What a week!
Just a quick recap of the AMAZING Shut Down ICE VT week of action that 198 methods was proud and honored to support. See below for highlights and check back at the website for future actions and announcements. And it’s always a good time to help us keep ICE’s national tip line shut down by calling 866-347-2423 and offering them “tips” for how to be a better human and not a fossil fueled fascist (click here for more details or scroll down to the Thursday action for a recap)
We put up the funds (and were reimbursed!) for the convergence space. But we also contributed lots of time, travel, and other support for the week of action. If you saw us or heard about this action from us, and you want to invest in our capacity to support future actions, chip in here.
Roll the highlight reel! All the posts below are from the Shut Down ICE VT instagram account, which is a great place to look for future updates and more photos videos, and links to press releases from the week.
Sunday – we week kicked off with a training, teach in, and community building space at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Burlington. We didn’t take a lot of pictures because folks were indoors and engaged in the kind of planning and community work that we try not to film and record. But it was awesome. This post was recorded outside the location if you want to feel the vibes.
Monday – Our first action of the week was a funeral procession through the streets of Williston and an incredibly powerful funeral service at the doors of the National Criminal Analysis Targeting Center (NCATC) at the White Cap Business park. Right after this action, Williston Police closed Harvest Lane, effectively blocking all ICE employees at that facility from getting to work. And it stayed shut down for the entire week. The White Cap office park (which includes lots of other small businesses and not just ICE/DHS) remained open throughout the week, but there were visibly fewer cars in the parking lot and we think many of the DHS staff and contractors chose not to come in for our entire week of action.
Later in the day there was a rally at the Chittenden County Correctional Facility, a local jail that ICE uses to hold and detain people, as well as social events, meals, community building and training.
Tuesday – We installed a community garden at the Harvest Lane Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC), which would have blocked the road if Williston PD hadn’t already shut it down for the week. Folks stayed all day with the gardens, but when they left to attend a pop up punk rock show in the parking lot of the White Cap Office park, Williston’s public works department bulldozed the gardens and threw away all the art, plants, love and care that had gone into their creation. But our love and conviction remain stronger than the fear, and we were not deterred.
Wednesday – Another surprise acton! Folks went early in the morning to the corporate owners of the White Cap Office Park, which makes ~$1 million a year renting ICE space for the NCATC that spies on all of us and turns human beings into “targets” for violence, deportation, and murder. Later in the day there were two protests in solidarity with Palestine and opposing the militarization of our communities. And there was also a big training and preparation meeting for our Thursday action at the First Unitarian church in Burlington.
Thursday – Our biggest action of the week (in terms of participants) was the Thursday morning mass action. Folks descended on the Harvest Lane LESC building again in bigger numbers and we turned their “tip line” into a “tips to not be a fossil fueled fascist” line. Folks wrote messages and suggestions for things ICE and DHS agents could say yes to (like opening all the cages, freeing all the children, or finding a new job) and could say no to (like not reporting immigrant neighbors, quitting their job at ICE/DHS, or not shooting or hurting anyone) all over the building and parking lot in chalk. Folks also sang songs, spoke truth, and passed tips along to be taped to the doors and windows of the facility.
Friday & Saturday – Our last big events were celebrations and gatherings to make art and memories and pay tribute to everything we’d done together over the week of action. The largest was the Friday evening gathering where we had tables and connected with local campaigns to abolish ICE, end the surveillance state, stop war and genocide around the world, and much much more. We also shared updates on the ICE shooting in NYC on Thursday, and the recent attacks on camp Lochiel further to the south.
We also ordered a whole lot of pizza and everyone left full of food but hungry for more actions.
So much news
Here are just a few of the links and news stories from the week of action:
- https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2026-10-08/demonstrators-protest-williston-ice-facility-during-week-of-rallies
- https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/protesters-scrawl-anti-ice-messages-on-a-federal-office-building-in-williston/
- https://www.wcax.com/2026/10/06/weeklong-protests-aim-put-vermont-ice-presence-focus/
- https://theintercept.com/2026/10/07/ice-protest-vermont-surveillance-charges/
- Boston globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/06/metro/vermont-ice-protest-harvest-lane/
- https://www.mynbc5.com/article/anti-ice-protests-williston-tuesday/74057803
- https://www.wcax.com/2026/10/06/weeklong-protests-aim-put-vermont-ice-presence-focus/
- https://truthout.org/articles/activists-target-what-they-call-a-major-spy-center-for-ice-in-rural-vermont/
How it started
September 29 – Vermont is a national nerve center for Trump’s fossil fueled fascist Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. All year we’ve struggled alongside communities fighting to get ICE Out of our communities, and now the struggle is coming home to our Brave Little State.
Through the Law Enforcement Support Center on Harvest Lane and National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center at White Cap Business Park — both in Williston, VT — ICE collects tips on our immigrant neighbors, spies on civilian social media accounts, and builds lists of people to target for kidnapping, deportation, and violence.
These sites, as well as over a dozen other offices scattered around Chittenden County, provide the bureaucratic backbone and surveillance infrastructure for ICE activity nationwide. It is in Williston, Vermont that ICE’s violence and violations of our civil and human rights originate.
If you’re ready to fight back, we invite you join us in Vermont October 4-9 for a week of creative, non-violent, direct action to Shut Down ICE in Vermont, and everywhere! Check out the website for more information or RSVP to join us in person here (Housing and logistical support is available!)
- Can’t make it to Vermont? Check out the Solidarity Action Toolkit to help you plan and carry out your own actions locally.
- Want to join for an hour, a day, or a part of the week but not the whole thing? Click here to see the calendar of events (more being added all the time).
- Want to chip in to support 198 methods’ organizing and support for this week of action? You can make a donation here.
Vermonters and our allies will not stand by and allow ICE to continue disappearing our neighbors and inflicting violence on our communities. Dozens of local organizations, campaigns, faith groups, and affinity groups (including us!) have been working nonstop to end the ICE surveillance and the deportation machine.
But we need your help to go further. Faith leaders, artists, students, rapid responders, mutual aid crews — all of us are needed and everyone is welcome.
Together, we invite you to join us this October for a week of action in Chittenden County, VT. Together, we will take bold, creative action to end ICE surveillance and targeting and build a better world for all.