Thursday, September 14, 2017
Welch attended a meeting on Wednesday that included Trump and 14 members of Congress, split equally between Republicans and Democrats. Welch describes "a quite surreal atmosphere" in which the president talked of bipartisan action while congressional Republicans continue to freeze out the Democrats.
"The president indicated support for the Dreamers [those early arrivals who face deportation unless DACA is extended], but also mentioned security issues," Welch says. "I urged the president to not link security issues with the treatment of the Dreamers, and said that this calls for a Lincolnesque moment in presidential leadership, where we do the right thing because it’s the right thing."
Tags: Peter Welch , Donald Trump , Charles Schumer , Nancy Pelosi , Michael McCaul , Bennie Thompson , DACA , Dreamers , Image , Web Only
Monday, September 11, 2017
Flanked by University of Vermont president Tom Sullivan, Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and fellow students at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Conde on Monday spoke at a press conference about his experience as an undocumented immigrant.
Conde is among the 800,000 people whose lives have been thrown into turmoil after President Donald Trump last week rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The directive gives Congress a six-month window to decide on the fate of the DACA recipients, who are commonly known as Dreamers.
In a letter that Conde sent to Welch last week — and which has since been made public — the first-year med student urged the congressman and his colleagues to "come up with a legislative solution to this issue."
Tags: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals , Peter Welch , Tom Sullivan , University of Vermont , Juan Conde , Mosaic Center for Students of Color , Sarah Childs , DACA , Dreamers , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
The 27-year-old Mexican woman is a beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was thrown into turmoil Tuesday when President Donald Trump announced a plan to end it.
"I'm speaking out because so many are afraid to," Herrera Coria told Seven Days Tuesday through an interpreter. "Now is not the time to be defeated, or hide and go back living in the shadows."
Herrera Coria arrived in the U.S., undocumented, with her siblings when she was 15. She gained DACA status in 2012, the same year that president Barack Obama issued an executive order granting temporary relief from deportation for undocumented youth who came to the U.S. as children.
Tags: Martha Herrera Coria , Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals , Migrant Justice , Will Lambek , Middlebury College , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Speaking at Burlington International Airport on Tuesday before he boarded a flight to Washington, D.C., Welch said he plans to urge his colleagues to restore the program. Vermont’s two senators said this week they agree that Congress should take action, as did Gov. Phil Scott.
DACA, enacted by president Barack Obama in 2012, has given legal protections to nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
“This is the height of cruelty,” Welch said of Trump’s promise to phase out the program. “The only country they’ve ever known … is right here in the United States of America.”
Tags: Senator , Peter Welch , Donald Trump , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , DACA , Phil Scott , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
A Vermonter was among the neo-Nazis and other “Unite the Right” types who shook up Charlottesville, Va., in a march-turned-mêlée last weekend. Today’s white supremacists don’t wear hoods, apparently, so as soon as the tiki-torch-wielding images went viral, internet vigilantes around the country started naming and shaming them.
Locals first recognized 28-year-old Ryan Roy in a Vice News video clip. Wearing a backpack and holding a torch, Roy is seen briefly chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!”
On Tuesday Seven Days tracked down Burlington resident Roy, who said the rally “showed that we’re a legitimate movement, that this is a movement of people. It’s not like a fringe thing.”
In a 25-minute interview, Roy admitted to attending the weekend’s events and spoke unabashedly about his “white identitarian” views.
Tags: Ryan Roy , Charlottesville , white nationalist , Image , Web Only , Video
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Authorities on Wednesday afternoon recovered the body of an 11-year-old boy who slipped and fell into the Winooski River on Tuesday evening.
Ali Muhina had been playing on the riverbank with friends when he slipped and fell into the water, friends and relatives told Seven Days. The other boys ran home to get help after they were unable to pull their friend back to safety. Witnesses on the other side of the river, just below the hydroelectric dam, called police.
Colchester Technical Rescue, the Winooski Fire Department and the Winooski Police Department started searching for the boy around 7 p.m. and ended for the night about three hours later. "It got too dangerous for the rescue team to recover anybody in the dark," said Winooski police chief Rick Hebert.
Tags: Ali Muhina , Winooski River , Winooski drowning , Christian Kibabu , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Juan De La Cruz had originally been ordered to leave the United States by July 6. But his forced removal was delayed after his attorney, Matthew Kolken, argued that De La Cruz had a "reasonable fear of torture" if he returned to his home country.
Last Friday, De La Cruz and Kolken, who is based in Buffalo, N.Y., presented the case by phone to an asylum officer who granted De La Cruz the opportunity to argue for "relief from removal" before an immigration judge.
"The judge will decide if he'll be able to receive protection from the United States," Kolken told Seven Days. "We are just keeping our fingers crossed," he added.
Tags: Juan De La Cruz , Kirsten De La Cruz , Matthew Kolken , deportation , removal order , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 22, 2017
But the undocumented immigrant, who has no criminal record, had previously been deported in 2005 after crossing into the United States from Mexico. Because of new enforcement orders from President Donald Trump’s administration, Juan must leave the country again, on July 6.
Though many people were deported during president Barack Obama’s terms, the removals targeted criminals, Juan’s attorney, Matthew Kolken, told Seven Days. That’s all changed under Trump, said Kolken, who is based in Buffalo, N.Y.
“When individuals are found inside the United States after having been previously removed — even if they’ve been here many, many years and have established substantial ties to the country — rather than giving them an opportunity to request relief from removal, they are just reinstating the previous deportation order … and basically destroying a family in the process,” Kolken said.
Tags: immigration , Juan De La Cruz , deportation , Matthew Kolken , Kirsten De La Cruz , ICE , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 19, 2017
The arrests of two young Mexican farm workers over the weekend sparked a Monday morning protest outside a South Burlington jail where one was held.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it detained Esau Peche-Ventura, 26, and Yesenia Hernández-Ramos, 19, around 9 p.m. Saturday during a traffic stop near the town line between Franklin and West Berkshire, not far from the Canadian border. Earlier that day, the couple had walked 13 miles from Montpelier to the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury as part of the “Milk with Dignity” campaign, calling on the ice cream company to hold its dairy farms to higher standards. Both work on a farm in Franklin County.
Now under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Hernández-Ramos was being held at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington while Peche-Ventura was detained at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton.
Both are activists with Migrant Justice, a Vermont human rights organization. In the past year, immigration officers have arrested at least four other members of the group.
Tags: Migrant Justice , U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , U.S. Border Patrol , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 12, 2017
"It took a little while, but they're here," said Amila Merdzanovic, director of VRRP. The nonprofit is a field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, one of nine agencies nationwide that assist refugees in the resettlement process.
The family of five consists of a husband, wife and their three children, one of whom is old enough to attend school. They arrived from a refugee camp in Jordan and the parents speak "some English," said Merdzanovic. Citing privacy reasons, she declined to disclose additional personal information about the family.
Tags: Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program , U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants , Amila Merdzanovic , Rutland Welcomes , Image , Web Only