Most Americans don’t realize it, but Vermont has become quite progressive. Even some liberal Californians who moved to Vermont have remarked how much more extreme the Green Mountain State is today compared to the land of Gavin Newsom. For years, those progressives have been taunting the federal government to dispatch ICE for a visit. On March 11, it finally happened. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
The ICE Men Cometh
A Mexican man identified as Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez was deported in 2022 after attempting to enter the USA illegally. Apparently, he didn’t get the message, as he was arrested in Middlebury, Vermont, in January and charged with driving under the influence.
Early Wednesday morning, in a busy area of South Burlington, federal agents attempted to pull over an individual they believed to be the wanted man. The suspect (who was later determined not to be Corona-Sanchez) rammed the car he was driving into several vehicles and then fled into a residence.
ICE agents and Vermont State Police surveilled the residence while a search warrant was sought. In the interim, somebody allegedly alerted Migrant Justice, an extremist group that advocates for illegal and legal immigrants in the state. The organization activated a network of protesters that soon encircled the residence in a human chain. Some blew whistles and taunted the authorities, often screaming when law enforcement officers attempted to use their phones.
Masks for Me but Not for Thee
An estimated 150 protesters gathered, many wearing gas masks and goggles. A tent was set up where food and masks were distributed. A barbecue was lit, and hot dogs were cooked. At one point, those interfering with the arrest effort locked arms and formed two lines to help the occupants exit the residence, concealed behind blankets and umbrellas.
Local police blocked traffic to protect the public in a busy commercial area near a popular shopping mall. By 7:00 p.m., the mobs had blocked ICE vehicles in an effort to prevent them from leaving. This resulted in the deployment of tear gas, and several protesters were allegedly apprehended and incarcerated.
Burlington, Vermont, was once a clean, thriving city. Progressive policies, including voting rights for non-citizens, injection sites, legalized nudity, and perhaps the most lax public prosecutor in the nation (Sarah George), have resulted in a steady increase in violent crime, homelessness, and decay. Businesses have closed, ubiquitous graffiti has become the nouveau look, and gangs have flourished with the thriving drug trade. Some employers even hire private security to escort employees to and from work.
Vermont in Progressive Decline
Vermont has been begging for ICE visitation for years. In response to the riotous chaos in Minneapolis, Vermont beckoned President Donald Trump to dare enforce federal laws with defiant leftist propaganda and promises of resistance. The legislature recently passed two provisions (S.208 and S. 209) in the Senate (27-2) that would require law enforcement agents to demask, carry identification, and prohibit the enforcement of warrants at so-called “sensitive locations,” including emergency shelters, healthcare appointments, and court appearances.
Virtue-signaling advocates claimed these bills were “about protecting the state’s most vulnerable populations, and upholding the principles the United States of America was founded on,” as one news outlet put it. State Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale, a progressive lawmaker, was quoted: “We as Vermonters are here to say, ‘Not in our state,' … In the year 2026, no one should have to be afraid that if they speak another language … that they might be abducted by a masked individual in an unmarked vehicle.”
This perversion of logic was clearly visible in the Burlington fiasco on March 11. A Mexican national who has entered the country illegally at least twice, and who drove drunk at risk of killing someone’s child, was defended while police officers were targeted. The vehicles were not unmarked; Corona-Sanchez was not sought for speaking Spanish.
Mob Rule by “Peaceful” Agitators
This was not “protecting the state’s most vulnerable population” – it was making law-abiding citizens vulnerable to death or serious injury. This was not “peaceful protesting” – it was unlawful criminal interference. These are hardly the principles America was founded on.
Vermont has ostensibly favored criminals and illegals over law-abiding residents for years. Illegals are granted driving licenses that are also used to register them to vote. Taxes for residents have steadily skyrocketed, driven by spendthrift climate change policies, ever-burgeoning public “benefit” programs, and failed schools that hire ever more bureaucrats as student enrollment declines in tandem with plummeting scores in core subjects. The once-Republican mecca has become an unrecognizable sanctuary for failed progressive experiments.
Welcome to Bernie Sanders land. The Marxist absurdities appear more obvious daily. Pompous, proselytizing social justice “warriors” have disrupted the lives of native Vermonters. The state’s dairy farmers, once the backbone of an agrarian economy, have been pushed off their ancestral homes by overregulation, heavy taxation, and the influx of out-of-state welfare recipients and second-home elites, who have driven up property prices and drained state resources for social programs. Simple math shows that hard-working dairymen are “the state’s most vulnerable population,” with fewer than 600 dairy farms remaining.
More Arrests to Come?
Comments on social media suggest many Vermonters object to this whirlpool of Marxist-like policies that are creating an economic cesspool in this once-thriving, idyllic state. Progressive extremists engage in toxic tactics and bizarre optics, such as the attempted Burlington arrest of an illegal criminal repeat offender, taunting ICE to send more agents to uphold the rule of law that once prevailed. Meanwhile, more and more citizens beg ICE to dispatch more agents to rescue them from this anarchic disgrace.
Both sides are inviting more ICE agents to descend on Burlington, Vermont, in 2026. Both sides will likely get their wish.
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