Updated 7:35 p.m.
Federal immigration authorities used a civilian informant to infiltrate meetings of Migrant Justice as part of a larger, sustained surveillance campaign that targeted members for their activism, the group alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Burlington.
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles has been helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to engage in an illegal effort to “harass, arrest and detain” farmworker activists, Migrant Justice said in a statement. Its suit names ICE, DHS and the DMV as defendants.
The plaintiffs are represented by a coalition of activists and legal heavyweights: the ACLU of Vermont, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the National Immigration Law Center, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a large law firm headquartered in Los Angeles.
About 40 Migrant Justice members have been arrested in the last two years, and the majority of them have been deported, said Will Lambek, a Migrant Justice spokesperson. At least nine of those arrested were targeted because of their activism, Lambek said.
The group, founded in 2009, works to improve living and working conditions for the roughly 1,500 immigrant farmworkers in Vermont, who are often isolated and lack traditional housing and employment protections, its suit says. But more recently, it’s been distracted from its mission in order to counter actions from ICE. And at demonstrations and other gatherings, its crowds are thinning.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Migrant Justice, also lists several members as plaintiffs: Jose Enrique Balcazar Sanchez, Zully Palacios Rodriguez, Victor Diaz and Miguel Alcudia Gamas. It alleges that authorities violated members’ rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
The plaintiffs all face immigration charges. Three of them are free on bail, and one is out on personal recognizance.
Migrant Justice alleges that what’s happening is part of a national effort against immigrant-rights advocates. The suit lists high-profile activists from around the country who have been arrested and alleges the actions have been to stifle political activism and free speech.
John Mohan, a spokesman for ICE, did not comment specifically on the suit. But he pointed to a previous statement from Matthew Albence, ICE’s acting deputy director, who has said that ICE “does not target unlawfully present aliens for arrest based on advocacy positions they hold or in retaliation for critical comments they make. Any suggestion to the contrary is irresponsible, speculative and inaccurate … ICE focuses its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security.”
The suit notes that Vermont’s DMV entered into a settlement agreement with the Human Rights Commission in 2016 to resolve an investigation into anti-immigrant bias. The settlement curtailed the DMV’s ability to provide information to ICE. Regardless, the suit claims that public records “confirm that DMV staff continues a pattern of sharing information with ICE and Border Patrol motivated by a dislike of non-white individuals, and Latinos in particular.”
Documents obtained through public records requests show that the DMV forwarded the plaintiffs’ personal information to ICE when they applied for the state’s driver’s privilege card, the group asserts. In April 2016, a DMV supervisor complied with an ICE deportation officer’s request for Diaz’s photograph and his application for a driver’s privilege card, the suit alleges. Two days later, ICE agents arrested Diaz in a parking lot in Stowe.
Immigration agents also attempted to sow discord and mistrust among Migrant Justice members, the suit alleges. When Arturo Ruiz Rodriguez was arrested in February 2017, an ICE officer told him that he had received his name and address from Lambek.
ICE also enlisted at least one civilian informant to infiltrate Migrant Justice, which led to the arrests of two of the plaintiffs, Palacios Rodriguez and Balcazar Sanchez. Neither had a criminal record, and they did not qualify as DHS enforcement priorities, the suit alleges. Before her arrest, Palacios Rodriguez had received an electronic notification that an unauthorized individual had tried to access her email account.
Migrant Justice, which has organized demonstrations both in Burlington and at a federal immigration court in Boston on behalf of its members in recent years, did not file the suit quietly.
Roughly 150 members and supporters gathered at noon outside Migrant Justice’s office in Burlington before marching to the federal courthouse at Elmwood Avenue and Pearl Street to file the documents. Diaz, Palacios Rodriguez and Balcazar Sanchez made speeches in front of a raucous crowd, as did Lia Ernst from the ACLU of Vermont and Angelo Guisado from the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Diaz spoke to Seven Days in Spanish, and Lambek interpreted. On one hand, he said, he felt nervous that after filing this suit, ICE could retaliate. But, he added, he knows the plaintiffs have a lot of support — and lawyers, too.
Diaz, 27, moved to Vermont from Mexico in November 2010 and has been an active member of Migrant Justice since 2013. He participated in meetings and negotiations with Ben & Jerry’s over the Milk with Dignity program.
The plaintiffs ask the court to declare that the defendants’ actions violate their First Amendment and equal protection rights. They seek a ruling to bar the defendants from “surveilling, infiltrating, spreading disinformation, arresting and detaining Migrant Justice members” in retaliation for speaking out.
It asks the court to prohibit DMV employees from sharing information with federal immigration enforcement agencies. And it seeks unspecified damages, as well as legal costs.
Read the suit here:
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Thats rightwhenever you hear the term migrant justice think about social justice as well
Both are Godless platforms of Godless Dimwits who want to take you and the nation to !!!
Good point, Lone Ranger. I hate how godless the bible is. Isaiah 1:17, Jeremiah 22:3, Amos 5:11-15, Luke 4:18-19, Deuteronomy 16:20, the list goes on and on. It’s almost as if one of the primary morals of the bible is to help those who are oppressed. But you’re right, it’s heresy.
As a reminder; those who entered this nation without obeying our established immigration procedures are criminals. Every single day they remain without permission of our nation they are re-offending. Their motives for committing their crime are irrelevant to their guilt or innocence. It is only after guilt / innocence is established that mitigating factors become relevant. So if you are a criminal, why are you surprised when the police come?
I was at DMV South Burlington the other week and was amazed at the stream of ‘non locals’ coming in getting enhanced ID’s.
ICE should be set up in the parking lot
Individuals who enter the country without authority are law breakers. It is the job of law enforcement to find and arrest law breakers and to also arrest anyone who provides aid and assistance to law breakers.
I have NO problem with law enforcement using all the tools in their tool box to accomplish this. That would include the use of informants, under cover agents etc. I would like to see a much more aggressive effort on the part of federal law enforcement to address the issue of ILLEGAL ALIENS living in the country. State and local “law enforcement” who do not cooperate should be banned from recieving any federal funds for law enforcement since they refuse to be partners in that effort.
Non-locals.
You mean brown people, right?
The essence of racial profiling.
“In our Bennington DMV office, we have detected some changes where people are coming from outside of Vermont and trying to get a drivers privilege card. Our investigation has determined that theyre not residents of the state of Vermont, Glen Button, director of the Department of Motor Vehicles Enforcement Division, told Vermont Watchdog.
As originally reported in the Brattleboro Reformer, the Department of Motor Vehicles recently discovered 130 invalid applications in its Bennington branch, in the southwest corner of the state bordering New York and Massachusetts.
Were still working our way through that, but it appears that a number of those applications were fraudulent, and we will be taking action to suspend those privilege cards, Button said.”
“Before her arrest, Palacios Rodriguez had received an electronic notification that an unauthorized individual had tried to access her email account.”
People with gmail accounts get those just about every week. That isn’t evidence of anything.
“People with gmail accounts get those just about every week. That isn’t evidence of anything.”
You’re absolutely right: it isn’t evidence of anything. And yet, it’s exactly the kind of non-evidence that our President uses to make all kinds of wacky and blatantly false allegations. Like that Obama “tapped” his hotel room (no evidence ever produced). That there was massive voter fraud in the 2016 election (DISproved by his own commission). That there was massive voter fraud in the recent mid-term elections (no evidence cited). That there are “middle east terrorists” in the caravan of Honduran asylum seekers coming to the U.S. border (no evidence ever produced). The list goes on and on and on.
I call out Congress… WTF…. Yeah you Mr. Welch. Why can’t Congress work together to get some newly needed legislation. 1st Create a guest worker program that has a pathway to citizenship for reasonable responsible individuals. There is a huge need for unskilled labor in our work force. Ask any business owner about there needs for labor.
Until congress changes the law we can’t complain about what law enforcement does enforce the law.
In addition for all individuals who are not residents or citizen of this country living here there needs to be a pathway to citizenship if they are responsible folks who are not a danger to any persons security.
Until we get term limits with these politicians there will no productive efforts on behalf of the people. They are more concerned about there party needs rather than what we Americans need accomplished.
It should be a privilege to serve our country. It should not be a life time position. I wish we all had a shot at the healthcare plan that the politicians receive in Washington. Such hypo’s
Nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned. Migrant Justice is an organization that supports the violation of federal immigration law and works to protect violators. That in itself is aiding and abetting so using undercover agents to provide intelligence is justified.