Soon after President Trump issued his first bungled executive order on immigration, Gov. Phil Scott and other Vermont officials were prominent in dissent. “We will not be forced to take any action that we believe violates constitutional rights, or infringes on the rights of Vermont as a sovereign state,” Scott vowed.

This resolve is now being put to the test by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who last week began rounding up activists associated with Migrant Justice, a group that advocates on behalf of undocumented immigrants, many of whom work on the state’s dairy farms. Three members of Migrant Justice were detained by ICE last week, Will Lambek, an organizer for the group, told VTDigger. “It’s obvious that the local ICE office is looking to discourage immigrants in Vermont from organizing for their rights and dignity by attacking the only organization led by members of their community,” Lambek asserted.

One of the farm worker activists, Cesar Alexis Carrillo-Sanchez, 23, a Mexican citizen whom ICE says entered the country illegally in 2010, was detained outside the Chittenden County courthouse, where he was scheduled to appear to have a 2016 driving under the influence charge dismissed. The dismissal apparently went forward without his being present; but Carrillo is being held pending deportation proceedings, according to ICE. This mirrored a case in February, when a Rhode Island resident was picked up by ICE agents at Windsor County Superior Court as he entered for an arraignment on a DUI charge, according to VTDigger. It appears that in neither instance did federal agents, acting in a typically secretive and high-handed way, inform or consult local court or judicial officials in advance. 

It is a pressing matter for Vermont officials, including the judiciary and Attorney General T.J. Donovan, to make clear that federal agents are not welcome to troll for undocumented immigrants in the state courts. This is especially true now that Trump has issued an executive order extending immigration enforcement priorities to anyone charged with any criminal offense, no matter how minor and regardless of conviction, instead of focusing efforts on those who pose a threat to public safety or national security. If undocumented immigrants are afraid to appear in court, as defendants, victims or witnesses, the justice system is compromised, and all Vermonters are less safe.

Donovan has correctly noted that the federal government has the authority to round up undocumented immigrants. But that doesn’t mean he and Scott can’t protest loud and long about the apparent attempt by ICE to target and suppress advocacy on behalf of undocumented immigrants.

Vermont’s three-member congressional delegation said this week that they had “expressed our serious concerns” to ICE “about these arrests of several farmworkers and farmworker advocates.” U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy is especially well-positioned to press the case that targeting undocumented farmworkers endangers Vermont’s rural economy: He sits on an Appropriations Committee subcommittee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part.

All Vermonters of good faith ought to join their public officials in rallying to this cause by mounting protests and organizing resistance through all the legal and innovative means now afforded by social media. When federal agents, acting in the shadows, sweep members of any group off the streets and into detention, then the liberty and rights of all are threatened.