Border Patrol smashes car window to detain migrant advocate, teenage stepdaughter in Vermont
De La Cruz, 29, and Perez had been delivering food to dairy farmworkers in the area when Border Patrol pulled over their vehicle in the northern Vermont town of Richford, according to Will Lambek, a Migrant Justice organizer. Lambek said responding officers did not provide a rationale for the stop and, after De La Cruz invoked his right to remain silent, an officer smashed a window of the vehicle and 'forcibly detained' the pair.
Brissette said in a written statement Sunday that officers had stopped the vehicle after observing 'suspicious border activity.' He did not describe that activity, nor did he indicate whether the pair was implicated in it.
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'The vehicle's occupants refused to answer the agents' questions, would not roll down the vehicle's windows, and refused to comply with the agents' lawful orders,' Brissette said. 'Agents were forced to break a window to remove both occupants at which point the subjects were taken into custody' and brought to a nearby station.
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Both De La Cruz and Perez had previously been removed from the US, according to Lambek.
The incident was the latest in
Saturday's detentions drew the ire of thousands of Vermonters that afternoon as organizers of
'We want to make sure that they know that people are not alone,' Migrant Justice organizer Abel Luna told the Burlington protesters Saturday. 'We want to make sure that they know we're standing together and we're not going to let them do this.'
After immigrating to the US as a minor in 2023, Perez joined her mother and stepfather in northwest Vermont and enrolled at Milton High School, according to Lambek. She graduated June 7 and was poised to attend Vermont State University in Castleton this fall.
'We are, as a community, pretty devastated by this and hope to do what we can to try to fight this,' said Megan McLoughlin, who spent two years as Perez's English language instructor.
McLoughlin described Perez, known by her nickname, Fabi, as creative and kind — devoted to her family, her community and especially her 3-year-old stepbrother. As one of the first native Spanish speakers to attend school in the predominantly white, working-class town of Milton, Perez 'paved the way' for others, McLoughlin said.
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Like her stepfather, Perez advocated for immigrant rights at the state level. Last year, when the Vermont legislature was considering a bill that would give undocumented college students access to financial aid and in-state tuition rates, Perez spoke in favor of it at a press conference at the Vermont Statehouse. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, signed it into law shortly thereafter.
Heidi Perez at the Vermont State House advocating for housing legislation.
Terry J. Allen/Migrant Justice
'She was about to be one of the first students to benefit from that law,' Lambek said. 'Now she's being detained and threatened with deportation. It's just an unbelievably cruel way of cutting off this dream she's been working toward.'
De La Cruz, known by his nickname, Nacho, immigrated to the US in 2016, according to Lambek. After a stint working on Vermont dairy farms, he is now a worker at and part owner of a cooperative construction company. His son, Perez's 3-year-old stepbrother, is a US citizen, according to Lambek.
In recent years, De La Cruz has taken on leadership roles in Migrant Justice and become a public advocate for policing reforms, climate justice and improved working conditions on dairy farms.
In January, he testified in favor of legislation that would prohibit landlords from requesting Social Security numbers from those seeking housing, an impediment for undocumented renters. At a press conference, he said it took him two years after leaving on-farm housing to find an apartment. He described living for months with his family — including his son, then 1 — in a cousin's attic with no electricity, forcing him to fan the baby with cardboard in the summer to keep him cool.
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'It's unjust that the state relies on our labor to be building these things, but doesn't allow us to live in the houses that we build,' De La Cruz said at the press conference,
Last week, Scott signed that bill into law, as well.
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