Local and state police officials faced questions from Vermont lawmakers on Thursday after clashes between law enforcement and protesters during a federal immigration operation in South Burlington last week left activists demanding scrutiny of officers’ presence and use of force. Officials defended their actions at a Statehouse hearing packed with about 100 onlookers, while several people in the room scoffed and laughed at their accounts.
The hearing focused on what Vermont law enforcement officers did as federal immigration agents sought to seize a man wanted on suspicion of unlawful reentry. Police and protesters described a standoff that escalated into a chaotic confrontation across the day, including moments when state and local officers stood alongside federal immigration officers and, at least in some accounts, helped clear a path for federal agents to enter a Dorset Street house.
Officials said their response was professional and aimed at keeping everyone safe, including protesters. Col. Matthew Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, told lawmakers, “We are here to protect Vermonters, and that’s what we attempted to do last week,” and he framed state involvement as a public-safety effort rather than assistance to immigration enforcement.
Lawmakers pressed on whether the officers’ role conflicted with a Vermont policy intended to limit local and state participation in civil immigration enforcement. The policy generally bars local and state police from “facilitating” civil immigration enforcement, and it sets a different posture for criminal immigration violations, describing enforcement of federal criminal immigration law as generally not a priority.
The central dispute also turned on who was actually inside the house. While immigration authorities detained three individuals that day from Dorset Street and the home was surrounded by protesters, officials said the man they were seeking was not in the house. Activists argued that made the operation, in practice, a civil immigration effort, not what local officers were initially told to expect.
South Burlington Police Chief Bill Breault said local officers entered because they believed they had no choice, telling lawmakers he “was left with no option” but to ask for help from the state police and other local departments. He said he relied on those resources after being told federal officials had a warrant to enter the house and were going to execute it “using any means necessary,” with officers seeking to reduce the likelihood of further confrontations between federal agents and protesters.
In contrast, activists said state and local officers crossed the line the policy was meant to draw. Will Lambek, an organizer for the immigrant advocacy organization Migrant Justice, said the three people detained were arrested under a federal civil detainment policy because the targeted man was not in the house. Lambek also said state and local police worked “hand in glove” with immigration officials, violating Vermont’s policing policy.
Burlington Interim Police Chief Shawn Burke offered another explanation for how the confrontation grew more violent. He said tensions began to rise as more enforcement arrived and blamed some protesters, describing “agitators, a Trojan Horse of sorts,” as contributing to an escalation “instigated by the crowd.” He also argued that protesters ignored police orders and that the criminal legal system needed greater accountability for the “violent agitators who clothe themselves as activists,” remarks that prompted the room to erupt into scoffs and laughter.
Other lawmakers and activists tied their accounts to specific alleged uses of force during the protest. Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central, said after the meeting that when she attended the protest, the first instances of violence she saw “were at the hands of the Vermont State Police.” Vyhovsky said protesters who stood in front of the house door while federal officers wanted to enter were “violently” thrown off the stairs, into bushes and onto the ground.
Finn Lester-Niles, who said he attended the March 11 protest, described an incident in which, he said, an officer ripped off his goggles and pepper sprayed him at close range while he was not touching an officer or being aggressive. He said he did not know which officer sprayed him. Lester-Niles also said that state and local officers “absolutely” facilitated the federal effort, adding that he doubted federal officers could have detained people inside the house without help from local police.
During the hearing, officials indicated they would not definitively decide allegations of misconduct before internal review by the Vermont Department of Public Safety. Morrison said law enforcement officers arrived to keep everyone safe and described the presence as a “public caretaking function,” while also saying state police have worked to create and enforce an anti-bias policing policy. Officials said they would table protester accounts to a later day and noted that only one local officer from Burlington’s department was under investigation for behavior during the incident, according to Burke.
Morrison also said Vermont’s law enforcement agencies were trying to balance competing safety interests, including the safety of protesters and law enforcement officers, including federal officers. She urged the room to collaborate rather than assign blame, and said, “Someone apparently had to be the villain in the story,” as activists continued to demand investigations into whether state and local police improperly assisted civil immigration enforcement.