State House Spotlight

Anti-ICE bills slide thru Senate, face tougher sledding in House

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Both chambers pass bills this year, but none have become law – yet

By Guy Page

For better or worse, the Vermont Legislature has not yet passed any bills into law this year. 

The Senate last week passed two controversial anti-ICE bills. Both bills passed by a 27-2 roll call vote with only Sens. Russ Ingalls (R-Essex) and Terry Williams (R-Rutland) voting no. Both bills now move over to the Vermont House and the lower-chamber’s Judiciary Committee, which at present is split 5-5 Democrat/Republican pending the medical recovery of Rep. Kevin Christie (D-Hartford). 

S.208 attempts to demask and require identification of law enforcement agents. The bill is aimed at federal ICE agents, but given federal pre-emption is enforceable only among state and local police. 

S.209 “prohibits civil arrest in sensitive locations.” It would make arrests of suspected illegal immigrants virtually impossible as it would enable the suspects to claim they are coming from, going to, or currently at a ‘sensitive location’ – i.e. emergency shelter, health care appointment, court appearance, etc..

However, given federal pre-emption, the bill if passed into law would only affect local and state police conducting ‘civil arrests.’

In addition to immigration arrests, civil arrests (according to online sources) can generally be categorized into several types based on their purpose, such as enforcing court orders, compelling attendance in court, or ensuring compliance with legal obligations. Common examples include civil contempt arrests for failing to pay child support or appearing in court, and body attachments for witnesses who do not comply with subpoenas.

The Senate also has passed S.202, streamlining the permit approval process for portable solar power devices. 

However, both chambers have passed bills that are pending approval by the other chamber or resolution of differing versions of the same bill, or the Governor’s signature. 

Bills passed by the Senate this year:

S.2092/13/2026prohibiting civil arrest in sensitive locations
S.2082/12/2026standards for law enforcement identification
S.2021/29/2026portable solar energy generation devices

Bills passed by the House this year:

H.5272/13/2026extending the sunset of 30 V.S.A. § 248a – the state-level permitting process for energy and telecommunications project. Advocates of more local control tried and failed to give neighbors of proposed projects more standing. 
H.6112/10/2026miscellaneous provisions affecting the Department of Vermont Health Access
H.5402/6/2026the recommendations of the Post-Adjudication Reparative Program Working Group
H.6262/5/2026sexual extortion, voyeurism, and disclosure of sexually explicit images without consent
H.52/5/2026a hearsay exception for a child under 16 years of age
H.5412/4/2026interference with voters and election officials. Deletes from current voter protection statute the crime (punishable by up to $1000 fine) of ‘a person who interferes with a voter when inside the guard rail or who, within the building in which the voting is proceeding, endeavors to induce a voter to vote for a particular candidate.”
H.6481/30/2026banking, insurance, and securities
H.7901/30/2026fiscal year 2026 budget adjustments. The House allocated ore mid-year money for prisons, nursing homes, and police officer overtime pay.
H.5161/29/2026approval of amendments to the charter of the Town of Essex
H.2701/29/2026confidentiality in peer support sessions for emergency service providers
H.5321/28/2026mandatory retirement of college professors. Removes age requirements of retirement for tenured professors. 
H.5081/27/2026approval of amendments to the charter of the City of Burlington
H.5451/23/2026issuing immunization recommendations. Affirms vaccination recommendations prior to new Trump administration proposed guidelines. 
H.841/20/2026allowing telehealth appointments to be recorded with patient and provider consent
H.5341/20/2026community action agencies
H.6491/16/2026captive insurance companies
S.601/16/2026establishing the Farm Security Special Fund to provide grants for farm losses due to weather conditions
H.4091/13/2026appeals of orders denying bail revocation
H.281/13/2026including an affirmation option in oath requirements in Titles 1–10 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated

Bi-partisan support for $100 million in federal funding – When the federal government wants to write Vermont a big check, support tends to be party-blind, even when the top dog in Washington is President Donald Trump. 

A bi-partisan list of members of the Vermont Legislature representing communities in the  Northeast Kingdom issued the following statement regarding the National  Telecommunication and Information Administration’s (NTIA) approval of Vermont’s $100  million plan to use Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding to extend access to reliable, high speed, and affordable broadband services to places where  it currently does not exist:  

“This award is a major step forward for many communities in our region. Universal  broadband internet access for rural Americans is long overdue. BEAD funding will  allow us to provide essential connectivity to the parts of the state that need it – and  will benefit from it – the most. We want to thank Vermont’s congressional  delegation, the Trump administration, the Vermont Community Broadband Board,  as well as Governor Scott. It was truly a team eKort. And, because of good  collaboration, our communities will benefit tremendously when we finally deliver on  the promise of universal access to affordable broadband services. This is the type of  cooperation, and bipartisan effort that we need across the board to handle the  serious challenges we face as a nation.”  

Legislators representing towns in Orleans, Essex and/or Caledonia counties signing on to this statement include: Sens. Scott Beck and Russ Ingalls, and Reps. Gregory Burtt, Scott Campbell, Deb Dolgin, Martha Feltus, Leanne Harple, Mark Higley, John Kascenska, Larry Labor, Mike Marcotte, Woodman Page, Joe Parsons, Debra Powers, and Beth Quimbly. 

Projects funded through BEAD will deliver broadband that meets or exceeds the federal  performance standard of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload.  

The $42.45 billion program provides funding to all U.S. states, territories, and the District of  Columbia to deploy or upgrade broadband infrastructure and ensure access to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet service. States were required to submit proposal roposals to NTIA describing how they will use BEAD funds to serve all eligible locations. BEAD requires recipients to finish the work within four years of the grant award.  

More information about Vermont’s BEAD and ongoing broadband efforts can be found on the  VCBB’s VT-BEAD webpage.

National Guard leader to give final ‘State of the Guard’ speech – Maj. Gen. Gregory Knight, Adjutant General of the Vermont National Guard, will give his last “State of the Guard” address to the Vermont Legislature on Thursday, February 19 at 9 a.m. at the Vermont State House. Maj. Gen. Knight will discuss the mission, purpose, and service of members of the Vermont National Guard.

Legislators are scheduled to pick a new adjutant general the following day.

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Categories: State House Spotlight

16 replies »

  1. Wow, protecting us from feds and passed a bunch of new bills. Is there a list of bills they’ve repealed or to which they’ve attached sun set amendments?

    • Protecting us from Feds??

      They are blatant Leftist, Anti-Law Enforcement Activists! Elitist Hypocrites who constantly say to Trump and others, “No one is above the Law,” ALL while they ignore Federal and State Laws.

      We ALL need to work to throw ALL the Leftist Insurrectionists out of the Elected Offices they are violating! They DO NOT REPRESENT Vermonters!

      Taxation without Representation is TYRANNY!

  2. Everyone supports federal funding and it just confirms Vermont is a welfare state that would fail without the federal funding. Without the illegal workers in this state how many business operations would fail????? There must be a reason that private business needs billions of federal funds to connect broadband.

  3. So, if I understand this correctly, you are trying to strip duties from local and state police officers. It does nothing against Federal Law Enforcement Officers. Local officers will not be able to wear masks? If I’m wrong about this, please feel free to correct me. You won’t hurt my feelings.

  4. But they can’t seem to find any money they could reduce in spending, yet just a few years ago their budget was a few billion, BILLION, dollars than they currently have.

    No, they need yet more money this year than even last.

    And they will cry, but the children! People will starve! People will freeze to death in the cold!

    All while they blew through 9 billion dollars before lunch and don’t have any money left over to buy a neighbor a sandwich.

    Vermonters are more than reasonable, Montpelier not so much.

  5. Given the ENORMOUS work that NEEDS to be in Montpelier regarding VERMONTERS, it’s a bit annoying that legislative energy is being expended on this. That said, I do think ALL LE should be identifiable (at a glance) as such, that would include uniforms, marked cars and no face mask. I have NO problem with federal or state LE enforcing laws, but we must know that they are visibly legit.

  6. The only thing the representatives should be doing is figuring out why our overly expensive pubic school system is turning out such a high percentage of dolts instead of scholars. Repealing act 250 and its children. Lowering taxes Frugal spending. We should ask New Hampshire to fix us, our legislature sure can’t.

  7. Amazing how the political elite are able to complete bills that mean absolutely nothing in record time. Immigration has been a hot potato my entire adult life. Neither party really wanted to address the issue. Please all state and local governments tackle the real issues and stop wasting taxpayer money. Listen to your constituents.

  9. All those who vote/voted to violate federal law should be arrested and held until $100,000 bail is paid(not by tax payers). And then brought to trial in a Federal Court.
    Vermont needs to do away with it’s school system, and teachers unions and let locals bring back one room school houses with one teacher paid for by those localities.

  10. Thank you Sen. Russ Ingalls, R-Orleans and my Senator, Terry Williams, R-Rutland for your common-sense and knowing the laws, included in the U.S. Constitution and immigration law.

    The Vermont Senate, let alone the state of Vermont has absolutely NO authority or control, nor can they dictate what Federal law enforcement or ICE Enforcement can and cannot do on Vermont soil… Do these people understand the SUPREMACY CLAUS? Have they ever studied the U.S. Constitution?

    That’s what I thought.

    Read and study our Constitution folks, I will send one to you if you need. But start reading a simple piece; Article 6, Section II.

  11. The senate passed 2 bills (27-2)that put restrictions on ICE. The house now has to vote on them. This story explains that this bill, if passed, would apply to Vermont law enforcement officers, but it won’t apply ICE. These laws are intended to restrict ICE, but they can’t be enforced. Do we really need these restrictions on our own officers. It’s a no brainer, kill the bill. I think the house reps will understand how stupid these bills are and get rid of them. But the reps and senators have been known to occasionally they take leave of their senses, so I’m not going bet on it.

  12. Is everyone stupid in Vermont or is it just a retarded Democrat??? Any state law you make does not supersede a federal law. They are wasting your time and taxpayers money. Get rid of these idiot Democrats because they are destroying our great state of Vermont

  13. Rounding up people violating Federal law, many times State laws, being in this Country unlawfully is being done under existing Federal Law, signed by Bill Clinton, which also removed the jurisdiction of Federal District Courts in the procedure, 8USC1225

  14. The criminals and illegal immigrants had no compunction about entering our “sensitive locations” when they violated our sovereign borders. So, we are now supposed to worry about hurting their feelings and embarrassing them by arresting them in public?

    Unbelievable.

    It would be comedic satire if it weren’t so tragic.

  15. leave it to that lefty MIHALY to force college professors into retirement, ridiculous