Vermont’s Contract with ICE: When Collaboration Is Met With Executive Obstruction
Over the past two weeks, the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions has been engaged in careful, quiet work around the pressing issue that is the State of Vermont’s existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Corrections (DOC) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
This MOU ties Vermont’s correctional system to an agency that has become increasingly politicized and hostile to civil liberties under the Trump administration. While it is understandable that some might prefer to avoid drawing attention to that relationship, it is not understandable (nor acceptable) for the Governor to actively obstruct our committee’s work to address it.
In committee, we have developed a tri-partisan consensus. Nearly the entire committee, Democrats, Republicans, and progressive Independents alike, have recognized that Vermont has no business being complicit with ICE’s repeated violations of due process, the First Amendment, and basic human rights. We have taken great care to work collaboratively and without fanfare. Our goal has been to quietly encourage and support the Department of Corrections in severing ties with ICE. I’ve been nothing but grateful for the willingness and support of Speaker Krowinski and House leadership as this solution was developing.
Unfortunately, that effort has been stalled. The stall is not sourced to opposition in the committee or on the House floor, but by direct interference from the Governor’s office. Over the past week, the Governor’s staff has curtailed the ability of DOC personnel to speak with our committee, even off the record. Staff members we would turn to and rely upon to help us navigate a solution have been prohibited from any collaboration. And now, despite a final attempt from myself and a colleague to open a collaborative dialogue with the Governor’s chief of staff, we’ve been told they will not meet with us.
Let me state this clearly. This situation now lies squarely at the feet of Governor Phil Scott. The Department of Corrections is being denied the autonomy to work in good faith with the legislature. The Governor could have used this moment to lead. Instead, he chose silence. Worse than silence, he chose to obstruct.
I have decided to begin sharing these facts with advocacy groups and anyone else who cares deeply about immigrant rights, civil liberties, and transparent governance. I had hoped to keep this conversation out of the spotlight, but we have exhausted every private channel and the public deserves to know why this effort has been blocked.
Vermonters deserve a government that works. They deserve leadership that doesn’t hide behind cautious rhetoric when real change is on the table. And they deserve the truth about who is standing in the way.
If you believe that Vermont should not be complicit in ICE’s civil liberties violations, and that the legislature should be allowed to do its work without executive obstruction, I encourage you to contact the Governor’s office directly.
Call: (802) 828-3333
Let the Governor know that it’s time to step aside and let the Department of Corrections move forward. Quiet collaboration has been offered. The ball is now in his court.
Troy Headrick
Ranking Member, House Committee on Corrections and Institutions