Lawmakers, advocates clash over whether Vermont agencies can bar sharing immigration status with federal authorities

At a joint hearing of the Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committees, witnesses debated whether local police departments and county sheriffs may adopt fair-and-impartial policing (FIP) policies that restrict sharing information about immigration or citizenship status with federal authorities, and whether the Vermont Criminal Justice Council and the Attorney General’s Office can decline to certify those local policies.

The issue centers on a tension between state law that directs agencies to adopt a model FIP policy and a provision that says nothing in state policy is intended to conflict with federal requirements. "There are still examples of actions by Vermont law enforcement agencies that result in civil immigration enforcement," said Will Lambek, a representative of Migrant Justice, citing incidents in Franklin County (2017), Grand Isle (2019) and Orleans (2020–21) in which deputies contacted Border Patrol. Lambek also described a case in which Vermont State Police shared information that led to a detained farmer, Durie Martinez, being deported and dying after a deterioration of health following deportation.

The legal debate discussed at the hearing focused on how to read three parts of state and federal law together. Witnesses repeatedly referenced 8 U.S.C. §1373 and 8 U.S.C. §1644, federal statutes that have been interpreted to limit state and local restrictions on sharing immigration-status information. At the state level, advocates and officials cited Act 54 of 2017 (which added language to the FIP statute saying nothing in the section is intended to…