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immigrant rights
Airplanes Are Today’s Deportation Trains; How Can We Slow Them Down?
ICE has taken over 450 people through Burlington Vermont’s airport, most without due process. How can local authorities and citizens intervene?
Aug 11, 2025
Vermont’s airport is finally moving toward providing some legal support for the shocking number of detainees who are being abducted here. It happened after a long evening of impassioned pleas by dozens of citizens on August 6, a month after the story broke about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of commercial flights to transport more than 450 detainees between January and June this year.
Brave activists have been showing up in the wee hours of the morning to bear witness, speak to detainees when possible, and try to prevent people from being taken away against their will. In the absence of due process, the ICE actions amount to human trafficking. The activists once succeeded in stopping three people from being boarded onto a plane. The next time, ICE used a private side door, which was captured on video. Since the airport’s position had been to treat ICE like any other law enforcement agency in public areas, this attempt at secrecy resulted in packed halls at the Airport Commission meeting August 6.
Why do we even have detainees in the obscure state of Vermont? We are the second smallest in the union, where the Trump administration has generally turned a blind eye rather than stop the flow of milk through New England. But because the state has a contract to house detainees, ICE scoops them up fast elsewhere and dumps them as far as possible from their lawyers, families and communities—first in Vermont, then via the Burlington Airport to Louisiana and Texas or beyond. Less than half the people being shipped out of Vermont had access to a lawyer, according to Vermont Public Radio. Three widely covered cases—Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Kseniia Petrova—showed that, when ICE impulsively pounces on people and shackles them, judges set people free because they were denied due process.
The state has drawn some lines in cooperating with ICE, in addition to having the most outspoken and effective congressional delegation fighting the current madness. Gov. Phil Scott, one of the dying breed of open-minded Republicans, refused a request to delegate some of our National Guard to ICE to do paperwork. At the Airport Commission, Courtney O’Connor, a Montpelier attorney who has worked internationally, quoted a letter from the governor which stated, “Our administration will support efforts to ensure that those detained in our state are treated fairly and afforded full due process guaranteed under the law.”
He implied that it’s ridiculous for the airport to treat ICE like any other law enforcement agency, because they don’t behave like one.
The moment is ripe to look for every possible means for airports around the country to resist collaboration with ICE’s unconscionable practices. Airports are in a tough spot, because they are federally regulated and, to some extent, funded. But a recent court case brought by Vermont and 19 other states established that, at least for now, funding cannot be withheld from states which refuse to cooperate with “immigration enforcement.”
“The airport, at a minimum, has a responsibility to let the public know what’s happening inside these walls, and on the tarmac,” said Julie Macuga, a key activist. For inspiration, we can look to the King County Airport in Washington State, where activists have interrupted buses with banners as a last resort, and to the Connecticut attorney general who challenged Avelo Airlines’s practices. These strategies may or may not be effective in the long run, but at least they show resistance.
The full cast of Vermont characters was present at the Airport Commission, three minutes at a time: the eloquent professor who investigated human rights abuses in Central America, the young activists who have assembled the data and aren’t afraid of late nights and early mornings, the former state representative with grey locks and strong feelings, the lawyer who sets up guardianship for children of parents who might be deported, the uneasy elder naturalized citizen, the fiery Democratic Socialist, the household name Palestinian activist, the troubled veteran who fought for democracy, the professional whose refugee client checks in every few hours, the humanitarian aid worker, and many others. Not one spoke in favor of ICE.
“If we don’t stand up, who is going to?” they asked.
“Why is the airport complying?”
“Is this the way for families to be treated in Vermont or anywhere?”
“Stop collaborating with this criminal deportation machine.”
“This is incremental fascism, and we have to say no to it.”
“Our state is always brave enough to stand up for what’s right.”
“I don’t know what other airports are doing, but we need to be first.”
Some made specific legal points. Courtney O’Connor stressed that Vermont officials are at risk of civil litigation and criminal prosecution if they collude with constitutional violations. Although as an attorney she has visited countless prisons around the world, “I’ve never heard in my entire career heard of [airport] side doors being used in a democracy to protect government officials who were acting feloniously from detection.”
Saul Steinzor, a criminal prosecutor for 32 years, emphasized that ICE isn’t like other Vermont law enforcement agencies who seek evidence carefully for probable cause or reasonable suspicion. No other agency uses masks and pounces on people in the dark. Over two-thirds of detainees have no criminal record whatever. He implied that it’s ridiculous for the airport to treat ICE like any other law enforcement agency, because they don’t behave like one.
Jeanne Keller of Burlington, a longtime community activist, said the commission was going through a typical process with a controversial issue. Stage one is “We can’t do that,” followed by “Let’s ask if we can do that,” and finally, “We’re going to do it, let’s figure out how.”
By the end of the evening, the airport director Nic Longo was ready to say that he’d explore one of the activists’ key suggestions. Vermont Public Radio reported that “[Mr. Longo] is working with Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak to address people’s concerns about ICE at the airport. He indicated they are looking into activists’ suggestion that they establish a special position to screen whether detainees are able to exercise their legal rights. ‘We as a city and I as an airport director are committed to trying to find a facilitation to help people with representation when they fly through this airport,’ Longo said.”
One activist made a stronger statement: “We’ll keep showing up, so they know they’re not alone and we won’t allow them to be disappeared.”
The activists are there at 4:00 am ET and sometimes before. What about the rest of us?
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As the US Detains and Deports, Venezuela Reunites Families
A country labeled a dictatorship offered what this so-called democracy did not: return, reunification, and dignity.
Aug 05, 2025
In July 2025, the U.S. Congress passed a budget that commits at least $131 billion to expanding detention, deportation, and border militarization. It is the largest immigration enforcement package in modern U.S. history and one that most people are funding without knowing.
Public pension funds, university endowments, and municipal budgets are deeply invested in Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) machinery. If you pay into a retirement fund, attend a university, or live in a major city, your money might be helping detain someone. Your tax dollars already are.
The plan triples ICE’s funding, revives the failed border wall project, builds new jails for families, and allocates $10 billion in unregulated funds to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At the same time, up to 17 million people risk losing healthcare and millions of children face losing access to school meals.
These priorities are not accidental. They reflect a political strategy that treats migration as a threat to be neutralized rather than a consequence of U.S. policy. This budget doesn’t just expand infrastructure, it expands a racialized system of surveillance, incarceration, and profit, while shrinking legal protection, due process, and public oversight.
Here’s what the new immigration budget includes:
- $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement and deportation—a threefold increase;
- $45 billion to build new immigration detention centers, including for children and families;
- $46.6 billion for border wall construction, which is more than triple what U.S. President Donald Trump spent in his first term;
- $10 billion in unregulated DHS funding to “safeguard the border” without oversight;
- A daily detention capacity of 116,000 human beings, enough to fill a stadium with mothers, students, toddlers, and elders or to disappear the entire population of Lansing, Michigan or Athens, Georgia; and
- An 800 person limit on the number of immigration judges, worsening already record-breaking court backlogs and delaying due process for millions.
ICE Is Everywhere
ICE doesn’t operate alone. It dances with Palantir’s algorithms. It swallows data from school and Department of Motor Vehicles records. It whispers to local cops in sanctuary cities. It hides in contracts signed by universities that claim to care about inclusion. It is public and private, visible and invisible, and always expanding.
The border doesn’t stop at the border.
ICE shares tech, tactics, and training with local police across the U.S., especially in Black and Brown communities. The same algorithms used to deport migrants are used to lock up teenagers in Chicago, LA, and New York. The war economy is domestic, too.
Migration Is Not a Crisis; U.S. Policy Is
The people being detained and deported are not a crisis. They are the result of one. U.S. foreign policy, through sanctions, coups, climate extraction, and economic warfare, has destabilized entire regions and then criminalized those who flee.
Nowhere is this more visible than in Venezuela.
Years of U.S. sanctions have severely constrained Venezuela’s economy and pushed millions to migrate. A recent study in The Lancet Global Health found that unilateral economic sanctions lead to an estimated 564,000 deaths every year, mostly among children under five. The researchers concluded that sanctions are a form of economic warfare with deadly consequences, often as destructive as armed conflict. Venezuela is among the countries most severely affected.
A Stark Contrast: Venezuela’s Efforts to Reunite Families
Despite being locked out of international markets, denied access to its own reserves, and targeted by ongoing U.S. sanctions, the Venezuelan government has prioritized reuniting families separated by deportation. Flights have been organized to return Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. and neighboring countries. Deportees are met with medical care, housing support, and assistance. There are no billion-dollar detention centers. No ankle monitors. No private contractors. Just the political decision to bring people home with dignity.
This reflects a deeper difference. The United States continues to expand a war economy, one that profits from incarceration, surveillance, and militarized borders. Corporations like Palantir, CoreCivic, and GEO Group are major beneficiaries of immigration funding, alongside weapons manufacturers and data firms. In contrast, Venezuela’s response, under siege, has been to build on a peace economy rooted in social programs, community organization, and everyday resilience.
The United States fuels crises abroad—sanctions, coups, austerity—and then builds cages for those who flee.
Much of that work is led by women.
In Venezuela, Madres Víctimas del Fascismo have been organizing alongside the government to locate, support, and repatriate their children, many of whom were detained in the U.S. or in Latin American countries. These mothers have worked with consular authorities, spoken in public forums, and demanded state action to bring their families back together. Through their pressure, and the government’s cooperation, some have already seen their children return home.
This is what a peace economy looks like, one built on social programs, community organization, and state-supported reunification.
The Violence of the Border Enforcement Is the Violence of the Empire
The United States fuels crises abroad—sanctions, coups, austerity—and then builds cages for those who flee. Venezuela knows this intimately. Its economy has been blocked, its institutions targeted, and its people criminalized the moment they cross a border. And yet it was Venezuela that welcomed deported migrants with food, medicine, and housing; they were greeted with care. A country labeled a dictatorship offered what this so-called democracy did not: return, reunification, and dignity.
Who Is Complicit?
This system doesn’t operate in just one region. It’s not limited to Texas or Arizona. It’s embedded across the country, in contracts, databases, and quiet forms of cooperation.
Schools often share data, directly or indirectly, with ICE. Universities collaborate with DHS through software licensing and research grants. Investors, including public pension funds and university endowments, hold shares in GEO Group, Palantir, and other deportation profiteers.
The U.S. has made its priorities clear. It is willing to spend more to detain migrants than to house the hundreds of thousands living unhoused on the streets of its cities. It is expanding detention while limiting legal avenues for relief. It is responding to the consequences of its foreign policy with policing not accountability.
It’s not enough to say “Abolish ICE.” We must hold accountable every institution that feeds its machinery, from schools that share data, to universities that license surveillance tech, to investors profiting from migrant detention.
Migration is not a crime. U.S. sanctions are.
- End institutional cooperation with ICE
- Demand divestment from companies profiting off detention
- Organize against U.S. sanctions and intervention
The war economy is everywhere. So the resistance must be, too.
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As Medicaid Turns 60, Immigrant and BIPOC Communities Face an Uncertain Future
The Medicaid cuts passed in the recent budget bill will severely limit access to coverage for millions, particularly those already living at the margins.
Jul 30, 2025
July 30 marks the 60th anniversary of Medicaid, a program that, since 1965, has provided critical healthcare coverage to millions of people in the U.S. It was created as a promise: that no one should be denied medical care because of their income, background, or zip code. But as we mark this milestone, that promise is in jeopardy, especially for immigrant, BIPOC, and rural communities who rely on Medicaid the most.
Legislation that included deep cuts to Medicaid was signed into law by the president as part of a broader budget package. While many of these cuts won’t take effect until 2027, their impact will be devastating. These changes will severely limit access to coverage for millions, particularly those already living at the margins.
Medicaid is more than a public program. For many, it is the only way to see a doctor, receive prenatal care, or access family planning. It’s the largest payer of reproductive healthcare in the United States, covering 42% of all births and more than 75% of publicly funded family planning services. For people in rural areas or healthcare deserts, Medicaid is the last lifeline.
And yet, it’s being chipped away.
Medicaid is turning 60. Instead of weakening it, we should be strengthening its reach and renewing its purpose for the next generation.
In rural America, where nearly 50% of pregnant people rely on Medicaid and OB-GYNs are increasingly hard to find, any change in funding can be catastrophic. Patients already drive hundreds of miles for basic services—cancer screenings, contraception, abortion care. Add new hurdles to coverage, and these journeys become impossible for many.
These cuts won’t just affect undocumented immigrants. Immigrant families, including many with U.S. citizen children, will be among the hardest hit. Years of anti-immigrant policies have already led to fear and confusion about accessing public benefits. Now, eligibility restrictions and additional red tape will create further barriers for families in need of prenatal, postpartum, or emergency care.
At the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP), we are already seeing the strain. We work with pregnant people from across the country—many in rural or under-resourced areas who can’t afford abortion care or find it nearby.
This isn’t just policy. It’s people trying to stay healthy, raise their kids, and survive.
Black and Latina women are already more likely to rely on publicly funded clinics for reproductive care. These communities are also more likely to experience hospital closures and provider shortages. Cuts to Medicaid only deepen existing racial and economic disparities in care access.
As a nonprofit, WRRAP is nonpartisan, but we are not neutral when it comes to justice and survival. Medicaid is turning 60. Instead of weakening it, we should be strengthening its reach and renewing its purpose for the next generation.
Here’s what you can do right now:
·Learn more: Many of these changes are complex and delayed, making it easy to overlook their real impact. Follow trusted sources like WRRAP and Guttmacher Institute.
·Donate: Support abortion funds like WRRAP that help cover the gap when people are denied abortion care. Every dollar helps a real person.
·Know your elected officials: Meet with them now and learn what their commitments are to their communities.
·Register and help others register to vote in 2026: While we are nonpartisan, we strongly believe that civic participation matters.
·Talk about this: Bring it up at work, school, places of worship, and in your group chats. When we break the silence, we build momentum. History has never changed through silence, it changes when we speak up, stand up, and refuse to back down.
·Advocate locally: Your state can expand or protect Medicaid access regardless of federal changes.
When our rights are under attack, compliance is complicity. The decisions being made today will shape access for years to come. Immigrant and BIPOC communities cannot afford to lose Medicaid. They shouldn’t have to fight for the right to care.
As we celebrate 60 years of Medicaid, be loud, be unapologetic, be unrelenting. Because healthcare is not a privilege. It is a right. And it is worth fighting for.
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