Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark is taking heat from fellow Democrats over her decision to prosecute protesters who were arrested during a July demonstration against federal immigration authorities.
The protesters blocked entrances of an office complex in Williston where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs a surveillance center, then refused to leave when state troopers arrived.
Twelve of those protesters, ranging in age from 20 to 74, pleaded not guilty on Thursday morning to misdemeanor charges of unlawful protest. An 18-year-old’s case was referred to juvenile court.
State Treasurer Mike Pieciak and Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden-Southeast) called on Clark to dismiss the charges.
“Prosecutors have discretion over which cases to charge,” Pieciak wrote. “They regularly choose not to charge cases in the interests of justice or to preserve scarce government resources.”
“Our courts are already backlogged with real threats to public safety, and this is not what our top prosecutor should be prioritizing,” Ram Hinsdale wrote.
Seven Days broke the news on Tuesday that Clark would prosecute the 13 protesters, who were arrested during a July 24 sit-in demonstration.
The charges marked the first time since protests began ramping up at ICE’s Williston surveillance center last fall that demonstrators would face prosecution. Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George has declined to charge protesters arrested there on two previous occasions, saying pursuing the low-level offenses would be a waste of her limited resources.
That led Vermont State Police to start referring the cases to the AG’s office, which also has authority to prosecute.
George has declined to comment on Clark’s decision.
Clark’s office also initially declined to comment, citing a policy against speaking about open cases, but later issued a statement defending her actions.
Clark, who as AG has joined more than 70 lawsuits targeting the second Trump administration, said in the statement that she is appalled by ICE’s actions and has previously attended anti-ICE demonstrations herself. But she said those personal feelings cannot stand in the way of upholding the law.
“That kind of viewpoint discrimination has no place in our justice system,” she said. She encouraged Vermonters to continue making their voices heard through “lawful protest.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Phil Scott said he “applauds” Clark’s decision to prosecute.
“We talk a lot about accountability,” Scott said. “I know it’s not easy for the attorney general to make this decision to prosecute. And that doesn’t mean that they’re all going to be thrown in jail, but they’re going to be held accountable for violating the law.”
Amanda Janoo, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee challenging Scott this November, saw it differently. In a statement, she accused Clark of hiding behind the law instead of taking a moral stand.
“We cannot control everything the federal government does,” she said. “But we can decide what we participate in and what we normalize.”
Julie Macuga, a 34-year-old Burlington resident and organizer who witnessed the July arrests, said Clark’s decision came as a shock.
“She’s tried to brand herself as ‘no friend of Trump’s,’” Macuga said of Clark, “and this kind of flies in the face of that.”
A coalition of activist groups has publicly announced a “week of action” against ICE, which will involve more protests in Williston, beginning on October 4. The charges feel like an “intimidation tactic” ahead of that, Macuga said — one that has backfired.
“If anything, what the AG’s Office has done is just gotten people more fired up,” Macuga said.
The 12 protesters who were charged as adults were released Thursday on conditions that they stay away from White Cap Business Park, which is home to about a dozen tenants, including the ICE office, a dental practice, a café, a doctor’s office, and part of the Vermont Department for Children and Families.
At Thursday’s press conference, Scott said protesters may have avoided charges if they were disrupting a “standalone ICE facility” instead of an office park with other businesses.
“I applaud them in some respects for pushing back against the federal government on this issue,” he said, adding that it’s their particular approach that he finds “detrimental to our country.”
The protesters are due back in court in December.
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