Hundreds of people gathered under gray skies in Burlington’s City Hall Park Tuesday to rally against deportations of immigrants in their state and across the country that have ramped up under the Trump administration. 

Along with those in dozens of cities across the U.S., the demonstrators stood in solidarity with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in Los Angeles where the Trump administration deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines this week, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom called unlawful. 

“Although Vermont is a small state, especially in comparison with California, we are not so different,” Cristian Santos, a construction worker and former dairy worker, said Tuesday night. He spoke on behalf of Migrant Justice, a Vermont-based advocacy organization for migrant rights. Rachel Elliot, also with Migrant Justice, translated his words from Spanish to English for the crowd. 

“Here in Vermont, ICE has been attacking our communities and taking away our friends and our family and our neighbors,” Santos said. 

In April, nine migrant farm workers were detained by U.S Customs and Border Protection and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In May, four landscape workers and 10 construction workers were detained by immigration officials in northern Vermont. 

“Is being an immigrant a crime?” Santos said.

“No,” the crowd shouted back. 

Federal officials claimed the troop deployment in Los Angeles was in response to protests against workplace raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that happened over the weekend. But city and state officials, along with the Los Angeles Police Department maintained that the protests were peaceful and under control by state officials. At least two people detained in those raids have already been deported, according to The New York Times.

“What they’re doing in Los Angeles is preparation for what they want to do to all of us,” Ashley Smith, a book editor in Burlington who was representing the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, told the crowd. He, along with about a dozen others in the crowd, all waved Palestinian flags. 

“I got drawn into the whole situation in Los Angeles,” said Andrea Rogers, a retired director for The Flynn venue in Burlington who participated in the rally. They held a sign that said “Put Trump on ICE,” and said they came to the rally to protest the abuse of undocumented immigrants. 

“It’s a Trump-ed up situation,” added their friend, Meg Pond, a retired worker in affordable housing who lives in Shelburne. Pond said they came to the rally to stand with immigrants. 

The protest, where more than half a dozen speakers denounced ICE, was coordinated by Vermont-based advocacy groups including the Vermont Party for Socialism & Liberation, Migrant Justice, Green Mountain Democratic Socialists of America, Vermonters United, and Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, according to a social media post. 

Speakers emphasized the interconnection between immigrant rights and Palestinian rights, along with the rights of incarcerated people and workers rights. Nikhil Goyal, a sociologist who studies poverty and incarceration at the University of Vermont, told the crowd that President Trump was “waging a campaign of terror.” Along with calling for ICE out of Vermont, Goyal reminded rally-goers that cuts under the Trump administration’s budget proposal would limit access to medical and food benefits like Medicaid and SNAP. 

Migrant Justice led the crowd out of City Hall Park and up Church Street. For nearly an hour the demonstrators filled the city’s pedestrian blocks, marching and chanting while onlookers sitting outside at cafes clapped and cheered them on. When they ended in front of City Hall just before 8:00 p.m., the crowd was encouraged to attend another rally called No Kings Day that will be held on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at Waterfront Park.

Just before the rally began, a federal judge declined Newsom’s emergency motion filed Tuesday to block further militarization of the city from the Trump administration and the Department of Defense.

After the rally, Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass imposed an 8 p.m. curfew on a section of the city’s downtown core.

“Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a President,” Newsom said in a media release about the request for a restraining order. He said the federal government had turned the military against American citizens.

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