A tense, day-long standoff outside a South Burlington, Vermont house ended Wednesday night with federal immigration agents removing three people inside and a series of violent clashes between police and hundreds of activists who tried to impede the apprehension.
It marked the first major confrontation between protesters and federal immigration authorities in Vermont. Federal law enforcement deployed tear gas and flashbangs on a normally busy street in the state’s second largest city to disperse the activists who had surrounded their vehicles. Roughly 60 local and state law enforcement officers were also on scene, though the departments sought to distance themselves from ICE’s conduct.
The incident began when a man fled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who had been surveilling a Dorset Street residence where he was staying.
According to an ICE affidavit, the subject of the warrant was Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez, a Mexico native who was removed from the United States in 2022, and later illegally reentered the country. In January, Corona-Sanchez was arrested by Middlebury police and charged with drunk driving, the affidavit says.
Following a multi-vehicle crash, Corona-Sanchez escaped to a house on Dorset Street, authorities said.
A growing number of protesters and police assembled outside throughout the day as immigration authorities waited for a criminal warrant to enter and arrest him.
A neighbor, Richard Landsman, said an Ecuadoran family with two children had lived in the house for roughly a year. At one point in the afternoon, people helped a child leave the house; they were driven away.
When the warrant came through after roughly nine hours, federal agents approached the front door with tactical gear and weapons drawn. They were supported by Vermont State Police troopers.
Police wrenched away protesters blocking the front entrance and ICE agents broke down the door. Federal agents removed three people from inside, forcing them into an unmarked car. They attempted to drive off, but protesters linked arms and blocked the street. Confrontations ensued, and the agents eventually managed to drive off by running over a median and exiting via a driveway.
Multiple confrontations continued to break out as protesters tried to block the departure of other law enforcement vehicles. Some protesters shoved police officers, and officers shoved back. Protesters pelted globs of mud at one Vermont State Police van. Toward the end of the melee, federal officers in riot gear resorted to firing flashbangs and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Vermont State Police Lt. Corey Lozier told Vermont Public earlier in the afternoon that while federal law enforcement would carry out the warrant, state police would assist in clearing protesters from the scene if needed.
“If we have to intervene to make sure it’s done safely, then we might have to, absolutely,” Lozier said. “And safely probably means more to local assets that are in Vermont, because we’re here tomorrow, and the next day and months to come. The feds are not, they’re going to do the thing and leave.”
South Burlington police, who blocked off a section of Dorset Street while the protest unfolded, said they were not made aware of the initial ICE operation but responded to the car crash. In a press release they said they came to the scene to both protect federal agents and “take all necessary steps to ensure that the public can protest peacefully.”
Several ICE agents had been surveilling the Dorset Street home Wednesday morning when they saw a man who they believed was Corona-Sanchez leave with another man in a car, according to federal court records.
After seeing Corona-Sanchez pull onto Dorset Street in a blue Toyota Camry that was registered to him, ICE deportation officer Colton Riley activated his blue lights and followed the Camry, Riley wrote in an affidavit.
The Camry pulled into a nearby apartment complex. Another ICE agent tried to block the car, but the Camry went around him and continued driving away. A third officer pulled his car into the road to block the Camry, but federal officials allege that Corona-Sanchez drove into the agent’s vehicle. Corona Sanchez then accelerated into a wooded area near South Burlington High School and eventually turned into oncoming traffic on Dorset Street.
Corona-Sanchez crashed into an oncoming vehicle, went over the median and continued to flee, the affidavit states.
A fourth ICE agent saw Corona-Sanchez drive back to the 337 Dorset Street address and flee into the residence with the other man.
Migrant Justice activists said they received a call to their emergency line this morning about a family who was the subject of an ICE enforcement action. The group spread the word and encouraged others to show up at the Dorset Street house.
“At the end of the day, they’re terrorizing a family, terrorizing, you know, neighbors and so you know, we’ll remain here,” Migrant Justice organizer Abel Luna said Wednesday afternoon. Luna added that people were prepared to intervene if agents attempted to enter without a warrant. “I think people are willing to, you know, even do civil disobedience and stuff like that, in support of the family and to ensure that everyone is safe and the family remains together.”
South Burlington Deputy Police Chief Sean Briscoe said the owner of the Dorset Street house told him that protesters were free to occupy the property. They set up a tent filled with drinks and snacks and sang songs to pass the time. Some protesters heckled or berated the ICE officers who stood sentry over the scene. They used their fingers to scrawl expletives on the sides of their unmarked cars and danced around them. As more officers arrived, the activists formed a human chain around the entire perimeter of the house and roped off the entrance with a garden hose.
Local and state law enforcement took pains to distinguish themselves from the ICE agents, and Vermont State Police said that “no state or local police deployed any chemical agents, less-lethal munitions or 'flash-bang’-type devices at any point during the incident.”
South Burlington Police Chief William Breault criticized his federal counterparts’ “poor decision making and planning” during a press conference after the protest ended. He questioned whether it was “fully necessary” to execute the search warrant in the manner they did or whether it was wise to chase a suspect down Dorset Street during morning rush hour near two schools.
Breault said federal officials ignored his concerns, at which point he decided to keep officers on scene and call Vermont State Police for help. Breault and Vermont State Police leaders said their presence did not violate a state policy that prohibits law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities. Rather, Breault said, he wanted to make sure ICE carried out its operation “in as safe a manner as possible, given what I’m charged with, which is the general public safety of the community.”
Most protesters saw their presence as collaborative nonetheless. They called the troopers “Nazis” and implored them to quit their jobs.
The clashes spilled into the street after the people inside were apprehended. Protesters faced off against rows of troopers in an attempt to block law enforcement from leaving.
Even after ICE managed to drive away with the adults they had apprehended, protesters continued to obstruct other law enforcement from leaving. Officers took several people to the ground. Migrant Justice released a statement saying eight protesters had been detained but subsequently released at the scene.
Some protestors pelted departing vehicles with clods of dirt and water bottles. When just one unmarked vehicle remained in the street, they linked arms to surround it.
That’s when law enforcement deployed what appeared to be chemical irritants and flashbangs. The car drove off, and protesters aided those who had been struck by the irritants.
A smaller group returned to the Dorset Street residence. An organizer, speaking into a megaphone, applauded their efforts and said they had exposed the “violence” of the federal deportation apparatus.
Barbara Prine of Vermont Legal Aid was on scene Wednesday morning. The organization runs a program that helps undocumented parents make legal plans for guardianship of their children with the ultimate goal of reunification. Prine told Vermont Public she’d been told that a child inside the Dorset Street house was in that program.
One window of the home was covered by a banner depicting characters from the Disney film Frozen, and another was partially obscured by a large teddy bear.
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