Alejandro Hernández-Ventura, 25, was being held at the Strafford County, N.H., detention center in lieu of an $8,000 bond, the group said.
Shortly after leaving home on a dairy farm in Addison County on Sunday, according to an account from Migrant Justice, Hernández-Ventura and his wife noticed that their car was being followed. They pulled over after ICE officers flashed their vehicle lights. The agents pulled the Mexican man out of his car and handcuffed him before driving off.
According to Migrant Justice, Hernández-Ventura has never been arrested or had any previous contact with ICE during the nine years he’s been in Vermont.
“As we denounce the unconscionable separation of families on the southern border, let us not forget the families torn apart by detention and deportation around the country, including here in Vermont,” said Migrant Justice spokesperson Enrique Balcazar in the press release. “Alejandro must be freed and reunited with his wife and community.”
Balcazar himself had been arrested by ICE last year, and a case against him is pending in immigration court.
Hernández-Ventura is represented by Enrique Mesa, an immigration lawyer based in New Hampshire, said Will Lambek, another Migrant Justice spokesperson.
No hearing has been scheduled. Mesa hopes to ask a judge to reduce the bond so that Hernández-Ventura can be released, Lambek added.
Last year, an immigration lawyer who represented several Migrant Justice members said his clients had been targeted by ICE because of their advocacy work.
Hernández-Ventura was involved with Migrant Justice in the past but “hasn’t been very active in recent years,” Lambek said. “We don’t have any reason to suspect that his participation in Migrant Justice led to his arrest.”
A Families Belong Together rally had been scheduled in Burlington on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s recently reversed policy of separating members of families who cross the border seeking asylum. That rally will also bring attention to Hernández-Ventura’s arrest. It’s set for 10 a.m. on Church Street.
More than 400 people have signed an online petition created by Migrant Justice to show support for Hernández-Ventura.
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Was he here illegally or did he enter via legal channels or have a green card? Wanting to work on a VT farm as it pays better than Mexican wages is not a free pass to break our laws, sorry.
You don’t even know the answer to your own question so you automatically assume he’s here illegally. Just guessing here but you probably don’t have to worry about being arrested because of your name or your skin color.
“Wanting to work on a VT farm as it pays better than Mexican wages is not a free pass to break our laws, sorry.” Neither is hiring a worker whose documentation isn’t legal. Why not arrest the farmer too?
If you really want to stop “illegal immigration,” that’s the way to do it. Arrest the big employers. Jail them, Fine them. Make the cost of continuing to do business on the backs of undocumented workers too high.
Do that until everyone knows you’re serious about it, and you’ll end illegal economic migration.
You’ll also end a good deal of the American economy, but youll get the border security youre after. Everything has a cost in this life.
Doesn’t ICE have anything better to do then break up families and law abiding people who work and pay taxes? Trump has made things much worse than better by his stupid zero tolerance policy. The sooner he gets out of office the better this country Will be
What a waste of money and “cop” time that should be focused on a more directly humane and socially good, “police” effort.
Farm work and food service jobs are an excellent entry point into the US economy, and Vermont farms becoming more international, and open to all who want to grow food, can only serve to better these slumping rural communities and all communities who just want to liven the place up.
Rather than hiding folks out on farm sanctuaries, we should be welcoming, as is the case for all other transplants. Offer openings into our rural life. Plan for diverse community and better; cleaner and safer living and work conditions for those who choose these hard but meaningful manual jobs is far more fulfilling and moral.
H2A will never achieve this by itself.
If I broke into your home, I would be arrested and sent to jail. Same here. Breaking into our country doesn’t make an illegal alien an immigrant any more than my breaking into your home makes me a member of your family. He needs to leave.
“If I broke into your home, I would be arrested and sent to jail.”
If you broke into my home and did all of the dishes, laundry, dusted, and all of the other shitty work I doubt I would be that upset with the initial infraction.
“I’ll do work for low wages, send my money back to South America, and in exchange I can sneak in if i feel it works for me”…sorry, that is not ok, given it is now a fact that a few people carrying a pound of biological virus or a few pounds of nuclear material can wipe out tens of thousands of people. This is a fact, and must be guarded against. yes, if a employer knowingly hires an illegal, they should be punished severely. If we allow un-vetted and un-restricted immigration from south/Central American, and other regions that are economic and criminal messes, our country will eventually become flooded with the vary societies and standards that allowed the horrible systems to evolve where they came from. If an immigrant wishes to come here, they need to assimilate and and not segregate , that includes the English language. the socialist utopia mess of Venezuela, Honduras, etc is exactly why we need strong borders and proper vetting of those seeking entry. And Do away with the family chain migrations, and allowing citizenship only by birth – I believe these are insane policies which we will regret on 30 years from now.
Many people seem far angrier at the farm-worker than the farmer that is paying him, both of whom broke the law. Why should we be more angry at the migrant?
If we want to have a more orderly immigration system (which I believe everyone does), it makes a lot more sense to target employers, simply because there are a lot fewer of them. Employers can also be targeted with fines, which not only are more humane, they raise revenue rather than costing the government a lot of money.
There’s no need to inflict this extra suffering.
As stated – “yes, if a employer knowingly hires an illegal, they should be punished severely.”
I have 2 good friends who own Addison County dairy farms, They only employ people who can provide a social security # or seemingly valid a green card. Some of their workers were associated with the person in this story. These 2 farm owners have had several realistic falsified green cards provided by savvy illegal immigrants. Unless knowingly hiring illegal entrants, it’s hard to blame the employers for others intentional illegal acts. These workers are not stupid, know the American system, have access to illegal immigrant support networks, have good internet access, and are sneaking into the country for the sole purpose of making more $ than they could at home, and mailing said money back home, all the while fully knowing that what they are doing is against our laws. All those who wish to immigrate to our wonderul country via legal means should be welcome – it is not a difficult concept.
Story says no interaction with ICE during 9 years in VT… notice how it doesn’t say when he entered US. Dude probably had his due process years ago, has a final order of deportation and was supposed to leave. That’s why ICE targets you. Know any other countries where a judge orders you to leave and you get to ignore it?
Hey, MtPhilo. all would be well and good if he actually worked, but when 75% of them are feeding off the American tax payer trough, some selling your kids opioids, others killing them….you might think differently. Wake up. They , along with fools who want open borders, are destroying our country.
Peter Morgan, congratulations for believing the xenophobic sh** Trump and his Fox Friends are feeding you. Immigrants are no more likely to sell drugs or murder people than US citizens are. Trumps job is to prey on your fear for crass political purposes and you are buying it.
Actually, knowyourassumptions, Trump’s job is to defend US interests, and the American people think he’s doing it better than HRC would have (you might be in for a surprise in Nov!). That said, illegal immigrant crime statistics are irrelevant. Desperate people paying violent cartels $$$ and suffering lord-knows-what at their hands is not our (or any other nation’s) immigration policy; the more we tolerate it, the more we empower the cartels and their human trafficking. Also, less-desperate people who can afford an airline ticket and overstay their tourist visa is not our (or any other nation’s) immigration policy. Once the Dem party comes to grip with this, they might start clawing back into power nationally.
@ Tomba
1. The fact that the American people think hes doing better at it than HRC would have does not mean he actually IS doing better at it. He isnt. Hes just engaging in fear and racism for exploitative political purposes. Even some Harley Davidson workers seem to get this.
2. You say that illegal immigrant crime statistics are irrelevant, but your xenophobic overlord doesnt think so. Quite the contrary. He thinks theyre very relevant. But he makes up false ones to satisfy your thirst for finding an other to hate.
Knowyourassumptions: What a fool liberals can be. Xenophobic. We are talking about ILLEGALS. You know…people who have broken our laws. Makes no difference what race or nationality they are. Oh, yeah. Me and Trump. Xenphobic. A phobia is a fear, nit wit. I don’t fear them. I simply don’t want them here illegally. But keep spouting your liberal BS. Hatred is all you people have going for you. And you are losing in the court of popular opinion despite what you are being told. Try thinking independently. But, oh, wait. Truth is your enemy. Don’t step out of your party’s constraints. They know what is best for you. You don’t have to worry your little head. Or even think. They do it for you.
Congratulations on not understanding the concept of irony. You say, “Hatred is all you people have going for you,” then you proceed on a hate-filled, name-calling rant:
“liberal fools”
“nit wit”
“liberal BS”
“Try thinking”
The primary purveyor of hated here is Donald Trump and his minions: he hates anyone who isn’t white.
@knowyourassumptions: My thirst for hate? Your so blind in your own you can’t distinguish between real hatred and the snowflake version. So Trump’s supporters only THINK he’s doing better;this implies a bunch of folks who voted Obama in 2012 suddenly became racist, lol. The policies you advocate — particularly on immigration, THE issue that won him the election because all you got is calling people -ist this and -phobe that (and your new gem, abolish ICE, lol) — are dumb and you’ll keeping losing until you realize this.
d-bags in congress, all of them, only identity politics matters, no one gives a flock about solutions, its called compromise.
get off your ass or elephant and do what you are suppose to do flock heads
this is an issue, lets work together to make it work, we need immigration but we need new policy. ALL AMERICANS WANT THIS BUT NOT 1 POLITICIAN IS WILLING TO STEP UP. THEY ARE WORTHLESS, THEY ALL HAVE FECAL EMISIS
99% of these folks will be productive americans 1% are and will be scumbags so they will expose themselves and we can deport them .
lets take advantage of their drive to want to succeed, but lets do this now and end the rhetoric
Leahy, Sanders, Welch thank you for your service, but we have had enough of you all career politicians,
lets get reps who are not tainted with the washington bs who will put the people before the party, term limits are necessary
PRE ANGUSTA AD AUGUSTA
“@knowyourassumptions: My thirst for hate? Your so blind in your own you can’t distinguish between real hatred and the snowflake version.”
Nice try. You peddle hatred and then accuse others of hating. Your attempt to distinguish between what YOU and the Trumpists do and what everyone else does is nonsensical. BOTH SIDES engage in demonization, and the biggest individual offender is Trump. He sends out multiple hate-filled tweets every day (while wife #3 campaigns against cyber-bullying!).