Luis Enrique Gomez-Aguilar, 28, Urillas Sargento, 32, and Dani Alvarez-Perez, 22, were transferred to a Louisiana detention facility last week and soon afterward got transported to Mexico “without their consent,” Migrant Justice said in a press release on Wednesday.
Border Patrol agents swarmed Pleasant Valley Farms in Berkshire and swept up the farmworkers while acting on a tip that two backpack-wearing men had been seen walking through the woods in the border community. State officials have said the men apparently were working at the farm’s sugaring operation.
The Arrest of Farmworkers at Berkshire Dairy Strikes Fear Across the Industry
The Arrest of Farmworkers at Berkshire Dairy Strikes Fear Across the Industry
By Kevin McCallum
News
The five other farmworkers remained in detention — four in St. Albans and one in Louisiana.
Migrant Justice has also been tracking the case of another man, 35-year-old Arbey Lopez, who was arrested in early April while driving to the Berkshire dairy to deliver groceries. Lopez was being held in New Hampshire.
The farmworker arrests have generated public outrage, with hundreds of people rallying late last month to oppose increased immigration enforcement efforts and to support the men. They were being represented in court by the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at Vermont Law & Graduate School.
The arrests stoked deep concern throughout the state’s $5.4 billion dairy industry, which relies heavily on migrant labor. An estimated 94 percent of Vermont’s 440 dairies use year-round migrant workers, according to the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets — roughly 850 people.
Gov. Phil Scott has said he doesn’t think peaceful, hard-working members of the state’s migrant community should be targeted for deportation, but he has also defended the border patrol agents as just doing their jobs.
Lawmakers are exploring a suite of bills aimed at making the state more welcoming and safe for migrants, largely by further limiting cooperation with immigration officials.