May 20 update – A quick update after the Vote: Thousands of Vermonters called, texted, and emailed their Representatives in favor of UnMasking ICE, but a group of most House Republicans and a few House Democrats banded together to defeat the amendment by Representatives Berbeco and McGill – the final vote was 65 Yeas to 77 Nays. A little more play-by-play below but the quick version is this is a blow to our campaign to get ICE Out of Vermont – but we will never stop fighting for our neighbors. More than 100 legislators did vote to keep the conversation alive in the legislature – and we’ll be back soon with lots more actions to take that will help UnMask ICE and hold federal agents accountable for violating our civil rights.
Before the debate started, really, I stood up and held a sign that said “UnMask ICE” and made a short (like 30 seconds) speech where I accused the Democrats in particular who voted against the amendment of “complying in advance.” It was a reference to historian Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny and to the general idea that when you’re fighting a fossil fueled fascist regime (which we are) you have to be willing to stand up, speak out, and sometimes take on risk. That risk can look like the regime taking you to court (in the case of S208), the risk of being escorted out of the Statehouse (which is what happened to me on Tuesday), or the risk of getting arrested or detained for protesting (as many Vermonters were willing to risk in St Albans on May 8, and as actually happened in Williston on May 14).
If you want to learn more about risk, non-cooperation, non-compliance and how it all fits together to topple a fossil fueled fascist regime, join me and my friend Nadine Bloch in Burlington on Saturday June 6! Learn more here and a little more recap below the video and news coverage.
Ok quick recap on the votes and how everything went down: At the bottom of this post is the message we sent out Monday evening – just after we got the text of the Berbeco and McGill amendment. S208 was going ot be the first thing legislators talked about on May 19, but they quickly delayed the vote until the afternoon to give the House Judiciary Committee a chance to consider the amendment first. They held a very short hearing (less than 20 minutes) during which Rep LaLonde again insisted that he considers unmasking ICE to be unconstitutional and would not support any bill to UnMask ICE. As we mentioned in our May 18 post – Rep LaLonde is leading the effort to capitulate to the Trump regime in advance by choosing not to fight for what he says he believes is right, because he’s decided that the Administration is already too powerful to be opposed. Unfortunately, he convinced several other Democrats to agree with him, including most of the Judiciary Committee which is why they did not favorably recomend the ammendment.
After a break for lunch, the House reconvened at about 1pm and S208 was the main thing they talked about that afternoon. I stood up right as the debate started with my sign and shouted for Vermont legislators to be brave and listen to the voices of constituents who’d called, protested, and spoken out to demand they UnMask ICE all year. Because speaking and holding signs are not permitted in the House Gallery I was escorted out by staff for the Sargent at Arms and the sign was confiscated, but I wasn’t arrested or detained. It was a small price to pay to make our collective cry for justice heard – and in a week where activist were arrested (some much more roughly) for speaking out for voting rights in Tennessee, Alabama, and across the South I was happy to show which side I was on.
The debate that followed was intense, personal, and deeply moving. You can get a sense of it from the news coverage, but if you have an hour or two it’s worth it to listen to the whole thing. More than one representative admitted to changing their vote in favor of the Amendment based on the testimony they heard. But in the end, all that it takes for evil to prevail is for a few to do nothing – and that’s what happened. If just 6 Democrats – the same number as are on the House Judiciary committee – had changed their mind and backed the amendment it would have passed.
Having failed to pass the amendment to UnMask ICE, a second, much shorter debate was held on whether to pass the bill as amended by the Judiciary Committee, or kill it altogether. The Judiciary Committee amendment really makes S208 useless – it directs the local police academy and advisory boards to create a model policy on when and how local law enforcement should be allowed to wear masks. But that’s not really a thing that local law enforcement does, as a rule, so there’s not much reason to create a policy. And anyway, the policy that’s created will be advisory, meaning that local police departments or the State Police can choose to ignore it and write some other policy if they prefer.
But since the choice was between killing the bill altogether, or advancing this weekend version, most legislator decided to pass the bill and the final vote was 102-39. What happens next is that the Senate and House will have to form a conference committee and see if they can agree on a compromise between the Senate-passed version that unmasked ICE, and the House-passed version that does nothing. If the conferrees can find a compromise, that revised legislation would need to be voted on in both the House and the Senate, before it could be sent to the Governor. Given the short time left in the legislative session, that seems unlikely, but we’ll keep you updated.
In the meantime, we each get to decide what risk we are willing to take on, how we will respond to fascist, federal overreach, and how we will use our time, energy, and voice to speak out for our climate and communities. If you want to learn more about the theorey and practice behind nonviolent resistance, join me and friends in Burlington on June 6!
May 18 – Hey Vermonters! In case you missed it, on May 8 the ICE out Vermont Coalition held a spectacular rally in St Albans – one of our demands was to unmask ICE agents. More than 200 people attended the rally, and more than 125 participated in affinity groups that were prepared to risk arrest to shut down a local federal building and customs house. As it turns out, they shut down the federal building and ICE and CBP fled the scene before we arrived, so there were no arrests, no confrontation between Vermonters and immigration enforcement, and no need to fight for our rights, on that day.
It was a powerful demonstration of our demands that ICE and CBP stop acting illegally, immorally, and inappropriately – and that until they do we are prepared to shut them down and disrupt business as usual. But while we were busy shutting it down, the Vermont Legislature was choosing something very different – to comply in advance with Trump’s fossil fueled fascist regime by gutting a local bill – S208 – that would forbid ICE and other federal immigration agents from wearing masks.
More background is below if you need a reminder, but can you call your Representative or send them an email (contact info can be found here) and tell them to support an amendment by Representatives Berbeco and McGill to unmask ICE!
A few weeks ago Vermont joined more than two dozen other states that have passed local laws and ordinances barring ICE agents from wearing masks or concealing their identities. This bill, S208, was part of a package of ICE out and democracy reforms that the legislature has been working on all session. Other bills have already passed, like H849 which guarantees the right to sue federal law enforcement if your civil rights are violated. And S209, a bill to prohibit immigration enforcement in sensitive locations like schools, churches and hospitals have drawn bipartisan support.
S208 was on a similar path and had already drawn support of 27 out of 30 Vermont Senators. When activists met with Rep Martin LaLonde, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and House Speaker Jill Krowinski, in mid-April both of them assured us that they supported the bill.
But in the last week of April, three judges from California temporarily halted a similar bill. At an April 28 committee hearing Rep LaLonde abruptly changed his mind and announced that he agreed with the three judges from California and, despite testimony from the Vermont Attorney General’s office that S208 can and should be defended in court, he proposed an amendment to gut the bill. Rep LaLonde bullied the other Democrats on his committee into voting for this amendment on May 1, while most of us were rallying in the streets against big oil billionaires
After the huge rally on May 8, a different group of VT House Democrats led by Representatives Berbeco and McGill spoke out against the Judiciary committee’s bad amendment and offered their own amendment to fix the bill and make sure it requires federal (and local) law enforcement to identify themselves and not wear masks. But a powerful group of House Leadership Democrats, led by Representatives Dolan and LaLonde, have decided to comply in advance with the Trump administration’s argument that states cannot regulate ice agents, even if what they are doing is illegal, immoral, or results in injury and death.
After several false starts last week, the Vermont House is set to vote tomorrow May 19 on both amendments – the good one from Representatives Berbeco and McGill; AND the bad one from Representative Dolan and the Judiciary Committee. But since House Republicans are all expected to vote against the amendments, and House Democrats are divided thanks to the mis-leadership of the Judiciary committee, nobody knows if we have the votes to unmask ICE. That’s why it’s important that everyone contact their VT House Representative now!
Click here to look up your Representative and contact them before 11am tomorrow. You can also spread the word using the posts and links below!