This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2025.
During the first two years that Wilmer Chavarria was superintendent of the Winooski School District, I spoke with him occasionally and was struck by the way he stood up for the diverse student body and spoke out against what he perceived as injustice. He’d been born in a refugee camp and grown up in Nicaragua, and I was interested to learn more about his path to becoming a school leader. In early June, I emailed him to ask if he’d agree to be featured in a back-to-school cover story. His reply? “That sounds fun. Let’s do it.”
I had long-standing plans to take a break from work in July to travel to Thailand with my family before my daughter went to college. I logged five or six hours with Chavarria in the lead-up to my trip, peppering him with questions about his upbringing, education and leadership style. I knew he was also traveling in July, to see his mother in northern Nicaragua. We made plans to resume our conversation when we were both back in town.
During my travels, I tried to disconnect from work but would occasionally check email to make sure I wasn’t missing anything important. On my family’s last day in Thailand, we were relaxing at the airport hotel in Bangkok, preparing for an epic day of travel, when I saw Chavarria’s name pop up in my inbox. “Update on My Immigration Detention,” the subject line read.
My heartbeat quickened as I scanned Chavarria’s message to his school board, on which he’d cc’d me. He wrote of the “verbal and psychological ordeal” he and his husband, Cyrus Dudgeon, had been subjected to 12 hours before, when Chavarria, a U.S. citizen since 2018, was stopped by immigration agents at an airport in Texas, on his way home from Nicaragua. It was clear from the message that this was newsworthy.
First, I emailed Chavarria to express my concern for what had happened to him. Then I forwarded the correspondence to my editors, who alerted our new immigration reporter, Lucy Tompkins. As I prepared to board the plane from Bangkok to Singapore, Tompkins broke the story. By the time I arrived back on U.S. soil, Chavarria’s detention was national news.
When he and I met up again in early August, we had a lot more to talk about.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Most Dramatic Development”
This article appears in Dec 24 2025 – Jan 6 2026.
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