Federal agency cancels sending Vermont workers to assist ICE in Minnesota

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has reportedly canceled its plan to send some of its Vermont workers to Minnesota — for now.

According to an employee who works for the federal agency in one of its Vermont offices, USCIS notified workers by email Monday that its plan to temporarily deploy a few employees to Minnesota to assist the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is canceled.

Last week, at least seven USCIS employees based in Vermont were tapped to be reassigned to Minnesota this month, according to an employee who spoke to VtDigger on the condition they not be named due to fear of retaliation.

Monday’s email from USCIS did not specify why the plan was canceled or whether it will be rescheduled, the employee said. The person was not one of those chosen for the temporary relocation.

A federal agency under the Department of Homeland Security that processes visa, asylum, citizenship and other immigration-related applications, USCIS has several offices across Vermont, including in Barre and Essex Junction. It does not typically engage in the kind of immigration enforcement ICE conducts.

The decision to send workers who mostly process paperwork to support ICE activity in Minneapolis would be “dangerous,” the employee said last week.

U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., who was “outraged” last week and demanded answers from the Department of Homeland Security for sending Vermont workers to assist ICE in another state, welcomed the recent change.

“Given the aggressive ICE operations underway in Minnesota which have already led to deadly force and widespread fear, I raised serious concerns about sending Vermont USCIS employees into roles far outside their mission and training,” she said in a Monday press release. “I’m relieved those reassignments are no longer moving forward, and that these public servants can remain focused on helping people navigate the immigration system safely and lawfully.”

Escalating enforcement in the northern state of Minnesota, which borders Canada, has become the department’s largest immigration operation to date, according to Homeland Security.

Continued violence and heightened tensions in Minnesota have sparked anti-ICE protests across the nation and in Vermont since federal immigration agents in Minneapolis fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7 and then 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott has since condemned the violence of federal immigration agents and called on President Donald Trump to change course in Minnesota.

Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Peter Welch, D-Vt, both condemned ICE’s aggressive immigration tactics there.

“ICE is out of control, ignoring the law and our Constitution,” Sanders said in a press release Monday urging Congress to vote against additional funding for Homeland Security.

Welch called for the “dire need for accountability” on the shootings of civilians in Minneapolis on MS NOW.

“When I talked to law enforcement officers here in Vermont, this is not policing that they at all respect. There has to be an investigation (into) the tactics of ICE,” he said, according to a news release Monday.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen clergy from across Vermont traveled to Minnesota last week to stand in solidarity with faith leaders against the violence, according to a Monday press release from Vermont Interfaith Action, a grassroots community organizing network.

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.