990s and lived in refugee camps in Nepal for nearly two decades before the resettlement efforts. More than 90,000 have been resettled in the United States, The Guardian reported.

As the Trump administration amplifies efforts to crack down on migration, some resettled Nepalis targeted with deportation are once again facing uncertainty and statelessness, according to the Guardian.

Thousands of miles away from the camps, many of the older residents struggle with language barriers and often stay home, isolated and unconnected to the greater Vermont community as they have to depend on family members for rides, said Pitfido. So it was wonderful to have a program that provided materials, transportation and food for a few weeks, she said.

“We are used to working on a shoestring budget, but it was nice to have the right equipment and culturally connected food to bring it all together,” she said.

At the exhibition Thursday, Nepali families shared a buffet of daal, fritters, noodles and more. Food was ordered from the Everest restaurant in South Burlington and cooked by area seniors in the kitchen.

The food, the clothes and the weaves all brought splashes of color to the hall in the senior center.

Some of the Nepali women wore traditional clothing like colorful skirts, sarees and warm fleeces in a bright mix of East and West. Some wore gold hoops, large nose rings and had streaks of red vermillion on their foreheads, a symbol of married Hindu women. 

They chatted in Nepali, ate Indian food on plastic-covered American picnic tables, in a rare show of ease, joy and shared camaraderie in a place they now call home.

Arts projects like these help residents from different cultures find community and connection and help to build resilience. Block said she hopes they will continue to take advantage of such programs. 

The mill museum will offer free natural dye workshops this summer at the senior center on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Residents can sign up to learn to dye with marigolds on June 18 and 25, use fresh indigo on Aug. 13 and learn about natural dyes with a garden walk on Aug. 20.

The program was supported by Age Well Vermont, which has funded lunch at the senior center via a federal grant for new Americans. The arts program was funded by a $4,000 creative aging grant from the Vermont Arts Council.

The Arts Council has dedicated approximately $100,000 toward creative aging projects since 2021 and has been distributing money to senior centers, libraries and arts entities across Vermont to encourage arts activities for adults aged 60+, said Troy Hickman, arts education programs manager at the council.

The grant cycle will open in August and he encouraged other entities that support senior programs to apply.

Read the story on VTDigger here: From Nepal to Vermont: Winooski weaving project displays the ties that bind.

The Trump administration late Wednesday announced a total ban on entry to the United States for citizens of 12 countries, including family members of refugees. 

The ban includes partial restrictions on seven other countries in a sweeping move that’s much more restrictive than the travel ban implemented on Muslim-majority countries during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Expected to go into effect this coming Monday, the executive order targets mostly Muslim, African nations by fully suspending immigration and nonimmigrant visas for citizens of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen who do not already have legal status in the U.S. The ban allows exceptions for permanent residents or green card holders and those with valid visas.

The ban imposes further restrictions on residents of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela to protect U.S. citizens “from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” according to the order.

Advocates said the ban is particularly cruel for more than 600 displaced Afghans who supported the U.S. in the war in Afghanistan and fled their home country in hopes of safe refuge in Vermont after the Taliban took control in August 2021. The majority of them have joined the workforce and contribute to society and the local economy in positive ways, advocates said.

The order is “blatantly racist, and rooted in unfounded fear and political posturing,” Molly Gray, executive director of the Afghan Alliance in Burlington, said in a statement this week.

“It is hard to put into words the absolute horror of this travel ban for Afghan refugees hoping for relocation to the United States from Pakistan pursuant to recent court orders,” she wrote. “It is hard to quantify the depravity, bigotry and short-sightedness of such a brazen abandonment of those individuals who risked their lives, over a 21 year period, for the United States in Afghanistan.”

The Afghan Alliance recently announced a partnership with No One Left Behind, a Virginia-based nonprofit, to help expedite the evacuation and resettlement of vulnerable Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders ahead of the anticipated travel ban.

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., last week joined his colleagues to demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State on its “devastating” decision to terminate temporary protected status for Afghan nationals living in the U.S..

“The grave conditions that forced Afghan nationals to flee and seek refuge in the U.S. following the return of the Taliban to power remain,” states the letter signed by 100 legislators. “Because of this harsh reality, forcing Afghan nationals in the U.S. to return to Afghanistan would be reckless and inhumane, and would threaten the safety and well-being of thousands of individuals and families, especially women and girls.”

At least two new Afghans and several hundred asylum seekers from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Ukraine who resettled in Vermont were set to lose their humanitarian parole protections due to recent federal orders. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay on the order, ending the Biden-era program.

A previous order froze federal funding for refugee support affecting local relocation agency efforts. It further tried to deport Venezuelan migrants under the war-time Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an effort a federal judge last month struck down as unlawful.

While many of the administration’s recent efforts remain tied up in court, they are a reflection of Trump’s campaign promise to potentially carry out “the largest deportation program in American history.”

Advocates said these orders neither secure the future of the legal residents who passed the strongest checks nor improve the security, stabilization and sustainability of the nations targeted in Trump’s travel ban.

The ban makes life “more problematic” for citizens of those countries in the U.S. and abroad, said Yvonne Lodico, executive director of the Grace Initiative Global, a nonprofit that provides services to several refugee groups including Haitians and Afghans living in Vermont. 

“Persons seeking asylum by international law are being refused entry to the U.S., or asylum status not granted. Families are kept apart. The inherent right of each human being to dignity and respect is being replaced by an atmosphere of threat and fear. Immigrant support groups are being eviscerated by funding cuts,”Lodico said. “Our hope remains in the warmth and humanity of individuals rallying to counter this bad news.”

Grace Initiative Global is planning a program at the United Nations on June 20, World Refugee Day, to focus on the security and stabilization of Haiti, she said.

Kristen Connors, a lawyer who has been working with clients in Vermont with pending asylum cases, said she continues to be shocked at how “flippant, cruel, and arbitrary” the restrictions are and called the language used in the latest order “racist and xenophobic.”

“I’m saddened because I do not think that this proclamation will make us safer as a country, I think it will make us less safe, and less prosperous,” she said. “I hope this spurs more people in Vermont to learn about our current immigration laws, and about systems of global migration, and I hope this prompts people to step up and support real, humane, and meaningful immigration reform.” 

Two of her Afghan clients erroneously received federal letters telling them they had seven days to leave the United States and their work authorizations would be terminated. This happened despite them having employment authorization based on their humanitarian parole status, Connors said. Both were paroled in the spring of 2024 with the cases pending in court. They can lawfully remain in the country until their cases have been adjudicated, but the letters were nerve-wracking for them, she said

The orders suspending long-standing refugee programs and funding have been hard to digest and adds to the uncertainty resettled groups already live with, said Nathan Virag, immigration lawyer for Association of Africans Living in Vermont, based in Burlington. 

He said the organization, which helps an average of 800 people annually across the state, has been fielding increased calls from Afghans, people from  African countries, India, Nepal, Venezuelans and Ecuadorians on how they can protect themselves, especially in interactions with immigration authorities.

“There’s a lot of fear going around,” Virag said. “The unique thing is, even people who were lawfully admitted here — refugees, green card holders and people who have applied for asylum — they’re scared and wonder what’s going to happen to them.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Trump’s most sweeping travel ban yet draws anxiety, criticism in Vermont.