Federal immigration authorities arrested at least four people on their way home from their landscaping jobs in Vermont, according to Migrant Justice.
The advocacy group said it couldn’t share more details yet, but received the report of the arrests on Monday.
“We know that this is a deeply unjust system that continues to criminalize, detain and deport immigrants on a mass scale,” said Will Lambek, a spokesperson for Migrant Justice. “This is a risk that people are running every day.”
Vermont Public reached out to both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ICE did not have a record of the arrests going back to the beginning of last week. Vermont Public requested CBP search its system for the case over the same time period, but did not immediately receive a response.
Arbey Lopez-Lopez granted release
In the meantime, one more member of the Vermont immigrant farmworker community has been granted release from detention.
On Monday, a federal immigration judge set a $3,000 bond for Arbey Lopez-Lopez, 35, to leave a prison in Berlin, New Hampshire.
Lopez-Lopez isn’t yet back home with his partner and 5-year-old daughter. As of noon Wednesday, Migrant Justice said immigration authorities had approved his bond payment, and expected him to be released today or tomorrow.
“ICE is currently in the process of coordinating Mr. Lopez’ release,” a spokesperson for the agency wrote in an email Wednesday.
According to Migrant Justice, Border Patrol agents arrested Lopez-Lopez on April 9, while he was delivering food to workers at Pleasant Valley Farms in Berkshire. (The dairy farm is about two-and-a-half miles from the U.S.-Canada border.)
His attorney, Enrique Mesa Jr., told Vermont Public that Lopez-Lopez was exercising his right to remain silent and refused to roll down his car window for immigration authorities, until they told him he had an order of removal.
Mesa said that confused his client, and so Lopez-Lopez then cooperated.
“He was previously in removal proceedings in 2018, and those proceedings were administratively closed,” Mesa said. “They were using those silly tactics to basically scare and confuse my client. And … I think the government is better than that.”
Vermont Public asked federal immigration authorities to explain why they claimed Lopez-Lopez had an order of removal. They did not provide specific details about the arrest.
An ICE spokesperson wrote in an email: “Arbey Lopez-Lopez’ immigration removal proceedings were re-opened before the Immigration Courts.”
One of eight detained farmworkers now home
One of the eight Vermont farmworkers arrested by Border Patrol on April 21 — also at Pleasant Valley Farms — was allowed to return to Vermont from a detention center in Texas.
Diblaim Maximo Sargento-Morales, 30, arrived at the Burlington airport late Saturday night to a group of supporters.
Getting arrested and detained is a traumatic experience, said Lambek, the Migrant Justice spokesperson. He added that there’s not only a psychological and physical toll, but an economic one.
“They're here working in Vermont, whether it's on a farm or repairing a roof or in a restaurant, because they're supporting their families,” he said. “Their families are going without because they've lost their breadwinner. So as soon as people are released from detention, they have to get back to it and find a way to make an income.”
The three Vermont farmworkers remaining in detention in Texas — Jesús Mendez Hernandez, 25, Adrian Zunun-Joachin, 22, and José Edilberto Molina-Aguilar, 37 — have bond hearings scheduled for this Thursday.
The other four farmworkers arrested last month — Luis Enrique Gomez-Aguilar, 28, Urillas Sargento, 32, Dani Alvarez-Perez, 22, and Juan Javier Rodriguez-Gomez, 41 — have been deported to Mexico.
