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Vermont farmworkers and advocates tell committee detentions, enforcement and fear are limiting access to food and health care
Summary
Farmworker testimony and advocacy groups told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry Committee that increased Border Patrol and ICE activity is constraining movement on farms, worsening food access and delaying treatment; advocates urged stable funding for Bridges to Health and warned legislative tools are limited.
Members of Vermont’s farmworker community and advocates told a state legislative committee that intensified immigration enforcement and a rise in detentions are constraining movement on farms and worsening access to food and health care.
"The language barrier created problems," said Jose Ignacio, describing a system in which employers sometimes buy groceries for workers and workers must rely on those choices. He also recounted being stopped and detained by Border Patrol after delivering food to a nearby farm. "I was pulled over by the Border Patrol, and I was detained and held in detention," he said,…
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