Updated at 6:15 p.m.
The arrests of two young Mexican farm workers over the weekend sparked a Monday morning protest outside a South Burlington jail where one was held.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it detained Esau Peche-Ventura, 26, and Yesenia Hernández-Ramos, 19, around 9 p.m. Saturday during a traffic stop near the town line between Franklin and West Berkshire, not far from the Canadian border. Earlier that day, the couple had walked 13 miles from Montpelier to the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury as part of the “Milk with Dignity” campaign, calling on the ice cream company to hold its dairy farms to higher standards. Both work on a farm in Franklin County.
Now under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Hernández-Ramos was being held at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington while Peche-Ventura was detained at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton.
Both are activists with Migrant Justice, a Vermont human rights organization. In the past year, immigration officers have arrested at least four other members of the group.
Brad Brant, a special operations supervisor for USCBP’s Swanton sector, told Seven Days that they regularly monitor that area. The agent who stopped Peche-Ventura and Hernández-Ramos, Brant said, had “developed reasonable suspicion of illegal alienage.”
“That’s the level of suspicion we need to perform a vehicle stop,” said Brant, who would not elaborate on what caused suspicion. No traffic violation occurred, according to Brant.
ICE officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Migrant Justice spokesman Will Lambek said he believes neither Peche-Ventura nor Hernández-Ramos has a criminal record. “They were detained without any reason other than that they are here in this country as immigrants, milking cows and fighting for their rights,” Lambek said, describing the events as “part of [President Donald] Trump’s policy of mass deportation.”
Lambek and 30 other activists met at the South Burlington prison early Monday morning, where they chanted “Not one more” and held signs — some freshly made, others recycled from protests of past arrests — bearing similar messages.
At one point, a guard came out and asked, “Umm, are you guys here for …?”
We’re here to support a friend, Abel Luna told him. The guard nodded and returned inside.
Migrant Justice organized another rally for noon Monday outside the St. Albans ICE office. They anticipated that Peche-Ventura and Hernández-Ramos would be taken to St. Albans for processing before being sent to an ICE facility in Dover, N.H.
The group has previously had success advocating for the release of arrested farm workers.
Migrant Justice members have contacted Vermont’s congressional delegation for assistance. David Carle, a spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), said the senator “heard from several Vermonters this morning and is working with the other congressional delegation offices to first confirm the current circumstances and status of these two individuals, including where and why they are being held.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) spokesman Daniel McLean said Migrant Justice reached out to their office on Sunday. The senator’s team then “made inquiries to ICE and Border Patrol” about the arrests. According to McLean, Sanders recently met with ICE’s field enforcement regional director and encouraged the agency to focus on detaining criminals rather than community members with no criminal records.
“While we do not know the details of this case, there is no question that President Trump’s executive orders on enhancing immigration enforcement have caused widespread anxiety among Vermont’s undocumented farmworkers and dairy farmers alike,” McLean wrote in a statement.
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Do you think if I illegally entered Senator Leahy’s residence he will allow me to stay or will he call the police? I don’t have a criminal record.
Are they here legally?? If not and the farmer knew they were not here legally he should also be arrested. As to the point these are jobs people in this country will not do, pull the plug on welfare and they will need to take whatever jobs are out there!!! There are help wanted signs all over the place and yet we have far too many sucking the tit of state and federal government. Do the math, this is a process that cannot be sustained!!!
Agree totally with the comments posted. All of this begs the question that if the dairy workers were treated with dignity and paid a fair wage and were able to have decent living accommodations there would be willing local workers and no need for the illegal workers. Also, if local workers were able to exist on wages from farm jobs the money would go back into the local economy. The money paid these illegal workers is sent out of the country and does Vermont no good. Bad situation all around. Losing a lot of respect for our elected representatives who encourage this type of activity and chastise federal agencies for doing what their jobs specify they should do. They promote using these workers and they also promote increasing the benefits for able bodied people who could be working and contributing.
If they’re illegals, get them out of the country. We are a nation of laws and borders!
Once again, I ask where the plan is to replace these workers. Americans won’t do this backbreaking physical labor, period. A farmer in Ohio offered $18.50 an hour, which is considerably above minimum wage, and could not keep workers. I am in favor of protecting our borders, but this enhanced ICE enforcement was begun without any strategy to replace the illegals. No doubt this is why Trump promised California growers that he would leave their illegals alone. What good is this policy if it bankrupts Americans? And while it’s nice that California farmers get a pass, what about farmers in the rest of the country?
People hire illegal immigrants to avoid paying market wages. So you have a march for “improved working conditions ” then a protest against enforcing laws that will result in improved working conditions. Schizophrenia
Maybe Ben and Jerry can come up with a new flavor, Hyper Hippie Hypocrisy! Made with real milk full of sweat salted imported nuts and dried out fruits harvested by below minimum wage workers. After all their payout came from working class folk working for minimum, or less, wages.
To all those that say Americans won’t do this kind of work I say you are wrong. Americans would do the work if the pay rate was at a livable wage, and Americans would do it if they were hungry enough. The problem is the government has created a welfare state that encourages people not to work and in there lies the problem. The owners of these farms that use illegal labor need to be held accountable, it’s time to crack down on these people that have no regard for the laws of this country. Thank you CBP for doing your jobs unlike our elected officials that get nothing done for the citizens of this country while pure bullshit runs out of their mouths.
The display of hate and ignorance in these comments proves one thing. The US is still a very racist and xenophic country. It will ultimately be the victim of its own unfounded fears.
Judging by the # of likes most of the post have received I would say Ronj1955 is in the minority. America will be great once again.
they are here illegally, they are therefore criminals. lock them up until you throw them out.
they are here illegally, they are therefore criminals. lock them up until you throw them out.