Neither Mahdawi nor the ACLU mention state police citing his attempt to return from an overseas trip over a decade ago with illegal drugs and a large amount of cash in his possession. Nor do they mention the police report (cited and brushed aside by the federal judge in his decision) about his alleged effort to work for a Vermont gun repair shop, also over a decade ago, citing his expertise acquired in his homeland.
Long before the U.S.-Mexico border dominated American conversations about immigration enforcement, a cold lake in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom had already been the site of one of the country’s longest-running and least-told human smuggling histories.
Vermont lawmakers are considering a bill that would require schools to adopt immigration protocols restricting when school officials may cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and when law enforcement officers may access nonpublic areas of school buildings.
The U.S. Border Patrol found Tyshan Murray, 45, with four adults and five children stuffed in his Nissan Murano in Richford during a traffic stop about 1 a.m. Sept. 8, 2024. Two young children were located in the rear cargo compartment sitting on luggage without seatbelts or safety seats, the Border Patrol reported.
The U.S. Border Patrol arrested Armando Paulino Estudillo, 35, in Lancaster, N.H. as part of a smuggling conspiracy that led to the arrest of a leader with Migrant Justice in Burlington last week.
Behind the headlines, protests, and growing anxiety is a more basic question: how does Vermont’s dairy industry rely on migrant labor in the first place — and why doesn’t federal visa law actually fit the job?
