Cesar "Alex" Carrillo, left; his 4-year-old daughter; and his wife, Lymarie Deida — a U.S. citizen — lead a march calling for the release of 24-year-old Victor Diaz, a farmworker and activist from Addison County, Vt., who was detained by federal immigration officials in April 2016. Diaz ultimately was released on bond shortly after. Carrillo, a Vermont dairy worker originally from Mexico, was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, outside the Chittenden County courthouse in Burlington, Vt. ICE agents intercepted and arrested Carrillo as he was en route to the courthouse for a hearing stemming from a 2016 driving under the influence charge. He was accompanied by Deida at the time of his arrest. (Photograph courtesy of Migrant Justice)
Cesar "Alex" Carrillo, left; his 4-year-old daughter; and his wife, Lymarie Deida — a U.S. citizen — lead a march calling for the release of 24-year-old Victor Diaz, a farmworker and activist from Addison County, Vt., who was detained by federal immigration officials in April 2016. Diaz ultimately was released on bond shortly after. Carrillo, a Vermont dairy worker originally from Mexico, was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, outside the Chittenden County courthouse in Burlington, Vt. ICE agents intercepted and arrested Carrillo as he was en route to the courthouse for a hearing stemming from a 2016 driving under the influence charge. He was accompanied by Deida at the time of his arrest. (Photograph courtesy of Migrant Justice) Credit: Courtesy photograph

Burlington — Federal immigration agents arrested a Vermont dairy worker on Wednesday morning in Burlington, according to an advocacy group.

Representatives from Migrant Justice said Cesar “Alex” Carrillo, 23, was stopped by plainclothes agents as he and his wife, who is a U.S. citizen, were parking near the Chittenden County District Court.

Carrillo came to the U.S. when he was 16, and he has been living in Vermont for the past seven years, according to Migrant Justice. On Wednesday, he was heading to a court hearing regarding a 2016 driving under the influence charge.

Though he never made it into the courtroom, the DUI criminal charges were dismissed by the state on Wednesday, according to a court clerk.

Will Lambeck of Migrant Justice said this arrest is a sign of President Donald Trump’s new initiative to target people who have been charged with crimes, even if they haven’t been convicted.

“This sort of arrest is perfectly in line with Trumps’ recent executive order, where he sort of turns the idea of innocent until proven guilty on its head,” Lambeck said.

“(Carrillo) was actually on his way to court to have that charge dismissed, and it was dismissed yesterday in his absence. Unfortunately, President Trump’s idea of justice is that you’re guilty until proven innocent.”

This is a departure from the Obama administration policy of focusing on deporting people who had been convicted of certain high-priority crimes.

Trump’s recent executive order also prioritizes those who have been charged with a criminal offense, as well as those who “have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.”

Lambeck said it’s hard to say whether Trump’s executive order has increased immigration arrests in Vermont.

“Surveillance and arrests and detention by immigration enforcement is nothing new for immigrants in Vermont,” Lambeck said. “People had been detained under the Obama administration and deported under the Obama administration, and that’s continuing now under President Trump. It’s hard to say at this point whether that rate has increased or not.”

Carrillo is married to an American citizen; the couple has a 4-year-old daughter and is expecting another baby.

“When they arrested Alex, they took away a father, a husband, a human being,” Carrillo’s wife, Lymarie Deida, said in a Migrant Justice news release.

Carrillo has retained a lawyer who will help him argue his case.