Updated on June 17, 2025.
Two well-known leaders of the advocacy group Migrant Justice are behind bars and face deportation proceedings after being detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Saturday in northern Vermont.
Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz, 29, and his stepdaughter, Heidi Perez, 18, had just dropped off meals for workers at farms in the Richford area when they were pulled over on Route 105, according to Will Lambek, a spokesperson for Migrant Justice. There’s a long tradition in Vermont’s migrant community of delivering meals to farmworkers, many of whom work long hours, lack transportation for grocery shopping or are worried about a potential run-in with federal immigration authorities. That fear has grown in recent months.
De La Cruz, who was driving, called an emergency hotline intended for such situations, Lambek said, and stayed connected as he and Perez were questioned.
“He was calmly exercising his right to remain silent, requesting that border patrol explain the cause of the traffic stop,” Lambek told Seven Days. “Within 10 minutes of the stop, they had broken his window and then forcibly arrested Nacho and Heidi.”
In a statement on Sunday, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson said agents conducted the stop “stemming from suspicious border activity near the United States/Canada border.”
“The vehicle’s occupants refused to answer the agents’ questions, would not roll down the vehicle’s windows, and refused to comply with the agents’ lawful orders,” the statement said. “Agents were forced to break a window to remove both occupants at which point the subjects were taken into custody and brought to Richford Station.”
Agents learned “that both individuals were citizens of Mexico and had no legal immigration status in the United States,” the statement said. “Both individuals remain in custody pending removal proceedings.”
Border patrol did not respond to a follow-up question from Seven Days about the nature of the “suspicious” activity that agents observed.
Lambek was highly skeptical of that explanation, saying the stop was “purely based on racial profiling.”
“We believe the stop was unlawful,” he said. “There was no reasonable suspicion behind it.”
The stop occurred shortly after noon on Saturday as thousands of Vermonters were gathering in cities and towns across the state for No Kings protests against President Donald Trump’s expansion of power. Of particular concern has been the increasing raids carried out by federal immigration officials in Los Angeles and across the country.
At a No Kings event on Burlington’s waterfront, members of Migrant Justice announced the arrests of De La Cruz and Perez. A small crowd later assembled outside a federal immigration station in Richford to protest the detainments.
Among the attendees was state Rep. Leonora Dodge (D-Essex), who told Seven Days that she’d gotten to know De La Cruz after he testified several times at the Statehouse, including before her General and Housing Committee.
“He literally helped to change hearts and minds,” Dodge said, “because he’s just such a spectacular individual and such an asset to our state.”
One bill that De La Cruz championed made it illegal to discriminate against renters based on their citizenship or immigration status. Gov. Phil Scott signed the measure last Thursday.
“We were literally on the capitol steps celebrating that yesterday,” Dodge told Seven Days on Saturday. “And so this is absolutely horrible.”
De La Cruz, a former dairy employee who now works in construction, has been in the U.S. since 2016, according to Lambek, while Perez came here in 2023. She graduated from Milton High School just days before her arrest, Lambek said, and was hoping to attend Vermont State University in the fall. She had helped lead Milk With Dignity protests, spoke at the Vermont Pride Parade last year and testified at the Statehouse in favor of a measure known as the Education Equity Act, according to Lambek.
Perez was being held at Vermont’s only prison for women, the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, while De La Cruz was detained at the Northwest State Correctional Facility.
Dodge said she contacted the office of U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) for help, while Migrant Justice has started a petition that sends emails to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urging the agency to free the two advocates. The group also held a rally on their behalf on Monday evening outside the Statehouse. Rossy Alfaro, who is Heidi’s mother and De La Cruz’s partner, was holding back tears as she addressed the large crowd.
“I’m feeling this sadness, the sadness of my son being separated from his father, who refuses to eat because he is waiting for his dad to come home,” she said in Spanish as Lambek translated her words into English. “But I’m not letting myself be conquered by this sadness, because above all what I feel is rage. I am angry for what has happened to me, I am angry for what is happening to my family, and to all families that are being separated.”
Ace McArleton, cofounder of New Frameworks, a construction cooperative where De La Cruz worked as a co-owner, took the stage to express support for his colleague.
“Nacho brings his incredible leadership skills, relationship building skills, insightful mind, problem-solving skills, to our climate-just housing and worker cooperative project,” McArleton said.
He added: “I have slept little since I got the call on Saturday. My little children have asked hourly after Nacho and Heidi. They are shocked and frightened and confused as we all are.”
The arrests are not the first of undocumented migrants in Vermont. In April, eight farmworkers at a dairy in Berkshire were detained; several were ultimately deported. Another 10 workers were detained during an ICE construction site raid in Newport last month.
“It certainly has a tremendous and traumatizing impact on the community,” Lambek said. “People are terrified about what’s happening right now, and, at the same time, people are overcoming that fear to speak out and defend their rights.”
Sam Hartnett contributed reporting.
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