By Guy Page
Vermont Public reporter Peter Hirschfeld was our guest on the Vermont Daily Chronicle’s Hot Off The Press call-in radio show today at 11:05 AM on WDEV AM 550, FM 96.1, and livestreamed on WDEVradio.com.
Hirschfeld, a Mount Mansfield Union High grad and longtime State House reporter for Vermont Public and previously for the Rutland Herald – Times Argus, recently produced and reported a four-part series entitled “Sudden Separations: As the Trump administration has abandoned norms and aggressively expanded immigration enforcement, migrant communities in Vermont are grappling with the consequences.”
Rather than rely solely on government reports and official quotes, Hirschfeld and his team interviewed many members of Vermont’s estimated 3,000 strong illegal immigrants – referred to as ‘immigrants’ in the series, generally without any qualifier about their legal status – to determine how the Trump administration’s ramping up of detentions has affected their lives.
Part 1: Trump’s deportation campaign has hit Vermont. Immigrants say they’re here to stay
Part 2: In Winooski, 3 arrests upend a family’s quiet life
Part 3: An Ecuadorian family’s path to asylum hangs in the balance
Part 4: She fought for the right to attend college in Vermont. Now she’s facing deportation
The four-part series covers the immigration crisis from the immigrants point of view, focusing more on their life experience than on the legal issue or their impact on housing, services, and the criminal justice system. For example:
- In Vermont, detentions of immigrants based on their legal status so far this year total about 100, according to Migrant Justice, an advocacy organization. Last year MJ recorded only 20 detentions.
- From Jan. 20 to Dec. 2 last year, ICE made 2,044 arrests and 933 removals in the Boston area of responsibility, which includes Vermont and five other New England states. Over the same period this year, ICE reported 8,848 arrests and 9,987 removals — roughly a tenfold increase in deportations.
- In at least one case, men who were detained by the Trump administration were held in a federal detention facility, then released on bond and are back with their families in Winooski.
- Some of the immigrants interviewed by Vermont Public come from countries savaged by violent revolution, and genuinely fear returning to those countries.
Listen to every Hot Off the Press podcast on the WDEV podcast page or right here on the Vermont Daily Chronicle podcast page.
Click to hear the latest episodes:
Hot Off The Press – December 17th, 2025
Alison Despathy reports on how how a proposed Lowell solar project is facing local pushback, in part because it would pay a mere $2000/year in-lieu-of property taxes, while homeowners are strapped with far higher taxes on less valuable properties.
Hot Off The Press – December 16th, 2025
Kolby LaMarche covers Burlington’s plan to renovate Memorial Auditorium, and gun rights guru Chris Bradley provides federal court status of fighting Vermont’s 72-hour-waiting period law.
Hot Off The Press – December 15th, 2025
Dave Soulia of FYIVT.com talks about legacy media and jingoist Jingle Bells.
Hot Off The Press – December 12th, 2025
Feedback Friday- we talk about AI and U.S. war on drugs in Venezuela.
Hot Off The Press -December 11th, 2025
Hank Poytras of Planet Hank discusses a multiple sex offender arrested naked in his mother’s car in a public parking lot – and then released on citation.
Hot Off The Press – December 10th, 2025
Bail reform options – and the lack of them – with guest Vince Illuzzi, Essex County state’s attorney and former state senator.
Hot Off The Press – December 9th, 2025
– Burlington Daily News Editor Kolbyl LaMarche on Burlington’s downtown woes, and FYIVT.com editor Dave Soulia on the housing shortage and the push in Montpelier to take away wood stoves.
Hot Off The Press – December 8th, 2025
Callers and host catch up on the hot news from the weekend – particularly the portent of a small school district voting overwhelmingly to keep their high school open.
Hot Off The Press – December 1st, 2025 – December 1 is Return to Work Day for state employees, and due date for Property Tax Letter. Callers and host Guy Page discuss.
HOT OFF THE PRESS – NOVEMBER 28TH, 2025. Feedback Friday!