ICE Is Targeting Activists in Vermont. And the State's DMV Has Been Helping Them.

[Eliot Rosewater]

https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-targeting-activists-vermont-and-states-dmv-has-been-helping-them

ICE Is Targeting Activists in Vermont. And the State’s DMV Has Been Helping Them.


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ICE Raid
In October 2017, Vermont-based Migrant Justice scored a major victory in the organization’s campaign to extend labor protections to undocumented farmworkers in the state. After years of public action and lobbying, they reached an agreement with Ben & Jerry’s that established basic labor standards at the farms supplying dairy products to the company. Those standards included one day off a week, a minimum wage of $10 per hour, and accommodations that included electricity and running water — a milestone for farmworkers’ rights in Vermont. For many Migrant Justice organizers, who were themselves undocumented and had worked long hours in those dairy farms, the victory was personal.

Is there anyone in VT with political power who is PRO immigrants/migrants who could stop this?

[Eric J in MN]

1. Republican governor. Bernie endorsed the Democratic candidate. NT

NT

[lapucelle]

11. BS was largely missing in action in his home state Vermont during the general election.

An incumbent Republican governor who vetoed an increase in the minimum wage, the creation of a paid family leave program, and who contracted with a for-profit prison to house some of Vermont's incarcerated in a Mississippi hell hole won re-election in November. This is especially troubling in the light of today's news and in light of the fact that, while POC only make up 1% of VT's state population, they make up 11% of the prison population.

The Democratic candidate in the Vermont gubernatorial race, Christine Hallquist, the nation's first transgender candidate for governor, ran on a platform that included a $15 an hour minimum wage, the creation of a paid family medical leave program, working with like-minded states to implement universal healthcare cooperatives, and protecting collective bargaining and workers rights.

It's bewildering that BS was unavailable to campaign at length to remedy the very real problems in his home state by helping to elect Vermont Democrat Christine Hallquist. Why were the governor's races in Georgia, Florida, and Michigan prioritized over the well-being of his own constituents?

[Stinky The Clown]

14. "It's bewildering that BS was unavailable to campaign at length"

"Why were the governor's races in Georgia, Florida, and Michigan prioritized over the well-being of his own constituents? "

Yeah. Why?

I SO agree with you.

[brooklynite]

13. Plenty of Bernie voters apparently crossed over to vote for Gov. Scott

Sanders 183,000
Hallquist 110,000

[ecstatic]

2. Crickets? Nt

[WeekiWater]

3. Leahy, though he is a member of the US Senate...

And not a state congressman. I’m not that familiar with their state legislature.

[Iliyah]

4. Republicans don't fall to far from their

political party. Although I would think there would be opposition. Is there any?

[Eliot Rosewater]

5. Was hoping for at least some COMMENTS from some folks in politics in VT.

[The Polack MSgt]

6. I would have expected Sen. Leahy or Rep. Pete Welch to push back on this

I realize that the Governor is a Trump party flack, but the Attorney General is a Democrat and they have Democratic Federal representatives who should be looking into this situation.

If the Governor is pushing the DMV into outing Undocumented Immigrants to ICE, there are serious privacy and separation of power/jurisdiction issues that warrant Congressional interest, and it's up to the Democratic Party office holders to fight against this type of overreach.

[Eliot Rosewater]

7. I am betting Leahy will as soon as it becomes big enough of an issue.

[Blue_true]

10. Bernie Sanders is a Senator from that state, why not mention him too?

To put all the onus on the other two people seems wrong. Who goes around preaching about being for the common person at every chance?

[The Polack MSgt]

12. I leave him out of all my posts because on DU his name is a trouble magnet

I don't feel like riding the Bernie Sanders teeter totter with his detractors or his supporters.

It quickly turns into Urinary Olympics and I don't want to play.

If I say Leahy or Welch need to address something I don't get the drama - no one is going to go full meltdown on the thread

[mcar]

8. Why indeed?

[NurseJackie]

9. Interesting. Thank you for posting this.