Immigration agents arrested a veteran Vermont dairy worker from Mexico on Wednesday outside a Burlington courthouse as he headed to a hearing for a driving under the influence arrest, according to a human rights organization.
Cesar Alex Carrillo, 23, faces deportation after his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside the Edward J. Costello Courthouse, according to Migrant Justice, a Vermont-based group led by immigrant dairy farmworkers.
Carrillo is married to a U.S. citizen who is pregnant with their second child, according to Migrant Justice.
“When they arrested Alex, they took away a father, a husband, a human being,” his wife, Lymarie Deida, said in a statement released by the group. Deida and Carrillo have a 4-year old daughter.
During the hearing that brought Carrillo to the courthouse, prosecutors dismissed a DUI charge stemming from a 2016 arrest, though he was not present, Migrant Justice said.
Migrant Justice spokesman Will Lambek said that Carrillo was arrested as he looked for parking near the courthouse.
“They seemed to be waiting for him,” Lambek said.
Carrillo was being held on $21,000 bail and will have a court hearing in two or three weeks, Lambek said. Migrant Justice is demanding that ICE release Carrillo.
Carrillo’s supporters said his arrest stems from President Donald Trump’s executive orders to prioritize the removal of immigrants who have been charged with a crime, even if they haven’t been convicted.
“ICE has long stayed away from courthouses and other sensitive locations, for good reason: If people are afraid to go to court, our system of justice is compromised,” American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont executive director James Lyall said. “This arrest isn’t just an attack on the immigrant community — it’s also an attack on the legal system itself.”
An ICE spokesman released a brief statement via email:
On March 15, ICE officers arrested 23-year-old Cesar Alexis Carrillo-Sanchez, a citizen of Mexico, following a targeted vehicle stop in Chittenden County. Carrillo-Sanchez claims to have unlawfully entered the United States in 2010 and is currently in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
Carrillo, who has lived in Vermont for seven years, came to the United States when he was 16 years old and soon began working on dairy farms, Migrant Justice said. Carrillo is active in Migrant Justice.
“Trump’s new deportation policy inhumanely tears apart families and communities,” said Joan Javier-Duval, a reverend of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier. “The arrest of Alex Carillo will only cause more fear within Vermont’s immigrant farmworker community and cause more people to live in the shadows.”
The arrest comes a year after ICE arrested dairy worker and Migrant Justice spokesperson Victor Diaz. Advocates, including Carrillo, rallied to Diaz’s defense, and ICE eventually released him.
Staff writer Katie Jickling contributed to this report.
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Most migrants have nothing to fear as long as they don’t break the law and threaten the public order. By driving drunk, you are committing a criminal act and must suffer the consequences. Behave yourself and I’ll be surprised if you are not left alone.
It has finally hit home….. :`(
The consequences do not fit the crime, Mike Burnham.
Mike Burnham, you’ll note that the charges were dismissed.
The Migrant Justice website implies that he wasn’t even drunk, that he fell asleep behind the wheel (a serious issue) after getting off of work at 4am. Yes the punishment should fit the crime, is it clear that he is even guilty of the crime he was charged with?
http://migrantjustice.net/civicrm/petition…
Absolutely disgusting, shameless and despicable that ICE so willingly tears apart families, and in this case a father married to an American citizen, who should qualify for a green card. I wonder if these ICE agents buy and eat Vermont dairy products, or other foods grown and produced by migrant workers. I bet they do, and if so, they are complete hypocrites. Maybe these ICE workers should get jobs working on dairy farms, but I doubt they will, since the pay, working conditions, living conditions and lack of health care does not compare to their cushy compensation packages.
I would urge Seven Days to publish the arresting officer’s affidavit of probable cause and any ancillary evidence such as Carrilo’s BAC IN THEIR ENTIRETY that were the basis for the state’s decision to charge Carrillo with DUI in the first place. The documents are public and immediately available upon request for a small fee at the courthouse. Why did Seven Days NOT include that information in this article? What is being hidden? This is only half a story at best. Exactly why did the prosecutor dismiss the charge in this case?? IF the charges were dismissed to avoid a conviction in some misguided attempt to be politically correct to assist Carrillo then every Vermonter should be outraged. I happen to believe DUI is a very serious offense as it annually accounts for more homicides, injury, and property damge in Vermont than any other single crime according to FBI and Nat Highway Administration data. Every Vermonter currently charged with DUI should get the fact base in this case and use it to seek dismissal, if their case is at all similar. Furthermore, every lawyer presently representing a DUI-charged client should hustle down to the Costello Courthouse, obtain the affidavits and ancillary evidence in this Carrillo case, to determine if they should seek immediate dismissal for their clients based on the precedent set in this Carrillo dismissal.
Not one tear is shed. His family can rejoin him back in Mexico. DUI or not he is an ILLEGAL, period. He does not belong living here.
wow Bob – seems you don’t like migrant people very much. You know this guy was MARRIED in the US, worked and paid TAXES in the US and has CHILDREN in the US. So – what’s your talking point other than bigotry?
Maybe after working a thirteen hour shift performing a job that most of us would not have the willpower to do and besides that- we as white Americans are above that work even though this is what keeps our dairy industry alive- maybe he was just so exhausted counting the fortune he just made on his shift- that he fell asleep — he should be whipped and tortured before being deported. What is wrong with us as human beings ?
Why hadn’t this illegal become a US citizen?? He’s been here long enough..Yes he’s an illegal, just because he married a US citizen doesn’t make him one..Is his wife really an American citizen.. Come in to this country legally and you won’t have a problem..All he has to do if he is deported is apply to come in legally..simple enough..right.. You can bet if an American citizen went to any other country illegally your butt would be in prison for a very long time..Follow the laws of the land..Everyone else has to..did he even have a license?? oh wait Vt gives illegals a drivers license..Burlington court, that’s why the charges were dismissed, liberal Judge/court.. going against the law..who’s crooked???
Boo hoo. A guy who broke the law to get here goes to court for breaking the law, gets picked up by the people who are supposed to pick up people who come here illegally. What if he killed someone when he either had a DUI or fell asleep, how would everyone feel then? Oh he has a family… A US baby and a US citizen wife we can’t send him home or to jail… it would break up this family unit. Thats right it is everyone else’s fault who is going to send this guy back he for picking him up outside the courthouse.
sorry but if you are here illegally you need to go back and do it legally. if you don’t want to be separated from your kids TAKE THEM WITH YOU. . better yet don’t come here and have a kid. have them in your own country
“Immigrants! I knew it was them! Even when it was the bears, I knew it was them.”
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