Updated March 18, 2017 at 1:55 p.m.
Immigration officials arrested two more undocumented Migrant Justice advocates Friday afternoon, leading to protests that drew hundreds of people.
Enrique Balcazar, 24, and Zully Palacios, 23, were arrested and detained by undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a traffic stop on Shelburne Road in Burlington, said Will Lambek, a spokesman for the Vermont-based human rights organization.
Migrant Justice members arrived on the scene to see both Balcazar and Palacios being loaded into an ICE van. Neither had a criminal record, according to Lambek.
The incident marks the third ICE arrest in three days. On Wednesday, 23-year-old Cesar Alex Carrillo was detained on his way to a Burlington courthouse to respond to a misdemeanor DUI charge. The charge was later dismissed, though Carrillo was not present at the hearing.
On Friday evening following the latest arrests, nearly 100 protesters gathered outside the ICE offices in St. Albans to denounce the detentions, said Lambek. Migrant Justice also organized the march and rally on Saturday in Burlington to call for the release of Palacios, a Peruvian national, and Balcazar, from Mexico.
A few hundred people gathered for that event and marched along Church Street. “Not one more!” they chanted, in a procession that ended outside the federal building on Elmwood Avenue.
The organization has collected 1,300 signatures on a petition demanding Carrillo’s release, according to a Migrant Justice news release.
Balcazar and Palacios were not permitted to consult an immigration attorney who tried to reach them Friday night, Lambek said, though the two did communicate with their respective consulates. Lambek noted that he had not been told where Balcazar and Palacios were being held.
Balcazar came to the U.S. from Tabasco, Mexico, with his parents six years ago to work on a Vermont dairy farm. Now, he works as a community organizer and spokesman for farm workers around the state. Lambek said Balcazar consulted with Attorney General T.J. Donovan on immigration issues and helped craft a document called the “Guidance to Vermont cities and towns regarding immigration enforcement,” which the AG released ahead of Town Meeting Day.
An ICE spokesman put out a statement at noon Saturday about the latest arrests:
On March 17, Special Agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with assistance from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), conducted a targeted arrest of a female individual in Burlington, Vt., who entered the U.S. legally, but overstayed the duration of her visa by nearly a year. While making this arrest federal agents also encountered Jose Enrique Balcazar-Sanchez, who was also found at the time to be in violation of U.S. immigration laws. Both were arrested and are in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
Lambek decried the arrests as retaliation for Balcazar’s activism. In September, when activist Miguel Alcudia was arrested, immigration agents allegedly put out a warning for Balcazar.
“They said, ‘Enrique’s going to be next. Tell him to watch out,'” Lambek said. “It was a clear threat.”
“We wholeheartedly denounce this escalation of immigration enforcement,” Lambek added. “It’s an attack against an entire community and an entire state.”
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
These comments velebrating the ” capture of criminals ” are painful to read. If these cretans had any idea of the conditions these “criminals” fled to seek refuge in our country that might at least temper their grotesque opinions. I know most people who prefer to deport regardless of circumstances or effects on their families, and even our communities , are not directly or indirectly by the presence of these people in ourcountry. They just don’t like these brown-skinned human beings. Sad! Disgusting! Ignorant! God help us all!
The people that are helping the Vermont dairy industry need to be aware of their situation. Illegal means you could be deported at any time. Now, that being said. What do we do with the EMPOYERS who hire illegal immigrants regularly regardless of the laws. Perhaps THEY should be prosecuted?
Dear Krystal you seem to be miss informed. Not all people that are not full blooded descendants of their inhabited lands native people’s are not all illegal immigrants. Yes they are immigrants but not necessarily illegal. You do understand that there is a legal way to enter the USA right? The way the people that are represented in this story entered is not a legal way of entering the country. Maybe you should go back to school and take a civics class. It might help you to better understand how the laws of America and every other civil society work.
Breaking into a country doesn’t make you a citizen just as breaking into a house doesn’t make you a homeowner.
If you don’t like what it says on the statute of liberty’s “bs plaque,” then you can just geeettt ouuutt!
The Statue of Liberty is not called the Statue of Illegal Immigrants.
It has nothing to do with immigration, legal or not.
The only reason people think that is because our public school system is so poor and truthful history has not been taught. For some idiotic reason, it’s been implied because real lawful immigrants saw it on their way in to Ellis Island. The two have nothing to do with each other.
Hey Stellaquarta, too bad you’re missing the point. Open borders and a social welfare system cannot coexist. Social welfare is for the needy not the greedy. The horde will crash the system. Since people here illegally are such hard workers, they can go back to where they came from and work in their own country to make their own wonderful system that works for everyone. Their country needs hard workers. They owe it to their country of origin to help out. Muslims can stay where they are and work to create their own system that works for everyone in countries Islam has turned to complete crap.