President Donald Trump has not announced any plans to deport foreigners who are legally in the US. Rather, he's focusing federal resources solely on protecting Americans from violent offenders. Still, progressive ideologues across the nation have rallied to “protect” people illegally in the country from enforcement of longstanding immigration laws. Vermont, an outspoken bastion of sanctuary protections, has created a “Task Force on the Federal Transition Panel,” stacked completely with pro-immigrant partisans, to prioritize the “safety” of people illegally in the state (including violent gang members) above the health and safety of taxpaying citizens.
Sanctuary State of Mind
The shamelessly anti-Trump panel is charged with “reviewing key steps workplaces can take to be prepared for a visit from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel.” This is consistent with Vermont’s oxymoronic “Fair and Impartial Policing” policy created as part of a 2017 law that prohibits local and state police from assisting federal authorities in immigration-related civil actions such as traffic stops.
The new Task Force was created by Vermont Treasurer Mike Pieciak, a Democrat who has his eyes set on running for governor of the Green Mountain State. In announcing his patently partisan plan, Pieciak invoked the fears of people illegally in the state while ignoring the concerns of endangered native Vermonters:
“The Trump Administration’s attacks on immigrants have stoked fear, confusion, and distrust throughout Vermont’s communities.
"These measures could have a profound impact on our economy, particularly our agricultural sector and housing development, both of which rely heavily on immigrant labor to support their workforce. I’m honored to partner with local and national experts to help ensure Vermont employers and their workers know what to do should ICE come knocking.”
Criminal Welcome Mat
It is unclear how much of the state’s housing shortage is due to illegal migrants who settle under Vermont’s “Welcome illegals!” sanctuary banner. Many Vermonters believe progressives abuse taxpayers by imposing a dangerous political ideology of lawlessness and open borders. The task force does not appear interested in hearing from police officers or citizens on the front lines of the state’s growing crime wave.
The recent murder of Vermont Border Patrol Agent David "Chris" Maland, apparently by members of an extremist transgender cult, has sparked a backlash against lax immigration law enforcement. Pieciak’s crocodile tears for illegal farm and housing laborers have invited gang trafficking of drugs and sex workers into what historically has been the safest state in the nation.
Vermonters are dying from fentanyl overdoses. Murders committed by out-of-state gang members have become familiar headlines. Progressives have wrongfully attacked Vermont’s police officers as racist for arresting “people of color” at higher rates than its domestic demographics – ignoring the high proportion of violators who are not Vermont residents.
Venezuelan Felons in the Green Mountains
On Jan. 27, Venezuelan Jorge Humberto Moreno Martinez was apprehended following a reckless car chase. Court records reflect that Martinez was previously deported after serving three-and-a-half years for a New York felony burglary conviction. He re-entered the US illegally, resulting in his recent re-arrest:
“Court records also state that when agents from the Department of Homeland Security attempted to arrest Moreno at a parking lot in Williston, on January 27, Moreno fled in a vehicle, hitting three law enforcement vehicles before travelling at more than 100 miles per hour on a busy street before he was apprehended. As he drove, items were discarded from Moreno’s vehicle. Law enforcement recovered some of those items, which tested presumptively positive for cocaine base and cocaine.”
Vermont’s sanctuary policies – allied with such “reforms” as defunding the police, decriminalization, cashless bail, and lax probation standards – have seeded a crime spree that puts innocent citizens at risk. The alleged “sufferings” of illegals and the faux argument that Vermont must defy federal laws to “help the farmers” (another exploitation) is growing tiresome for voters.
Vermont Farmers Exploited by Progressives
The farmers exploited by Pieciak are mostly cow-milkers, of which there are now fewer than 600 in the state. These farms indeed depend on immigrant farm labor for arduous agriculture work, but that doesn’t mean all farm laborers are here illegally or that dairy farmers support protecting violent criminals.
One Vermont dairyman who operates a 1,500-cow farm in Irasburg –near to where Maland was slain -- agreed to talk with Liberty Nation News. Like most Vermont dairies, his farm maintains all required legal paperwork for its immigrant workers. But this dairyman very much disagrees with Pieciak’s alarmist representations:
“Arresting dangerous felons is just returning to the way it was before the Biden administration. Over the decades, we’ve had people picked up by immigration, but usually, they are allowed to come back to work if they are not charged with violent or illegal activity. I only remember one person ever being kept in custody because he had a charge of some sort. But if one of them is guilty of dealing drugs or committing violent crimes, I want them to be arrested to keep our communities safe, same as any American citizen. Sure, I’m a dairy farmer, but I’m also a father and grandfather who wants my family safe.”
Violent Gangs Victimize Vermonters
Vermonters recognize what government progressives like Pieciak appear to find cognitively dissonant: not all “undocumented entrants” are victims. As Rep. Tom McLintock (R-CA) recently attested:
“[W]orst of all, among these illegal migrants have come the most violent, dangerous, and malevolent criminals and criminal gangs in the world, while sanctuary laws in democratic jurisdictions protect them as they prey on innocent Americans.”
Venezuelan felon Martinez does not appear to have been serving Vermonters by laboring on a dairy farm. Pieciak shamelessly invokes farmers as justification to resist ICE. As more Vermonters die from fentanyl traceable to organized gangs and open borders, the sober reality of the real victims becomes more evident. Pieciak will have to answer to the family and community of any Vermonter murdered or raped by an “unauthorized entrant” protected by government actors using taxpayer dollars. After all, he helped to create a sanctuary for violent criminals.
